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Re: How to change the RAID 5 to RAID 6

How to change the RAID 5 to RAID 6

How to go from raid 5 to raid 6 on that device?

 

Thanks

Model: RN31600|ReadyNAS 300 Series 6- Bay (Diskless)
Message 1 of 8
StephenB
Guru

Re: How to change the RAID 5 to RAID 6


@aalexandrebeta wrote:

How to go from raid 5 to raid 6 on that device?

 

Thanks


How many disks are installed now?  Also what sizes are the disks?

Message 2 of 8

Re: How to change the RAID 5 to RAID 6

Well there will be on the first place 4 HDD on raid 5 and want to upgrade to Raid 6 with 5 HDD with a brand new RN428. And use my old RN316 as a back up unit with a 4HDD Raid 5 unit.

 

The target is to be able upgrade the capacity just adding HDD not replacing the entire array.

 

This summer all systems will enter an hibernation mode due to heat and a lack of AC, so will be back on business end of august.

 

I am no in a hurry just want a way to configure my future unit properly and with efficient way.

 

Regards.

Message 3 of 8
StephenB
Guru

Re: How to change the RAID 5 to RAID 6


@aalexandrebeta wrote:

Well there will be on the first place 4 HDD on raid 5 and want to upgrade to Raid 6 with 5 HDD with a brand new RN428. And use my old RN316 as a back up unit with a 4HDD Raid 5 unit.

 


This is a case where the details do matter.

 

If you have 4 HDDs of the same size, then you can switch to flexraid and add the 5th disk for redundancy.  You should then be able to switch back to XRAID.

Message 4 of 8
Sandshark
Sensei

Re: How to change the RAID 5 to RAID 6


@aalexandrebeta wrote:

 

The target is to be able upgrade the capacity just adding HDD not replacing the entire array.

 

Which could be complicated by switching to RAID6.  As @StephenB said, the details matter, which is why he asked about number and size of the existing and new drives.  It is also important to know if you already have a vertically expanded array (if you upgraded the drive size at any point).  Because if you do, you won't be able to switch back to XRAID after switching to FlexRAID for the RAID6 conversion, ewven if something else keeps you from making that conversion..

 

You also don't need to switch to RAID6 now to retain that expansion capability.  The NAS will automatically switch to RAID6 on either the 6th or 7th drive added once your array is in the 428 (I'm not sure, I don't have a >6 bay desktop model) as long as the drive sizes are capable of becoming a RAID6 array.

Message 5 of 8

Re: How to change the RAID 5 to RAID 6

Today I have A RN316 with 3 RAID 1 Arrays (don't judge it was an idiotic solution) to be reshuffled as a Raid 5 4HDD to be considered as a backup when my future RN428 will be configured.

 

So my future device will have 5HDD Raid 6 to be expandable when adding an HDD.

 

If you have any suggestion for that tuning shoot!!

Message 6 of 8
StephenB
Guru

Re: How to change the RAID 5 to RAID 6


@aalexandrebeta wrote:

Today I have A RN316 with 3 RAID 1 Arrays (don't judge it was an idiotic solution) to be reshuffled as a Raid 5 4HDD to be considered as a backup when my future RN428 will be configured.

 

So my future device will have 5HDD Raid 6 to be expandable when adding an HDD.

 

If you have any suggestion for that tuning shoot!!


A three RAID-1 array setup has a lot of overhead, but I don't think it's idiotic.  It offers good performance, and is easier to recover data from than other setups.

 

One aspect here I am assuming that all the disks are the same size.

 

The fastest approach is probably to backup all the files on all three arrays first, and then do a factory default with all six disks in place.  Once the NAS comes up, you switch to flexraid, and destroy the volume.  No need to wait for the array to build.  You can then create a RAID-6 array.  You can reconfigure the NAS while it is building, but it will be fastest to wait for the rebuilding to complete before you restore the data.

 

You can proceed stepwise - note you really should make a backup of all the files before you begin here.  This will take longer, but at most of the data will be available during the process.

 

Let's call the arrays A, B, and C.

 

As noted, you start by making a full backup.  At the very least, you have to back up Array B.

 

After backup, destroy Array B, and use it's disks to expand Array A to a 4 TB RAID-5 array.  Then restore the files from the backup to the new Array A. 

 

You should now have enough space to copy the shares on Array C to Array A (either from backup or from Array C itself).  You can repeat the process you used for B.

 

Alternatively you can just rename the shares on C, and create shares on A with the original name.  Then use ReadyNAS backup jobs to copy the files from C to A. 

 

You can then destroy Array C, and add one of it's disks to the Array A for expanion, and the second for redundancy. 

Message 7 of 8

Re: How to change the RAID 5 to RAID 6

I'll do it thanks.

Message 8 of 8
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