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using second drive as first drive in another RN10200
My query is similar to an existing thread https://community.netgear.com/t5/Using-your-ReadyNAS/Swapping-discs-in-a-pair-of-ReadyNAS-s-s/m-p/1094089#M110332 I wondered if it would work, to remove ...
basshead wrote:
The main purpose of the new ReadyNAS was to provide the redundancy achieved by using a second drive in the original ReadyNAS.
I get that, and I run jbod on my smaller NAS (which are used for backup). But you can't switch from raid-1 to jbod w/o destroying the volume. It would nice if you could, but the current firmware won't allow it.
So the volume will show up as degraded forever. And I don't think it will let you install a second disk as a new volume - it will want to restore the RAID-1 array.
basshead wrote:
It seems like a complicated process for little or no gain. One goal was to increase storage capacity before the existing volume fills up.
It is annoying, but the only way to cleanly do what you said you wanted to do. Which was (a) switch to jbod and also (b) replicate the current NAS volume onto the new one.
It's the conversion to jbod that's makes this messy - if you were running it already, it'd be simpler.
But you don't really have much data, going through these steps is perhaps 2 days (mostly waiting for backup jobs to complete).
basshead wrote:
Another solution could be to use the new ReadyNAS as a completely separate drive/volume, and distribute files between the two ReadyNASes accordingly (eg: keep music files on the old ReadyNAS, and all other files on the new ReadyNAS). The problem with this method is I don't have a backup of all files kept in a different physical location (ie: redundancy within the same ReadyNAS by use of a second drive doesn't protect against fire or theft).
Or just get two bigger drives for the new NAS, migrate the data, and rebulld the old NAS as the backup (two volume jbod). Then you can have the benefit of local RAID-1 and also have the benefit of disaster recovery.
basshead wrote:
I wondered if it would work, to remove a second (redundancy) drive in my existing ReadyNAS 102 to use as the first/main drive in another (new) ReadyNAS 102? Would the data from the drive be wiped in the new ReadyNAS or would it keep the data intact and continue to use the drive as normal?
You could do this if you power down the new NAS when you install the disk. Best to use a scratch disk on the new unit first, install matching firmware.
But the volumes on both units would be degraded, and there is no way to fix that without installing a second drive in both units.
basshead wrote:
I'd then like to add a new drive to the original ReadyNAS and have it configured as additional storage capacity rather than the default "redundancy" configuration.
That can't be done unless you destroy the volume.
The procedure I suggest is this:
(a) back up your existing NAS for safety first
(b) do a fresh install on the new NAS using one of your existing disks. Copy over the data using the built-in frontview backup from the old NAS.
(c) Do a factory reset on the old NAS, and switch to flexraid. Then copy back the data from the new NAS
(d) add a second disk as a second volume. This can be a different size from your existing disk.
On (d) ir you create a single volume that spans multilple disks, then when a drive fails later on you lose everything on all disks. So in most cases that is a bad idea. If you go that route, it is even more important to maintain good backupts.
It seems like a complicated process for little or no gain. One goal was to increase storage capacity before the existing volume fills up.
> But the volumes on both units would be degraded, and there is no way to fix that without installing a second drive in both units.
The main purpose of the new ReadyNAS was to provide the redundancy achieved by using a second drive in the original ReadyNAS.
Another solution could be to use the new ReadyNAS as a completely separate drive/volume, and distribute files between the two ReadyNASes accordingly (eg: keep music files on the old ReadyNAS, and all other files on the new ReadyNAS). The problem with this method is I don't have a backup of all files kept in a different physical location (ie: redundancy within the same ReadyNAS by use of a second drive doesn't protect against fire or theft).
basshead wrote:
The main purpose of the new ReadyNAS was to provide the redundancy achieved by using a second drive in the original ReadyNAS.
I get that, and I run jbod on my smaller NAS (which are used for backup). But you can't switch from raid-1 to jbod w/o destroying the volume. It would nice if you could, but the current firmware won't allow it.
So the volume will show up as degraded forever. And I don't think it will let you install a second disk as a new volume - it will want to restore the RAID-1 array.
basshead wrote:
It seems like a complicated process for little or no gain. One goal was to increase storage capacity before the existing volume fills up.
It is annoying, but the only way to cleanly do what you said you wanted to do. Which was (a) switch to jbod and also (b) replicate the current NAS volume onto the new one.
It's the conversion to jbod that's makes this messy - if you were running it already, it'd be simpler.
But you don't really have much data, going through these steps is perhaps 2 days (mostly waiting for backup jobs to complete).
basshead wrote:
Another solution could be to use the new ReadyNAS as a completely separate drive/volume, and distribute files between the two ReadyNASes accordingly (eg: keep music files on the old ReadyNAS, and all other files on the new ReadyNAS). The problem with this method is I don't have a backup of all files kept in a different physical location (ie: redundancy within the same ReadyNAS by use of a second drive doesn't protect against fire or theft).
Or just get two bigger drives for the new NAS, migrate the data, and rebulld the old NAS as the backup (two volume jbod). Then you can have the benefit of local RAID-1 and also have the benefit of disaster recovery.
StephenB wrote:Or just get two bigger drives for the new NAS, migrate the data, and rebulld the old NAS as the backup (two volume jbod). Then you can have the benefit of local RAID-1 and also have the benefit of disaster recovery.
That seems to be the best option; buy two 4TB drives (max the RN10200 can handle) and replace one existing 3TB drive with a new 4TB and once that's migrated, swap the other existing 3TB for a new 4TB. That will increase capacity to maximum of 4TB with redundancy, then use the new ReadyNAS with the two old 3TB drives configured as JBOD, providing 6TB of remote backup storage (of which only 4TB will actually be used, but no real problem there). By the time the 4TB fills up I'll consider further upgrade options (likely many years away before I need to think about it).
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