Changing role of disk in a ReadyNAS NV+ v2

[Ant2110]

I have been running my NAS with 4 x 3Tb Seagate drives and have had a RAID5 configuration and cacity showing of 8.1Tb. 

I had a drive fail some time back and I swapped it out, the system rebuilt the drive successfully as expected - all drives then showed as okay and my capacity was still 8.1Tb. 

However, I have recently had anther drive fail (number 1) and so I swapped it with a new one. This time the drive shows as; 

Staus: spare inactive. 

My capacity is still showing as 8.1Tb RAID 5 Redundant. 

Why did the new drive not build back into the live RAID5 array, I am concerned that I am not protected as I cannnot have an 8,1Tb RAID5 if I only have 3 x 3Tb drives in it....

Firmware = RAIDiator 5.3.11

Disk 1: WDC WD30EZRX-00SPEB0 2794 GB (32 °C / 89 °F, Write-cache On). Status: Spare inactive

Disk 2: WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0 2794 GB (34 °C / 93 °F, Write-cache On). Status: OK

Disk 3: WDC WD30EZRX-00D8PB0 2794 GB (31 °C / 87 °F, Write-cache On). Status: OK 

Disk 4: WDC WD30EZRX-00D8PB0 2794 GB (29 °C / 84 °F, Write-cache On). Status: OK

RAID 5 (Redundant)

5.2 TB Free Of 8.1 TB

Cheers, Ant 

[mdgm-ntgr · Accepted solution]

This is odd.

Although the disk is showing as spare for you in the web admin interface, the logs suggest it has completed syncing and is not marked as spare. Perhaps reboot the NAS and see if it is still showing as spare.

There are things that can go wrong such as accidental file deletion, other user error, multiple disk failures, fire, flood, theft. Since your data is important to you then you really should implement a backup strategy. If data is stored on just the one device then you don't have a backup.

[StephenB]

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@Ant2110 wrote:

 I am concerned that I am not protected as I cannnot have an 8,1Tb RAID5 if I only have 3 x 3Tb drives in it....

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That is a real concern - the volume is degraded, so it is not protected against any other failures.

Hopefully someone from netgear will ask to review the logs.

You could also try per-incident (paid) netgear support.

It would be a good idea to back up all your data.

[Ant2110]

Thanks for the reply. 

Do you think I should remove the "spare" disk and try reinserting it - hopefully building it into the RAID5 agian. 

I have no way of backing up the data that is on this NAS at the moment. 

[mdgm-ntgr]

So the data is of little importance? If your data is not important enough to backup then it's not important.

You could send in your logs if you like (see the Sending Logs link in my sig)

[Ant2110]

Yes its important data.  

I assumed that having a RAID5 system was giving me some resilience. 

I will send you the logs. Udeally i would like the new disk ro be built as part of the RAID5 as new disks have been in the past. 

[Ant2110]

Logs emailed. 

Thanks. 

[mdgm-ntgr · Accepted solution]

This is odd.

Although the disk is showing as spare for you in the web admin interface, the logs suggest it has completed syncing and is not marked as spare. Perhaps reboot the NAS and see if it is still showing as spare.

There are things that can go wrong such as accidental file deletion, other user error, multiple disk failures, fire, flood, theft. Since your data is important to you then you really should implement a backup strategy. If data is stored on just the one device then you don't have a backup.

[Ant2110]

Thanks for the advice. 

I rebooted the system and did a volume scan. It reported no errors and the drives are reporting correctly on the dashboard now.