Can anyone tell me the maximum volume size I could create using this model.
Eg, could I create an entire 600TB volume (maximum storage supported on this model without expansion units). Which file system could I use to support this? (baring in mind that we would be looking to use domain/NTFS permissions, and that NTFS maximum supported is only 64TB.
Are there any plans for this model to support the ReFS filing system?
Thank you 🙂
Model: RR4360X| ReadyNAS 10Gigabit 60-bay 1+ Petabyte Total Storage with Expansion
We use BTRFS so the theoretical limit is a lot higher than 600TB. The theoretical limit is 16EiB. As to whether there will emerge any practical limitations as higher capacity disks than what’s currently supported are introduced we’ll have to wait and see.
Like most NAS units our OS uses Linux (ours is based on Debian) so using a Linux filesystem is what makes sense.
Thank you, so from what you say you are using an intermediate (your linux server) as a file server, and your ready nas as attached storage?
I was looking into the possibility of using the readynas as a standalone SMB/Windows file share, utilising file permissions using security groups from our active directory domains (eg, binding it to the domain, and applying domain security permissions to files/folders). Is this a supported operation?
Some more questions have struck me, if I was to partly fill the unit with hard disks and create a volume, can I later add more physical disks and "expand" the volume on the fly? Or would this require the volume to be recreated from scratch? Can a volume "span" over a master and expansion units. eg, could I get around the 600TB limit of the single unit by "combining" the capacity of the main and expansion units and having a larger volume?
Creating a volume that spans multiple chassis is not recommended. If the connecting cable is accidentally disconnected or the expansion unit switched off whilst the main unit remains running this would take the data volume offline leading to a data recovery situation.
Whatever RAID level you use it’s important that you backup. Don’t store important data on just the one device.
We do support volume expansion but if you don’t have empty slots you may need to replace many/all of the disks to get it.
With the 4360 the recommended RAID levels would be RAID-50 or RAID-60 depending on the number of disks you are using.
Creating a volume that spans multiple chassis is not recommended. If the connecting cable is accidentally disconnected or the expansion unit switched off whilst the main unit remains running this would take the data volume offline leading to a data recovery situation.
From what I've been able to tell in my experiments, it's actually not possible, at least via the GUI on an RN500 & EDA500. But I suppose that could be different with the rack-mount systems.
When I was doing the experiments, the GUI seemed to tell me it could be done, but actually attemptng to do it threw up an error (that didn't really explain the issue). Maybe the fact that it can be done on the rack-mount units is the cause of the confusion.
Hopefully, the GUI has been improved to give the user a better indication of what's possible and a more appropriate error message if it's ignored. But My NAS and EDA500 are no longer free for experimentation to see if they have been improved.
Keep in mind that OS-6 itself has no known expansion limits (other than the 16 EiB limit of the file system). The 600TB volume size you quote was set by the largest available disks in the marketplace when the datasheet was published. That happened to be 10 TB drives.
But since then 12 TB drives have come onto the market and one is on the hardware compatibility list for your NAS - more choices will surely follow. So that max volume size is already up to 720TB.
However, those volumes don't have any RAID redundancy, and you really should either have multiple volumes or be using an advanced RAID mode like RAID-50 or RAID-60 with a 60 disk array. That will reduce the volume size. For instance, if you used 6 disk sets in a RAID-50 volume using 12 TB drives, you'd be using 120 TB of space for RAID redundancy. That would bring you back down to 600 TB.
In practice, multiple volumes are a better way to go - I certainly wouldn't want to restore a 600 TB volume from backup. Users don't see the volumes, they only see network shares.
My plan is to have 2 of these units in seperate parts of the site but on the same network. Is it possible to replicate one unit to the other WITHOUT being connected to the internet, ie can I replicate these units either livetime or periodically, incase one fails? We are not connected to the Internet so the netgear "cloud replication" option is not feasible.
Is it possible to replicate one unit to the other WITHOUT being connected to the internet
Netgear is deprecating the replicate service at the end of this year (and I think they aren't allowing any new users). So replicate isn't the answer for you. You wouldn't want to use the cloud anyway, given the amount of storage you are planning.
You have two options:
ReadyDR backup jobs
Rsync Backup jobs
ReadyDR has similar features to replicate - in particular you can roll back to older ReadyDR snapshots. It is not a high-availability backup - meaning that you need to restore the ReadyDR backup in order to get users back on-line.
Rsync backup jobs are high-availability - since your users can just switch over to the backup NAS and access the data. If you enable snapshots on the backup destination you also will have some ability to roll back.
Both are incremental; the ReadyDR approach is more efficient if you use iSCSI LUNs.
