I currently have 4No. 4TB drives in my Ultra 4 NAS configured in raid 10 or Netgear equivalent (Mirrored to give 8TB minus FAT and other system info)... I know that the list of recommended drives does not exceed 4TB sized drives. However I also note that the list of drives has not been updated since the Ultra 4 got discontinued when 4TB drives were current. Since then 5 and 6 TB drives have been released into the market. Has anyone tried to use any larger drives in this unit? What happened?
I have just purchased a ReadyNAS 314 unit which I plan to fit out with 4No. 6TB WD Red hard drives... Before I fit these into the 314, I'm thinking to remove the existing 4No. hard drives from my old Ultra 4 NAS and and try the 6TB drives in there place. Once this experiment is complete would there be any problems with reinstalling the existing 4TB disks back into the Ultra 4 without any issues?
Re: RNDU4000 ReadyNAS Ultra 4 - Max hard disk size
I recently acquired a Pro 4 and was surprised my WD Red 6TB was discovered fine (and appeared to work great) with OS 4.x. I instantly upgraded to OS 6.x and so far so good. As far as swapping I think you would be good to go. Just be sure to mark the location of the drives and place them back in order. I also wouldn't upgrade the firmware while the drives were uninstalled.
Re: RNDU4000 ReadyNAS Ultra 4 - Max hard disk size
The 6 TB drive will work in the ultra; the real issue is that the volume size is limited to 16 TiB, and a volume can't grow more than 8 TiB over its lifetime. That makes the 6 TB drive difficult to use in practice. If you want to switch your ultra to OS6, then it's probably better to migrate the data to the new RN314 first (over the network), and then simply switch it over, and move the data back. Not sure what the goal of your experiment is, but I really don't see much point to it.
On the ultra, you, as long as the original disks are removed (and reinserted) with the NAS powered down, then you shouldn't have any problem getting your data back. It's generally a good idea to label by slot number.
Re: RNDU4000 ReadyNAS Ultra 4 - Max hard disk size
Thanks for getting back Charles and Stephen.
How do I upgrade the Ultra 4 NAS to OS6? Can I upgrade the Ultra 4 NAS with the current drives installed? I thought the firmware for the Ultra 4 was stopped several years back or is the OS not related to the firmware?
Re: RNDU4000 ReadyNAS Ultra 4 - Max hard disk size
The goal of my experiment was to see if the 6TB drives could be installed in Raid 10 setup into the Ultra 4. There is no advise on the net in regards to installing 6TB drive in an Ultra 4. I thought as I was buying a set for 6TB drives for the 314 unit anyway that I could test them in the Ultra 4 unit to see if they would work. No point in breaking out £800 to upgrade the Ultra 4 drives and find that they weren't recognised, or only a small part of the drive could be seen!
Re: RNDU4000 ReadyNAS Ultra 4 - Max hard disk size
I just looked about upgrading the to OS6. I'm seeing from the forums that there is an issue with the fan control on older units. Do you know if this issues been fixed or if anyone has created an altered and OS6 .bin file that corrects this? The fan is noisy when at full power, and to have it running loud all day would drive me nuts!
Re: RNDU4000 ReadyNAS Ultra 4 - Max hard disk size
GTMonster wrote:
I just looked about upgrading the to OS6. I'm seeing from the forums that there is an issue with the fan control on older units. Do you know if this issues been fixed or if anyone has created an altered and OS6 .bin file that corrects this?
I have used virtually all of the older (x86) models with OS 6.x and the fan has been addressed (successfully). My Pro 4 spins are roughly 1,800 RPM. I looked around as most of the models spin around 800 RPM (or so) and I found a reference stating it spins faster because of the internal power supply. It needs to be kept cool.
Re: RNDU4000 ReadyNAS Ultra 4 - Max hard disk size
Thanks Charles, Does this mean that my fan speeds should operate at the same levels that they do now? The Ultra 4 unit is mostly quiet which is perfect for when I'm using my PC for home theatre use.
Re: RNDU4000 ReadyNAS Ultra 4 - Max hard disk size
Yes.
If you look under Status > Health in Frontview on 4.2.x you should see fan speeds at roughly 1800 RPM on your Ultra 4 (can be higher depending on your environment).
Re: RNDU4000 ReadyNAS Ultra 4 - Max hard disk size
Thanks mdgm, I have seen the fan speeds with the last available 4.x.x version of the system that is installed on the NAS. I am fine with the fan speeds as they are...
What I want to know is, will the fan profiles stay the same as they were in 4.x.x when I upgrade to OS 6 or will I have an Ultra 4 with noisy fans caused by messed up fan profiles that are not compatible with old NAS units. I have read on this forum that some people manually control that fans due to issues with the OS 6 fan profiles on older NAS units. I really want to upgrade the OS so I can install 6TB hard disks in this unit, but don't want to loose automatic fan control. My environment is too unstable to manually control the fans myself. I also want to ensure that I'm not going to be listening to fans 24hours a day in my living room where the NAS unit resides.
Re: RNDU4000 ReadyNAS Ultra 4 - Max hard disk size
Thanks mdgm,
I feel more assured now you have said this.
When my 6TBs arrive next week and my 314 is up and running. I'm going to transfer all the stuff off the Ultra 4 and upgrade it to OS6 with a view to later changing the 4TB drives in the old unit to 6TB drives in the near future.
If I use the Ultra 4 with OS 6 in a Raid 10 configuration... to upgrade the disks to 6TB , do I switch out the 4TB drives one at a time for the 6TB drives while letting the Raid rebuild in between each swap. Once all the drives are matched 6TBs, with the unit recognise this and increase the Raid size to fill the drives?
Beyond the upgrades on the disk sizes are there any other benefits that I will have with the OS6 upgrade? Will the current DLNA and remote access add-ons work.
