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Re: ReadyNas NVX 4-bay x2TB

cathcam
Tutor

ReadyNas NVX 4-bay x2TB

Had a couple of drive failures recently, amazon had a deal on 2TB Seagate Barricuda drives. Copied all the data to a backup readynas, removed the old drives and replaced with 4x new drives.

 

Powerup, started Raidar, switched config to Flex-raid, Raid-5. All the new drives passed testing. Interestingly, or confusingly, the latest failed drive was in bay-4, once the new volume was setup, the ReadyNAS went into resync mode and is attempting to resync and empty raid array.

 

My question is will the flashing light for bay-4 go off once the resync is complete, or is something more sinister going on?

 

++Mark. 

https://ctproduced.com

Message 1 of 5
StephenB
Guru

Re: ReadyNas NVX 4-bay x2TB


@cathcam wrote:

Had a couple of drive failures recently, amazon had a deal on 2TB Seagate Barricuda drives. 

 


Not the best drive choice, as the Barricudas now use SMR technology, which is not a good choice for RAID.  It might work out ok for the NVX, but definitely not a good option for OS-6 NAS that use BTRFS for the file system.  Keep an eye out for very slow write performance (including resync). 

 

If you are still in the return window with the seller, I'd exchange the Barracudas. FWIW, I generally recommend WD Red Plus or Seagate Ironwolf (not WD Reds, as they are also SMR).  Of course Enterprise class drives are also solid choices.  

 

If you do exchange, then also consider 4 TB.  Three 4 TB Ironwolf drives would give you more storage than four 2 TB Ironwolf drives for less cost, and give you an empty slot for future expansion.

 


@cathcam wrote:

 

Powerup, started Raidar, switched config to Flex-raid, Raid-5. All the new drives passed testing. Interestingly, or confusingly, the latest failed drive was in bay-4, once the new volume was setup, the ReadyNAS went into resync mode and is attempting to resync and empty raid array.

 


Not quite sure what you are saying here:

  • Were all the new drives in the NAS installed when you powered up?
  • The NAS would have needed to sync the array after you installed the drives.  Did that fully complete?

As you likely know, RAID works below the file system (essentially creating a virtual disk that the file system is installed on).  So the resync time for an empty volume is just as long as the resync time for a full one.

 

As an aside - any particular reason you chose FlexRaid?  XRAID would also have used RAID-5.

 

Message 2 of 5
cathcam
Tutor

Re: ReadyNas NVX 4-bay x2TB

Well I can answer my own question. When I came into the office this morning the resync had finished, light for drive-4 no longer blinking. Yes, all the drives were in the NAS when it was powered on. I didn't use the reset menu via the chasis.

 

Since this NAS is only used for longterm storage, archiving, I'm ok with the choice/price/performance of the barracudas. Also, both the primary and backup ReadyNAS NVX are over 14-years old, neither support TLS 2.0 and really should be replaced, but meh, I'm ok with it now especially as the primary is also backed up to the cloud.

 

At least as far as I'm aware, the NVX is OS 4 and has a max capacity of 4x 2TB drives on this model. 4TB drives are not supported?

 

++Mark. 

https://ctproduced.com

 

 

Message 3 of 5
StephenB
Guru

Re: ReadyNas NVX 4-bay x2TB


@cathcam wrote:

 

At least as far as I'm aware, the NVX is OS 4 and has a max capacity of 4x 2TB drives on this model. 4TB drives are not supported?

 


Yes to OS 4, and no to 4x2 TB max capacity.

 

The capacity that Netgear advertised is generally based on the largest available disks at the time the datasheet is published.  They rarely go back and revise that as disk technology uses.

 

There are challenges with OS 4.2 systems going over a 16 TB volume size, and there is an expansion limit of 8 TB over the volume starting size.

 

But there is no particular limit for each disk size.  So you could use 3x8TB drives, and get a 16 TB volume.  Though I haven't seen any posts from NVX owners on this, getting 4x16TB drives and setting them up as two 16 TB RAID-1 volumes should also work.

 


@cathcam wrote:

 

Since this NAS is only used for longterm storage, archiving, I'm ok with the choice/price/performance of the barracudas. Also, both the primary and backup ReadyNAS NVX are over 14-years old, neither support TLS 2.0 and really should be replaced, but meh, I'm ok with it now especially as the primary is also backed up to the cloud.

 


There is an add-on from @WhoCares_ (who runs rnxtras.com) that will add TLS 1.2 support to your NAS.  That will allow connection from current browsers that have dropped support for TLS 1.0.  A direct link to the add-on is https://github.com/rdynsxtrs/rn4bin/blob/main/apache2/x86/Apache2_2.2.34-x86-0.2.0.bin

Message 4 of 5
cathcam
Tutor

Re: ReadyNas NVX 4-bay x2TB

Yes, I saw the @WhoCares_ solution, but since I'm no specialist, decided running a backlevel Firefox browser for the rare times I needed to access the ReadyNAS is just as easy. I'm also totally dependent on Microsoft not dropping support for SMB1 in Windows 11. It's still there but I'm sure that will go at somepoint and that will be the deciding factor on getting a new NAS.

 

I don't hang out here often enough to be able to benefit from the perceived wisdom. It's good to know I could actually get bigger drives if I needed them. Since I've never filled the circa 6TB I get from the 4x 2TB running in RAID5 thats never been a consideration. When I do, it will be time to rethink my whole setup and get servers that were designed in the decade I'm in.

 

Appreciate the time you took to respond. All interesting stuff!

 

++Mark. 

https://ctproduced.com

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