after 6 years of using my NV+ I have done it. 😄 I ordered a new Readynas 516 yesterday. I also ordered 6x the Seagate 4TB NAS drive ST4000VN000. The equipment will arrive in the next few days. Now I have a few questions regarding preparation before starting with the new system. Maybe someone could answer it. Maybe mdgm because he uses a Readynas 516 already.
1. Update firmware to ReadyNAS OS 6.1.6 Start with 1 drive and update the system to 6.1.6 and then do a reset. After that I can put in all the other drives do a restart and start configuring the system? (Side note: Is a reset needed every time I update the firmware? I don't hope so. I think I can update the firmware and work on. Otherwise I have to backup the data first and then to restore it after an update. Much more effort. I can update my Win7 I don't have to reinstall the whole system.)
2. Checking the blank HDD's for errors Has the Readynas a function for checking the discs for errors before use?
3. RAID mode / dual-redundancy
I found this on dbott's site "Bott's Thoughts":
X-RAID2 with dual-redundancy (6-bay models only and must start with at least 4 drives installed)
Flex-RAID 6 (6-bay models only and must start with at least 4 drives installed)
In order to expand your volume automatically, you must have configured your ReadyNAS for one of the X-RAID modes. If you are running any of the Flex-RAID modes, you will not be able to expand your volume without backing up & restoring your data*.
*Notes: starting with RAIDiator 4.2.16 (for x86-based ReadyNAS devices only) volume expansion is now supported in Flex-RAID mode.
Can I use xraid2 mode for dual-redundancy ? Or will I have to use Flex-RAID mode ? What about expansion? Let's say change the 4TB drives for 5TB drives later?
X-RAID2 would fit best while it will do the expansion automatically. Does the note with RAIDiator 4.2.16 and Flex-RAID mode expansion also count for the new OS 6 (ReadyNas 516 is also x86-based) ?
4. Transferring the data from the NV+ to the RN516
What is the best way for Transferring the data from the NV+ to the RN516?
Connecting to the share with Windows Explorer and moving the the files to the RN516 over the Gigabit network?
I would be happy if someone could shed a bit light on this.
Start with 1 drive and update the system to 6.1.6 and then do a reset. After that I can put in all the other drives do a restart and start configuring the system?
If the system doesn't ship with 6.1.6, then it is fastest to update to 6.1.6 with a single disk, and then do a second factory reset with all disks in place. You can use a smaller scratch disk for the update, that would be faster still.
starbuck_ wrote:
Is a reset needed every time I update the firmware?
No, fortunately that is rare.
starbuck_ wrote:
Has the Readynas a function for checking the discs for errors before use?
It will run the SMART test built into the drive. Usually I run the manufacturer diags (seatools in this case) on a PC before using the drives in the NAS. That is time-consuming, but I'd rather find problems with drives before I install.
starbuck_ wrote:
Can I use xraid2 mode for dual-redundancy ?
Yes.
starbuck_ wrote:
What is the best way for Transferring the data from the NV+ to the RN516?
Running an NFS backup job on the RN516 over a gigabit network. Then edit the job to rsync, and re-run. That is faster than Windows explorer. I do this one share at a time.
I can't wait to get started with my new ReadyNas 516 ... )
No, fortunately that is rare.
That's good. So I don't need to do a time consuming "backup-reset-restore" thing.
It will run the SMART test built into the drive. Usually I run the manufacturer diags (seatools in this case) on a PC before using the drives in the NAS. That is time-consuming, but I'd rather find problems with drives before I install.
Which test-mode do you use in the Seatools?
-Basic Test ->Long Generic?
Running an NFS backup job on the RN516 over a gigabit network. Then edit the job to rsync, and re-run. That is faster than Windows explorer. I do this one share at a time.
Could you please explain how to configure an NFS backup and rsync job in detail?
I am in the process of doing this same thing. I chose 2tb instead of 4, so times may be different. The firmware update with one drive was pretty quick. The factory reset with all of the drives took about 5 hours. The conversion of xraid to raid 6 took about 6 hours. converting back to xraid2 was pretty quick. I chose to do a scrub to test the drives after the raid stuff was done. Another 5 hours. Not a real 'test', but adequate for me since the drives all made it through the initial setups.
I am now doing the nfs backup job to move from the NV+. After 2 hours I have moved 270gb. I have about 750gb of stuff so that should not take too long.
The only mistake so far was that I registered the 516 before doing the factory reset. Now I get a message reminding me to register. I need to figure how to satisfy that.
You can shorten that by not waiting for the first resync after factory default. Just switch straight away to flex raid, select raid 6, then let it build the volume. You can switch back to xraid which is instant. Will save you one rebuild.
So I can use xraid2 with dual-redundancy I first have to switch to flex-raid then select raid 6. After rebuilding the volume I have two switch back to xraid2 again,right?
Yes. I was just pointing out that you don't need to wait for an xraid volume to build before you do the switch to flex raid. You can interrupt it immediately. In flex raid you select the disks you want in the volume, select raid6 then let it build. When it's finished you can switch to xraid again. It won't rebuild at this stage.
Checking the the six 4 TB hard drive for errors with seatools took about 3 hours for each drive. Updating the firmware to 6.1.6 was pretty quick. Reset to factory default was also very quick. I used the hint pointed out by "vandermerwe" and deleted the existing volume (firmware update with one drive) and then created a new volume in flex-mode with all six discs inserted into the bays with RAID6. Rebuilding the volume took 9 hours (over the night) until it was synced. Good tip from "vandermerwe" directly switch to flex-mode so you only have to build the volume once. I now have 15TB of free space available. 🙂
So I have deleted the old volume to create a new one all the default shares created previously on the first run are gone. What are their (shares) names? Backup, Music, Videos, Documents and Pictures? Did I remember this correctly?
In the next step I have to create my users and then I will try to transfer my data from my old NV+ to the RNS516.
