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Upgrading HDD - ReadyNAS Ultra 4
Hi I just want to make sure I don't mess anything up here. Currently we've got 2x2TB disks in a mirrored setup, they're starting to get filled up so I've bought 2x4TB disks to replace them. ...
All the answers below are assuming xraid2
Christoffer wrote:
Its a work enviroment so I don't want a seconds 'folder/disk' to save stuff in so Is there any benefit to putting my old 2TB disks in slots 3 and 4?
If you have 2 empty slots, why not put the two 4 TB drives in them? When you are done, you'd end up with an 8 TB xraid volume - twice the capacity you'll get if you replace the exisitng drives. Just hot-insert the new drives one at a time and wait for resync. After the first resync, you'll have a 4 TB volume (some space unused). When you install the second, there were will be two resyncs -one horizontal and one vertical. The first will expand the volume to 6 TB. Then the NAS will reboot (you may need to initiate it) and the volume will expand to 8.
Christoffer wrote:
Can I pull out disk no.2 and repace it with a 4TB. Wait for it to mirror.Then replace disk no.1 with the last 4TB and I'm good to go?
Can I do this while the NAS is powered on?
Yes, to all (noting there is a reboot step toward the end). This will work, and give you a 4 TB volume. It doesn't matter if you start with disk 2 or disk 1. You can of course continue to use your existing disks, but not if you remove them using this procedure. Use the procedure above for that.
BTW there are two expansion limits with OS 4. One is that the volume can't expand over 16 TiB. The other is that a volume can't grow more than 8 TiB from its starting point (which is 2 TB in your case). The upper limit of your volume size is about 10 TB (slightly more since TiB are bigger).
So if you use the first procedure, you can upgrade one of the remainig 2 TB drives to 4 TB, but you won't be able to upgrade both. If you use the second procedure, you can add a third 4 TB drive later on, but not a 4th. If you reach that point, you'll need do a factory reset with all drives in place (restoring all the data from backup) Upgrading to OS 6 is an option then, it doesn't have either of those expansion limits.
All the answers below are assuming xraid2
Christoffer wrote:
Its a work enviroment so I don't want a seconds 'folder/disk' to save stuff in so Is there any benefit to putting my old 2TB disks in slots 3 and 4?
If you have 2 empty slots, why not put the two 4 TB drives in them? When you are done, you'd end up with an 8 TB xraid volume - twice the capacity you'll get if you replace the exisitng drives. Just hot-insert the new drives one at a time and wait for resync. After the first resync, you'll have a 4 TB volume (some space unused). When you install the second, there were will be two resyncs -one horizontal and one vertical. The first will expand the volume to 6 TB. Then the NAS will reboot (you may need to initiate it) and the volume will expand to 8.
Christoffer wrote:
Can I pull out disk no.2 and repace it with a 4TB. Wait for it to mirror.
Then replace disk no.1 with the last 4TB and I'm good to go?
Can I do this while the NAS is powered on?
Yes, to all (noting there is a reboot step toward the end). This will work, and give you a 4 TB volume. It doesn't matter if you start with disk 2 or disk 1. You can of course continue to use your existing disks, but not if you remove them using this procedure. Use the procedure above for that.
BTW there are two expansion limits with OS 4. One is that the volume can't expand over 16 TiB. The other is that a volume can't grow more than 8 TiB from its starting point (which is 2 TB in your case). The upper limit of your volume size is about 10 TB (slightly more since TiB are bigger).
So if you use the first procedure, you can upgrade one of the remainig 2 TB drives to 4 TB, but you won't be able to upgrade both. If you use the second procedure, you can add a third 4 TB drive later on, but not a 4th. If you reach that point, you'll need do a factory reset with all drives in place (restoring all the data from backup) Upgrading to OS 6 is an option then, it doesn't have either of those expansion limits.
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