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Re: RN102 horizontal expansion

frhooghiemstra
Aspirant

RN102 horizontal expansion

I currently have a RN102 with 2 2TB drives. I would like to add external HD storage to this? How to do this? What are my limits? Can I add any volume to the USB ports/ esata port?

 

Thank you!

Model: RN102|ReadyNAS 100 Series 2- Bay
Message 1 of 5
StephenB
Guru

Re: RN102 horizontal expansion

FWIW, I think a better (though perhaps more expensive) strategy is to upgrade your internal disks.

 

You can connect a USB drive to your NAS, create a volume on it, and create shares on that volume.  The rear ports are USB 3.0, the front port is USB 2.0.  You can also use eSATA (though eSATA drives never got very popular, USB 3.0 drives seem to be more available and less expensive).  There is no size restriction.  It would be best to use a drive that is independently powered from an AC adapter.

 

NTFS is a reasonable format for the drive.

 

 

Message 2 of 5
frhooghiemstra
Aspirant

Re: RN102 horizontal expansion

Ok suppose I buy a 5 TB external USB HD and connect this via USB 3.0. How will this be handled? I currently have 2x 2 TB in X-raid configuration. Do I uderstand correctly that my X-raid configuration will automnatically recognise the external USB 3.0 drive and will in this case create 4.5 TB storage space and 4.5TB backup space?

 

Ref "create a volume on it, and create shares on that volume" Do you have a manual that outlines this process? It does not really ring a bell 🙂

 

PS I use the newest firmware as made available by netgear

 

Message 3 of 5
StephenB
Guru

Re: RN102 horizontal expansion


@frhooghiemstra wrote:

Ok suppose I buy a 5 TB external USB HD and connect this via USB 3.0. How will this be handled? I currently have 2x 2 TB in X-raid configuration. Do I uderstand correctly that my X-raid configuration will automnatically recognise the external USB 3.0 drive and will in this case create 4.5 TB storage space and 4.5TB backup space?

 


No.  The external disk is not part of your X-RAID array.  It would be a standalone USB volume, and wouldn't use RAID at all.

 


@frhooghiemstra wrote:

 

 Do you have a manual that outlines this process? It does not really ring a bell 🙂

 


The software manual is here: http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/READYNAS-100/READYNAS_OS_6_SM_EN.pdf

 

There is some information on what you need to do on page 38.  It's been a while since I connected a USB drive - it looks a bit different from what I remember.

Message 4 of 5
Sandshark
Sensei

Re: RN102 horizontal expansion

Your NAS will accept some (maybe most) "dumb" (no built-in RAID, no USB option) multi-drive eSATA enclosures, which it will think is an EDA500 (which has been discontinued).  You cannot extend a volume from internal to the eSATA enclosure, but you can add a RAID volume in the enclosure,  But, frankly, that's a bad idea.  The 102 is a slower ARM NAS, and the eSATA port is SATA II  via a port expander, so also very slow.  The resulting combo is likely to be unbearably slow when accessing the eSATA enclosure.

 

Replacing both drives, replacing the NAS with one with more bays and adding drives, or adding a second NAS are all better solutions.  You could also add an eSATA or USB enclosure that has it's own native RAID, but I don't know of any that have a Linux interface to their control panel.  You'd have to form the volume using a PC or Mac and then move it to the NAS.

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