Flex-RAID 6 vertical/horizontal without loss of service? Advantages over X-Raid2 dual redundancy?

[thisisausername]

I'm looking at the ReadyNAS 3312 12-bay rackmount system. I'd be mostly interested in a Raid-6 configuration. I seem to be finding conflicting information about whether or not I'd have to backup to an external system to expand a Flex-raid-6 system horizontally. According to this source, vertical expansion should be automatic and in the background: http://kb.netgear.com/23136/How-do-I-vertically-expand-a-Flex-RAID-volume-on-my-ReadyNAS-OS-6-storag...

If I have flex-raid-6 set up and I want to expand horizontally, will the process be much the same? I gather that it might not be automatic in that I might have to select some options, but will I have to backup, delete, and then rebuild?

Assuming I never want to deviate from a Raid-6, are there any advantages of flex-raid over X-Raid2's dual redundancy option? I cannot foresee a time when I'll want to migrate to any other raid configuration, but I do require multiple volumes on this array. This source from a few years ago would suggest that multiple volumes is only available on Flex-Raid: http://www.netgear.jp/support/manual/ReadyNAS_business/WP_XRAID2vsFlexRAID_12May14.pdf

Is it still true that X-Raid2 does not support multiple volumes?

Cheers,

Zach

[StephenB]

XRAID2 only supports a single volume.  Also, Flex-RAID supports several raid modes that XRAID2 doesn't use (Raid-10, RAID-50, RAID-60).  XRAID2 is more convenient, and has the advantage that the user doesn't need to understand the complexities of the various RAID modes.

There's more information on expansion in the documentation ( http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/READYNAS-100/READYNAS_OS_6_SM_EN.pdf ), particularly on page 35.

Note there is a restriction in the current 6.7.0 beta - saying Flex-RAID expansion support is not currently functional. I suggest keeping an eye on that (checking that the restriction is removed before release).