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I am about to venture into the relm of OS6 on my Pro6 and I am curious if I should start with 6.5.0 (which from everything I have been reading is very stable) vs trying to run 6.6.0.
I see that some of the applications don't yet run on 6.6.0, one of them being PLEX which I would like to experiment with, although not immediately.
I am very good about backups but this is my "home production server" and is used to store critial data.
I am currently running 4.2.28 but ran 4.2.19 for many years.
Once I have a stable version I am planning on migrating all of my data onto the updated platform.
Plex will certainly be fixed, so if you are not in a rush to implement it, I'd start with 6.6.0
You may not have much choice anyway, since the most of the r4tor6 bins on the downlload site are links to the latest (no matter what release is appended to their name).
Anyway the Plex problems are with the RN2XX ARM build, I believe, not the x86 one.
Are there any limitations to the 6.6.0 that I should be worrying about. Prior use has been purely as a file server, just now starting to use the box for other applications.
Model: ReadyNASRNDP6000|ReadyNAS Pro 6 Chassis only
Stability of 6.6.0 on this hardware continues to be good.
Data rates from USB2 are now over 30MB/Sec using RSYNC to a single internal disk which is quite good. (Definitely faster than 4.2.19)
An odd issue was that when I nearly filled up the volume (~150mb remaining of 3TB, accident with second RSYNC which tried to make a complete second copy of the old data) I decided the fastest way to clean up the system was to delete the share that the data was in.
The share was deleted, however, the storage space did not return. After 24 hours of no change, I rebooted the NAS and the volume looked good. (And empty as expected)
I did run the balance and defrag commands on the volume which ran quickly and correctly.
I have seen some issues with filling up this file system causing odd corruptions and I am planning on defaulting the system prior to loading the system for "production" use (this is a home system so "production" is a loose term!). Is there any reason to do this based upon having filled up the file system at one point?
Model: ReadyNASRNDP6000|ReadyNAS Pro 6 Chassis only
No filesystem should be filled 100% full. Whether it's a system running RAIDiator-x86 4.2.x or ReadyNAS OS 6 or any of our other OSes one of the first things we'd look for would be if the data volume is/was recently quite full.
On OS6 it's best to keep volume usage under about 80-85% or perhaps 90%.
Definitely not a good idea to fill any file system to completely full.
I was not critisizing the system, just wondering if I have accidentally filled the file system and then deleted the share would it be prudent to default the device to force a file system rebuild or is that being overly paranoid?
Thanks again
Model: ReadyNASRNDP6000|ReadyNAS Pro 6 Chassis only
You can do whatever you are comfortable with, but if you do do a factory default (wipes all data, settings, everything) be sure to backup any data left on the system first.
I have 5 3TB drives available at this point and a couple of 2TB drives (all on the recommended list)
I assume if I start with a single drive I would have to start with the 2TB drive.
However, if resetting the Pro6 (running 6.6.0) for a full rebuild, does it matter which slot the lone 2TB drive ends up in? (i.e. is it better to be in the first slot or last slot for some internal logic reason?)
If the 2TB disk fails and all of the remaining disks are 3TB drives, can I still replace the 2TB drive with another 2TB drive or does it have to be at least as large as the largest drive in the system (i.e. if the 2TB disk fails can I replace it with another 2TB drive or am I forced to use a 3TB drive at that point)
Is there any enherent stability / upgradeability implications of having two sizes of disks in the 6.6.0 system. i.e. is there some reason to not use the 2TB drive. (Which I happen to have a second 2TB drive for a spare)
Model: ReadyNASRNDP6000|ReadyNAS Pro 6 Chassis only
Is there any enherent stability / upgradeability implications of having two sizes of disks in the 6.6.0 system. i.e. is there some reason to not use the 2TB drive.
I am considering putting both of the 2TB drives into the mix and that way the spare is a 3TB drive which could go into any slot if a drive starts failing.
I do have a mix of 7200rpm, 5900rpm, and 5200rpm drives in the mix.
I understand that the root file system is actually RAID0, does it primarily read Drive 0 or is it reading across the entire 6 partitions making up the RAID0 for that small partition? The reason I ask is if there is any preference in a mixed disk speed environment that Drive 0 be the faster disk or does it just not matter.
Thank you very much for all of the very helpful feedback!
Model: ReadyNASRNDP6000|ReadyNAS Pro 6 Chassis only
I understand that the root file system is actually RAID0, does it primarily read Drive 0 or is it reading across the entire 6 partitions making up the RAID0 for that small partition? The reason I ask is if there is any preference in a mixed disk speed environment that Drive 0 be the faster disk or does it just not matter.
It is RAID-1 (mirrored across all 6 disks though).
I've asked your speed question myself (wondering if an SSD would be best placed in the first slot). Netgear said it didn't matter, though I have wondered if that is correct.
Thanks for the feedback on the speed of the first disk.
I will probably put a fast one there in the end just because it seems like a good thing to do.
Current plan is to end up in the following configuration
Slot 1: 7200rpm 3TB
Slot 2: 5200rpm 3TB
Slot 3: 7200rpm 3TB
Slot 4: 7200rpm 3TB
Slot 5: 5700rpm 2TB
Slot 6: 5700rpm 2TB
The reason is purely to put the higher temperature (i.e. faster) disks in slots which tend to be better cooled. Thus Slot2 and Slot5 which seem to run hotter due to being in the middle of the pack are intrinsically cooler running disks
This leaves me with one additional 3TB drive (I have pulled all of the sub 2TB disks out of the mix) which is the "onsite" replacement. If I end up with a failed drive, this drive can be used to replace any drive in the system.
If I were to keep a 2TB as the spare and I had a 3TB drive fail I would have to run out and purchase a new drive.
As a "stress test" of all of the drives I started with a single drive and have been resyncing the X-RAID2 volume (single redundancy) one by one which is forcing multiple reads of every sector of every disk.
Based upon accidentially filling the volume up when it was a single disk and that I started with a 3TB disk and want to include 2TB disks in the mix I will default the box once all of the disks have been tested and start from scratch since at this point I am triple backed with regard to all data.
Thank you again for answering so many questions! I tend to keep these machines stable for long periods of time after initial setup and so like to make sure I made good choices initially.
Model: ReadyNASRNDP6000|ReadyNAS Pro 6 Chassis only
A bit of a followup with regard to 6.6.0 on my Pro 6.
So far the move from 4.2.x to 6.6.0 has been very successful, no issues with the system now that it is loaded to about 85% of capacity (expect to be pulling the capacity down as there are some duplicates of large structures hanging around from old backups of various things).
The only issue which I am continuing to monitor is one of the disks threw about 10 or 11 pending write warnings which have cleared and the ATA command error increased from 6 to 8. I shut down the machine, pulled the disk, made sure the pins were clean, reseated the drive carefully a few times and powered the system back up. That was a week ago and I have not seen any additional warnings.
I did install the SSH package via a manual download and move onto the network the NAS lives on which worked very nicely.
Until I finish reorganizing all of the old backups and get a nice cleaned up "digitial attic" I am not adding any additional capability to the machine, things whch I expect to test later:
1) Disk Spindown - have not yet turned on, will eventually
2) time based power on/power off - have not yet turned on, will eventually
3) Plex - Interested to try, have not yet installed
Still hunting for a good duplicate finder application to help kill off large scale duplication which has occured over the years.
Thank you all for a great update to the Pro 6! It is really working well!
Model: ReadyNASRNDP6000|ReadyNAS Pro 6 Chassis only
Forgot to mention what I did to stress test the problem drive after reseating drive a couple of times.
Full Scrub
Rebalance
Verify (can't remember exactly what it was called)
Second Full Scrub
No additional errors surfaced after about 4 days of hard activity so I am assuming that the drive was not quite seated correctly which induced the erros.
Model: ReadyNASRNDP6000|ReadyNAS Pro 6 Chassis only
