I have a ReadyNAS Pro Business Edition running RAIDiator 4.2.24. It is loaded with 6 x 2TB drives running in X-RAID2 mode. I have been running this setup for a couple of years.
Can I upgrade one at a time to 3GB or 4GB drives without having to factory reset. I just want some more space as I replace my failing drives.
There are two expansion limits though. (a) you cannot expand over 16 TiB and (b) you cannot grow a volume more than 8 TiB over its lifetime.
mdgm's question relates to the second limit.
If you started with 6x2TB drives, then your starting volume was 10 TB. You should therefore be able to grow to 16 TB. In that case, you will hit the 16 TiB limit if you install 4 TB drives, but you won't hit it if you install 3 TB drives.
However you started with a single 2 TB drive on your initial install, and then added the rest, then you are already at/near your max volume size (since you've grown the volume by 8 TB). In that case you'd need to do a factory reset.
The 16TB is a hard limit? so 6 x 4TB is never an option?
If I replace failing drives with 3TB, when will I see more capacity. with 5 x 2TB and 1 x 3Tb will I see any more? I am set to Dual redundancy. Then 4 x TB2 and 2 x 3TB, then 3 x 2Tb and 3 x 3TB?
-You can create a clean volume > 16 TiB by doing a factory reset with all drives in place. What you can't do is expand beyond 16 TiB.
-A factory reset deletes all data, config settings, add-ons.
-With dual redundancy, you will need to install 4 drives of the larger size to see any increase.
Also, both the expansion limits apply to the volume size, not to the raw disk capacity.
In your case, 6x2TB with dual redundancy gives you 8 TB of capacity. 6x4TB gives you a 16 TB volume size - which you can reach if 6x2TB dual redundancy was your starting point.
"-With dual redundancy, you will need to install 4 drives of the larger size to see any increase." That is worse than I thought, oh well. Nice to know I could go to Volume of 16TB without having to reset.
However will have to decide soon. currently NAS is rebuilding after changing failed Disk1 yesterday, today i get this log message;
"ATA error count has increased in the last day. Disk 2: Previous count: 0 Current count: 188 Reallocated sector count has increased in the last day. Disk 3: Previous count: 0 Current count: 13 Reallocated sector count has increased in the last day. Disk 6: Previous count: 672 Current count: 680 Growing SMART errors indicate a disk that may fail soon. If the errors continue to increase, you should be prepared to replace the disk."
Strange so many of the drives are failing at the same time. A few of the drives in the NAS have already been replaced by Seagate under warranty. They don't seem to last long. Will use NAS drives next time. I assume they are worth it? I also assume Seagate and WD are same / same and one is not better than the other.
EDIT: just checked the comparability list and segate nas drives not listed. WD red up to 3TB....
Of course it is important to keep in mind that these studies are looking backwards. Currently shipping drives might have different characteristics to the ones being reported on.
Personally I have been using WDC exclusively for some years; gradually phasing out the Seagates in my various NAS.
