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Re: Daisy Chain RN102

StephensHomes
Aspirant

Daisy Chain RN102

I am currently at 70% of my 2TB NAS102 (2-bay) and I was under the impression that I can daisy chain another NAS102 to my current system. Like to know before I invest in another unit with drives.

Message 1 of 11

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StephenB
Guru

Re: Daisy Chain RN102


@StephensHomes wrote:

I am currently at 70% of my 2TB NAS102 (2-bay) and I was under the impression that I can daisy chain another NAS102 to my current system. Like to know before I invest in another unit with drives.


No, you can't.  There's an expansion chassis for the x86 platforms, but that isn't available for you.

 

You can have 2 RN102 on the same network, but they'd be independent.    You can also get an RN104 (or any other OS6 NAS) and migrate your existing disks.

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Message 2 of 11

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StephenB
Guru

Re: Daisy Chain RN102


@StephensHomes wrote:

I am currently at 70% of my 2TB NAS102 (2-bay) and I was under the impression that I can daisy chain another NAS102 to my current system. Like to know before I invest in another unit with drives.


No, you can't.  There's an expansion chassis for the x86 platforms, but that isn't available for you.

 

You can have 2 RN102 on the same network, but they'd be independent.    You can also get an RN104 (or any other OS6 NAS) and migrate your existing disks.

Message 2 of 11
StephensHomes
Aspirant

Re: Daisy Chain RN102

OK, then a followup question: If I get two larger HDs, then replace them one at a time allowing the new drive to sync with the older. Is this a possibility?

Message 3 of 11
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Daisy Chain RN102

The volume will expand as a result of doing that (assuming you are using the default X-RAID).

Message 4 of 11
StephenB
Guru

Re: Daisy Chain RN102


@mdgm wrote:

The volume will expand as a result of doing that (assuming you are using the default X-RAID).


Yes (after the second disk is upgraded of course).

 

But the RN104 + one new drive might be cheaper for you.  And it would have one open slot for expansion later.  Perhaps price them both out and see which is better for you.

 

For instance, if you have 2x3TB WD30EFRX in your RN102 you can get to 6 TB two ways.

 

-RN104 with 3x3TB.  That would cost ~$330 total (today's amazon pricing)

RN104 chassis: $219.99

1 more WD30EFRX: $109.99

 

-RN102 with 2x6TB.  That would cost ~$500

2 WD60EFRX:  $249 each

Message 5 of 11
colinm
Aspirant

Re: Daisy Chain RN102

Hi

 

I have a slightly different but sort of related question.

 

I've got a RN102 with 4.5TB in total (1x 3TB and 1x1.5TB) in JBOD format which is a backup to my home theatre set up. However, my HTPC has died, leaving me with some spare disks.

 

I've just bought a RN104 which I'd like to migrate the RN102 disks into, along with the disks from my HTPC (2x 3TB drives).


Is there anyway of doing this migration non-destructively and moving to X-RAID in the process? I don't mind losing the data in either the RN102 disks or the HTPC disks as they are basically duplicates anyway, but I don't want to lose everything.

 

My ideal situation would be to have the RN104 with 10.5TB in total, with X-RAID bringing it down to 5.25TB usable storage with redundancy.

 

Message 6 of 11
StephenB
Guru

Re: Daisy Chain RN102

The raw disk capacity is 10.5 TB, and the xraid volume size would be 7.5 TB (~6.8 TiB )  The rule is sum the disks, and subract the largest.

 

At this point switching to xraid will require deleting some data.

 

 

For instance, destroying the 3 TB volume,so you only have a single 1.5 TB volume.  Then switch to xraid, and reinsert the 3 TB drive.  After sync, you still have a 1.5 TB volume.  Install one of the HTPC drives,  That will expand to a 4.5 TB volume. 

 

At this point you copy back the 3 TB you lost when you destoryed the 3 TB volume on the NAS. Presumably that is from the remaining HTPC drive.

 

After that, insert that drive into the NAS, and the volume expands to 7.5 TB.

Message 7 of 11
colinm
Aspirant

Re: Daisy Chain RN102

Brilliant, thanks so much for the advice - and really glad I can do it without having to buy some temporary backup disks!

 

Message 8 of 11
StephenB
Guru

Re: Daisy Chain RN102


@colinm wrote:

Brilliant, thanks so much for the advice - and really glad I can do it without having to buy some temporary backup disks!

 


As long as you are careful to make sure the last HTPC drive has all the files on the NAS 3 TB volume, you can get there.

 

Though the htpc and the NAS essentially backed each other up before.  After you consolidate, the NAS will have the only copy.

 

So you will need a backup solution (otherwise at some point down the road you will lose your media).  RAID is convenient - it allows expansion of storage, and keeps the media on-line through routine disk replacements.  But its not enough to keep the data safe.  To do that, you need a backup on a different device.

 

 

Message 9 of 11
colinm
Aspirant

Re: Daisy Chain RN102

Yes that's a good point and I'm planning to keep my RN102 in a different outbuilding as a backup, although will have to buy some new disks for that.

 

Just another thought - it's been a while since I set up my RN102 - does the NAS always want to format/initialise a disk when it is inserted? I can't insert a FAT32 or NTFS disk in it and expect it to work, can I?

 

Thanks for all the advice!

Message 10 of 11
StephenB
Guru

Re: Daisy Chain RN102


@colinm wrote:

does the NAS always want to format/initialise a disk when it is inserted? I can't insert a FAT32 or NTFS disk in it and expect it to work, can I?

 

 

The NAS will need to reformat the disk.  OS4 and OS5 did that automatically on insertion, but OS6 does not. If the disk is unformatted, OS6 will just add it to the array.  But if is formatted, you'll need to confirm that you want it added. 

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