How to import an EDA500 volume when you were unable to export it on the old NAS, step by step
The post that got this on my list of experiments is closed, so here is a new one.
So, I've been running some experiments again, this time on how to move an intact EDA500 volume to another NAS, or have it properly import to the same NAS when the main volume has had to be re-created via a factory default and the EDA volume was not Exported before that happened.
Note that this procedure requires that your NAS have at least as many drive bays as the drives in your EDA500 volume and, of course, that the new NAS supports the EDA500.. So, if that's not the case for you, you can stop right here.
If you have to move your EDA500 to a new NAS, first see if you can move the old primary volume there by installing the drives from the old NAS. If your NAS broke, that may have damaged the volume. But in most cases, all will be well and your new NAS will also accept the EDA500 volume. If you are moving between CPU families (Intel vs. ARM), see below about updating the chassis OS version. But in this case, you need to do it with a spare drive (on which all data will be wiped) befoe inserting the old volume.
The problem with EDA500 migration comes in when there is a new main volume because the EDA500 identifies itself as belonging to another NAS. A factory default resets the UUID, so it's "a different NAS" to the GUI (at least, I think it's the UUID that matters). Volume EXPORT does something (wish I knew what) that allows it to be imported by another NAS at power-on. So, you need a way to do the EXPORT from "the old NAS", but it's broken or re-designated by factory default.
Instead of this procedure, you can get by the non-exported volume issue by mounting the volume via SSH, but you can't make the shares (aka subvolumes) appear in the GUI (at least, I've not figured out how, and I've tried a lot of things). If your only need is to backup data, mount via SSH can be your best choice, and it's not covered here.
But if you already have a backup and you just want to avoid the need to re-create the EDA500 volume, then restore the files, this is your ticket. Given how long it takes to sync an EDA500 RAID, it can be quite a time saver. Note that if you choose to do this without an existing backup, and everything goes sideways, I take no responsibility. The assumption is that, worst case, you can re-create the volume, then restore from backup. If you don't have a backup and aren't comfortable mounting the volume via SSH and doing the backup before doing this procedure, you are probably best off getting Netgear paid support. I assume they can do what I've not figured out to import your EDA500 on a new NAS without the process below. But if not, they can mount it for you to make the backup.
The thing that makes this work is that ReadyNASOS keeps a copy of the OS partition on all the drives, including the identification information (assumed to be UUID). If you have more than one EDA500, that may not be true. But my second one at least has a copy on drive 1, so I expect that's always the case. And that's enough.
You start with a new main volume created in the (new) NAS. Note that if the new NAS is of a different CPU type (Intel vs. ARM) than the old one, you should use this opportunity to insure the OS in the new chassis is at the same or newer version than your old one. Your new volume and all the shares on it should not share any names with those of the EDA500. Next, remove the drives, marking their bay number for later re-insertion.
Now, put just the drives from your EDA500 into the main chassis and boot. It'll boot identifying itself as your old NAS with the data (or other main) partition shown as bad. I did a DESTROY of that bad main volume, but it's likely not required. The big thing is that you can now EXPORT the EDA500 volume, making it properly import to your new NAS set-up. So, do just that..
Once you EXPORT, power down, re-install the EDA500 drives in the EDA and the main volume drives in the NAS, and boot. Magic! Your EDA500 volume is there and intact.
If it didn't work and XRAID is turned on, try turning it off and re-booting. I realized after the fact that I had it disabled, but previous experiments showed an import to be possible with it enabled (so long as you are importing a single-volume EDA500, not another volume in the same chassis or a multi-volume EDA500), so I don't think it matters.
I tried booting my RN516 with the drives still in the EDA and none in the main chassis. While it clearly located the drives and started to boot, it never completed. Thats a shame, or this process would even work with a 2-bay NAS and 5-disk EDA500 volume.
If you have a 4-bay NAS and a 5-drive EDA RAID5 or better volume, you could put just 4 of the 5 drives in the main chassis and boot with a degradedd volume. Then follow the rest of the procedure with just the 4 drives and finally re-add the 5th and re-sync the RAID. There are more things that can go wrong with this, so I didn't include the exception above. if you've read this far and this applies to you, maybe you are willing to chance it. Given how slow it is to re-sync an EDA500 volume, it's up to you. Adding the last one back is going to take about the same time as re-creating the whole EDA volume.
If you are moving from a small NAS to one with more bays than the EDA500 volume, you can leave enough unused bays when creating the main volume, then do the import of the EDA volume with the drives added to the main chassis. In this case, XRAID must be turned off.
This process should also work for a second (or third, etc.) volume from the main NAS chassis when the primary is corrupt beyond repair, but I've not tried it. Just make sure XRAID is off (as it had to be when you had multiple volumes on the old NAS).
Note that, even though this process has solved the main problem of getting to the data with another NAS, an EDA500 is still not the best solution for backup. With the EDA500 discontinued, many new NAS do not support it. And USB backup can be made accessible to your PC, not just another ReadyNAS.
Re: How to import an EDA500 volume when you were unable to export it on the old NAS, step by step
A "gotcha" I discovered: If your EDA volume has been expanded, and thus consists of two RAID "layers", it may not be properly recognized when you put it in the main chassis. I was able to re-construct the volume via SSH before exporting, and it worked, but not all are capable of doing that.
