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Re: Expanding volume on 626 - Raid 5 to Raid 6 not automatic

NASguru
Apprentice

Expanding volume on 626 - Raid 5 to Raid 6 not automatic

A quick note, the RN626X is not listed in the Model drop down when starting a new converstation.  So I choose the 716X which is close enough.  That said, I recently expanded the volume on my 626 from 4x4TB to 6X4TB.  The existing volume was Raid 5, but I was expecting it to automatically migrate over to Raid 6 after adding the 6th drive.  However, this did not happen so I'm guessing it requires manual intervention and if true then I fear the existing volume may be destroyed in the process.  Can any confirm the process either way?

 

Before the upgrade:

 

before.JPG

 

After the upgrade:

 

after.JPG

Model: RN716X|ReadyNAS 716X Chassis
Message 1 of 10

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mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Expanding volume on 626 - Raid 5 to Raid 6 not automatic

You had to disable X-RAID and choose the next disk added to add parity, add that disk and then you could have re-enabled X-RAID again.

 

Now all the drive bays are full it's too late to convert the existing volume to RAID-6.

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Message 4 of 10

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mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Expanding volume on 626 - Raid 5 to Raid 6 not automatic

It won't migrate to RAID-6 unless you tell it to. So now destroying the volume would be necessary to switch to RAID-6.

Message 2 of 10
NASguru
Apprentice

Re: Expanding volume on 626 - Raid 5 to Raid 6 not automatic


@mdgm wrote:

It won't migrate to RAID-6 unless you tell it to. So now destroying the volume would be necessary to switch to RAID-6.


 

That's a bummer since it would have been nice to know this in advance.  I like the idea of having 2 redundant drives but not if I have to destroy the existing volume to achieve it.  Although, Raid-5 does provide more volume so I guess that's a positive.  Anyhow, what is the process to move from Raid-5 to Raid-6 should I want to do this in the future?  I don't see Raid-6 as an option when clicking on X-Raid button.  The only option is for Flex-Raid.  I suspect a factor reset would get it done and the option for Raid-6 would be present then?

Message 3 of 10
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Expanding volume on 626 - Raid 5 to Raid 6 not automatic

You had to disable X-RAID and choose the next disk added to add parity, add that disk and then you could have re-enabled X-RAID again.

 

Now all the drive bays are full it's too late to convert the existing volume to RAID-6.

Message 4 of 10
NASguru
Apprentice

Re: Expanding volume on 626 - Raid 5 to Raid 6 not automatic


@mdgm wrote:

You had to disable X-RAID and choose the next disk added to add parity, add that disk and then you could have re-enabled X-RAID again.

 

Now all the drive bays are full it's too late to convert the existing volume to RAID-6.


 

Ok, that wasn't clear when I added the 5th & 6th drives.  It may be spelled out in the manual and I probably should have read that before proceeding.  I actually took the 5th and 6th drives from my other NAS which resulted in the new NAS complaiing about the 3 volumes existing (these were created by my old NAS) on each drive.  I had to remove all 3 volumes on each disk before the NAS would even consider the disks for expanding it's existing Raid-5 volume.  In fact, it actually didn't enter the rsync/copy process on the 5th drive initially but began to work following a reboot.  The 6th drive immediately entered the rsync process after removing the 3 volumes.  

 

That said, how would I enable Raid-6 following a factory reset?  

 

Message 5 of 10
StephenB
Guru

Re: Expanding volume on 626 - Raid 5 to Raid 6 not automatic


@NASguru wrote:

 

That said, how would I enable Raid-6 following a factory reset?  

 


When you do the reset, the 626X begins building the XRAID volume.  What you do is switch to flexraid and destroy that volume (not letting the sync finish).  Then create a new RAID-6 volume, and finally switch back to XRAID.

Message 6 of 10
NASguru
Apprentice

Re: Expanding volume on 626 - Raid 5 to Raid 6 not automatic


@StephenB wrote:

@NASguru wrote:

 

That said, how would I enable Raid-6 following a factory reset?  

 


When you do the reset, the 626X begins building the XRAID volume.  What you do is switch to flexraid and destroy that volume (not letting the sync finish).  Then create a new RAID-6 volume, and finally switch back to XRAID.


 

I checked the software manual and it appears a factory reset would automatically select Raid-6 for me since I have all 6 bays filled.  From the manual:

 

When you power on your system for the first time or if you reset your system to its factory default settings, the optimal RAID mode and level are automatically selected for you based on the number of disks that are installed. You can also configure the RAID settings manually (see Change RAID Mode on page 25).

For systems with at least two disks and up to five disks, X-RAID reserves the capacity of one disk for data protection. (If there are six or more disks, the default format is RAID 6, which reserves two disks.) The actual space reserved for data protection is distributed across all disks.

 

Well, I should have automatically been presented with the option of using Raid-6 once I added the 5th disk.  The manual process of flipping between Flex and X-Raid to see that option is not intiutive.  Although, I wouldn't have ended up in this scenario if I just put all 6 drives into the new NAS from the start, but that was a seperate challenge.  I'm good with how it is for now and it looks like the only way to achieve Raid-6 is by a factory reset.  Just to confirm, could I upgrade disks 5 & 6 to larger drives and then get the option for Raid-6?  

 

 

Message 7 of 10
StephenB
Guru

Re: Expanding volume on 626 - Raid 5 to Raid 6 not automatic


@NASguru wrote:

I checked the software manual and it appears a factory reset would automatically select Raid-6 for me since I have all 6 bays filled.  From the manual:

 

When you power on your system for the first time or if you reset your system to its factory default settings, the optimal RAID mode and level are automatically selected for you based on the number of disks that are installed. You can also configure the RAID settings manually (see Change RAID Mode on page 25).

For systems with at least two disks and up to five disks, X-RAID reserves the capacity of one disk for data protection. (If there are six or more disks, the default format is RAID 6, which reserves two disks.) The actual space reserved for data protection is distributed across all disks.

 

I think staying with single redundancy with 6 disks is probably the right call (unless the user requests something different).  Either way, it is clear mismatch between the manual and the actual operation.


@NASguru wrote:

The manual process of flipping between Flex and X-Raid to see that option is not intiutive.  

  


Agreed.  

 

OS 4's ability to say "add the next disk for redundancy" is a bit better than what OS 6 does.

 

On the other hand, is you want dual redundancy from the beginning, OS 4 is much worse.  You have to start the reset, then choose the dual-redundancy mode within 10 minutes.  


@NASguru wrote:
Just to confirm, could I upgrade disks 5 & 6 to larger drives and then get the option for Raid-6?  

 


No.
 

Message 8 of 10
NASguru
Apprentice

Re: Expanding volume on 626 - Raid 5 to Raid 6 not automatic


@StephenB wrote:

@NASguru wrote:

I checked the software manual and it appears a factory reset would automatically select Raid-6 for me since I have all 6 bays filled.  From the manual:

 

When you power on your system for the first time or if you reset your system to its factory default settings, the optimal RAID mode and level are automatically selected for you based on the number of disks that are installed. You can also configure the RAID settings manually (see Change RAID Mode on page 25).

For systems with at least two disks and up to five disks, X-RAID reserves the capacity of one disk for data protection. (If there are six or more disks, the default format is RAID 6, which reserves two disks.) The actual space reserved for data protection is distributed across all disks.

 

I think staying with single redundancy with 6 disks is probably the right call (unless the user requests something different).  Either way, it is clear mismatch between the manual and the actual operation.


@NASguru wrote:

The manual process of flipping between Flex and X-Raid to see that option is not intiutive.  

  


Agreed.  

 

OS 4's ability to say "add the next disk for redundancy" is a bit better than what OS 6 does.

 

On the other hand, is you want dual redundancy from the beginning, OS 4 is much worse.  You have to start the reset, then choose the dual-redundancy mode within 10 minutes.  


@NASguru wrote:
Just to confirm, could I upgrade disks 5 & 6 to larger drives and then get the option for Raid-6?  

 


No.
 


 

Thanks for the confirmation!  Right, I'm fine with Raid-5 as I have enough back ups of my data in different locations that it reduces my conern of having more than one disk failure on the NAS.  The biggest pain in a failure is really restoring my data to the NAS which takes days when your into TBs of data.  

 

Message 9 of 10
StephenB
Guru

Re: Expanding volume on 626 - Raid 5 to Raid 6 not automatic


NASguru wrote: The biggest pain in a failure is really restoring my data to the NAS which takes days when your into TBs of data.  

 


That can take a while to be sure.

 

One benefit of 10GBaseT NAS is that they are a lot faster to restore.  526X->526X rsync moved about 8.5 TB for me in less than 12 hours (over 10 gbit).  I think the 626X would have done it even faster.

 

The volume build time is still a bottleneck though, especially if you are using larger disks.

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