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We have several/many NAS units which need to have their storage updated.
Existing storage volumes are currently defined as RAID 1 volumes (mirrored) with bit rot protection.
The volumes are in the 2 to 4 TB range and will be replaced by 12 TB drives.
For the upgrade we could copy the data to a different/temporary volume, remove the existing drives and insert the new 12 Tb drives and let them initialize and then copy back the information from the different/temporary volumes.
That process will be a PITA and fairly lengthy timewise.
Two questions…
Is there some other way – possibly a program/feature/other that will allow the existing volume to be ‘upgraded’ in terms of size? Sort of like a replacement for a drive that failed but instead have it become part of the RAID 1 pair with larger size only.
If copy methods are employed, can two different volumes have the same share names or will the ReadyNAS complain about ‘duplicate’ share names?
After both disks that make up a RAID 1 X-Raid volume have been 'synchronized/rebuilt' will the larger capacity just be available or is there some other command that must be entered or the system restarted or ??
The capacity will be available after the second disk completes its resync.
The first resync will be fairly quick (just 2 TB - 4 TB of disk space is mirrored).
The second resync has two phases. First it resyncs the 2 TB - 4 TB again. Then it syncs the remaining 8-10 TB.
Note the sync (mirroring) time doesn't depend on the free space. The entire disk is mirrored.
Although the manual doesn't say, I always recommend hot-swapping the disks (NAS running). As the manual does say, be sure to wait for the resync to complete before hot-swapping the second disk.
Netgear (and I) do recommend updating your backups first, as if something goes wrong you can lose data.
This seems too easy -- better than what I expected.
After both disks that make up a RAID 1 X-Raid volume have been 'synchronized/rebuilt' will the larger capacity just be available or is there some other command that must be entered or the system restarted or ??
After both disks that make up a RAID 1 X-Raid volume have been 'synchronized/rebuilt' will the larger capacity just be available or is there some other command that must be entered or the system restarted or ??
The capacity will be available after the second disk completes its resync.
The first resync will be fairly quick (just 2 TB - 4 TB of disk space is mirrored).
The second resync has two phases. First it resyncs the 2 TB - 4 TB again. Then it syncs the remaining 8-10 TB.
Note the sync (mirroring) time doesn't depend on the free space. The entire disk is mirrored.
This is the "magic" of XRAID. It's actually possible to do it manually using the MDADM and BTRFS tools that XRAID also uses. But XRAID will do it all for you. There are a few limitations on how you can expand, some of which seem to be simply because the logic to do the "illegal" ones is just too complicated and likely so rare as to make them not worthwhile implementing. But your case is a very simple and common one that's fully supported.
It's not just drives previously used in a ReadyNAS, but any previously formatted drive. Legacy ReadyNAS did not require that, which lead to many people coming here and see how they could recover what was previously on the drive (you can't!). So this manual formatting is a good thing, though perhaps the manual assumes too much that you'll be using a pristine new drive.
This doesn't affect you much at this point, but I'm posting to help others who may come across the thread.
The documentation on this topic is not fulsome -- certainly needs improvement.
FWIW, it is in the software manual, but probably not in the section most people would look. It's on page 165 (in the section on disks).
If you try to use previously formatted disks in a system that already contains usable disks, the system does not reformat or use the previously formatted disks. Any data on the previously formatted disk remains intact.
