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I have been reseaching NAS solutions for my home. I have looked at pretty much every video and web page, but I think I have confused mself. I am interested in the ReadyNAS104 Diskless.
My home network consists of Mac/Linux/Windows. To start out, I would want to start with 1 disk drive. Is this possible? Assuming yes, I understand that there will be no data protection. I feel that from what I have seen, All of my computers will be able to read and /or write to the NAS. Can I set up separate folders for multiple users, either shared or private access depending on the user and share? One document I have seen states that the 104 can support up to 16TB of data, another states 24TB. Which is correct? This will determine my drive size (4 or 6 TB).
When I add the second drive, the 104 will do mirroring or JBOD, correct? With a third drive, will I be able to do other RAID levels? Is it possible to have multiple volumes, also included in a RAID configuration?
I have seen documents regarding DLNA/SD 480 and HD 1080. If I understand correctly, the 104 will not stream the higher levels of video? But my Samsung Smart TV will be able to see the shares, And I will be able to watch my movies?
How is expansion provided(ie by network or USB)?
Within the limits of RAID level configurations, would I be able to use for example a 1TB, a 2TB, a 3TB and a 4TB drive?
Finally, this unit can be used as my Time Machine backup?
Thanks for any info provided in advance. I hope my questions were not confusing?
Yes you can setup separate folders, either shared or private. For private folders you can use the private home shares feature
When we first released it 16TB volumes were the max supported. Provided you update to 6.4.0 (or later first) you can now have volumes larger than 16TB. So if you start off with one 6TB disk I would update to 6.4.0 (or later), verify the firmware update is successful, then do a factory default (wipes all data, settings, everything) since this is a new setup to get a clean setup on that firmware
It will do RAID-1 mirroring, yes. X-RAID won't do JBOD when you add the second disk. When the third drive is added using X-RAID you will have a 3 disk RAID-5 volume. If you want something different you can disable X-RAID under Volumes, destroy the existing volume - if it is already using the disk (NOTE destroying the volume DESTROYS your data, so backup your data first) and create the volumes you want.
The 104 can stream 1080p but what it can't do is transcode video of any resolution. If it can stream your video as is to your client then it will. Otherwise the video will fail to play.
You can share USB disks over your network. There are no expansion chasses for the 104. If you need more space than what will fit in the unit the best way forward would be to get another unit or replace your disks with higher capacity ones (if higher capacity disks are available)
Using X-RAID the disks you add should have at least the same capacity as existing disks. With X-RAID disabled you can create a volume on any disk you add.
Yes, you can use this to hold the Time Machine backups of your Macs. You can use the Global Time Machine feature or have dedicated Time Machine backup folders for each user.
Yes you can setup separate folders, either shared or private. For private folders you can use the private home shares feature
When we first released it 16TB volumes were the max supported. Provided you update to 6.4.0 (or later first) you can now have volumes larger than 16TB. So if you start off with one 6TB disk I would update to 6.4.0 (or later), verify the firmware update is successful, then do a factory default (wipes all data, settings, everything) since this is a new setup to get a clean setup on that firmware
It will do RAID-1 mirroring, yes. X-RAID won't do JBOD when you add the second disk. When the third drive is added using X-RAID you will have a 3 disk RAID-5 volume. If you want something different you can disable X-RAID under Volumes, destroy the existing volume - if it is already using the disk (NOTE destroying the volume DESTROYS your data, so backup your data first) and create the volumes you want.
The 104 can stream 1080p but what it can't do is transcode video of any resolution. If it can stream your video as is to your client then it will. Otherwise the video will fail to play.
You can share USB disks over your network. There are no expansion chasses for the 104. If you need more space than what will fit in the unit the best way forward would be to get another unit or replace your disks with higher capacity ones (if higher capacity disks are available)
Using X-RAID the disks you add should have at least the same capacity as existing disks. With X-RAID disabled you can create a volume on any disk you add.
Yes, you can use this to hold the Time Machine backups of your Macs. You can use the Global Time Machine feature or have dedicated Time Machine backup folders for each user.
4. It will do RAID-1 mirroring, yes. X-RAID won't do JBOD when you add the second disk. When the third drive is added using X-RAID you will have a 3 disk RAID-5 volume. If you want something different you can disable X-RAID under Volumes, destroy the existing volume - if it is already using the disk (NOTE destroying the volume DESTROYS your data, so backup your data first) and create the volumes you want.
Note you can switch to flexraid before you install the second disk. If you do that, you can use JBOD (or add additional volumes with other RAID modes) without destroying your first volume.
I think that XRAID is the best configuration for most users (though I have chosen JBOD for some NAS).
mdgm wrote:
5.The 104 can stream 1080p but what it can't do is transcode video of any resolution. If it can stream your video as is to your client then it will. Otherwise the video will fail to play.
Full BluRay streaming requires ~7 MB/sec throughput, and the RN104 is 10x faster than that.
Transcoding is useful if you (a) have players that can't decode some of your media and (b) you want to stream over the internet or wifi networks with limited throughput.
The RN100 (and the RN20x) won't transcode audio either. If you want real-time transcoding, you should select the RN214 (and use the Plex app). The other option is to host the media library on the NAS, but run the streaming engine on a PC. Then you can use the RN100 series.
