How to increase RAID 1 volume capacity? [RESOLVED]

[f_at_lo]

If have been trying to confirm the procedure on how to increase the disk capacity of a RAID 1 pair in a ReadyNAS NV+ running Radiator 4.1.8.

The situation:
(1) I have a ReadyNAS NV+ running Radiator 4.1.8. with a RAID 1 pair in slots 1 and 2 and another RAID 1 pair in slots 3 and 4.
(2) disk usage of the RAID pair in slots 3 and 4 is now approaching capacity.

My questions is: what would be the easiest way to increase the disk capacity?

While looking through the forum, I found information which leads me to the following working hypothesis:

(-) get two larger disks. Check the hardware compatibility list (http://www.readynas.com/?cat=37)!
(0) make a Backup of the affected RAID volume to an independend storage location
(1) shutdown NAS
(2) pull one of the disks, i.e. from slot 4 and replace with new disk with larger capacity.
(3) start NAS and let the old disk in slot 3 resync the RAID volume with the new disk in slot 4
(4) note that disk capacity of the new RAID1 pair will still be low as the disk in slot 3 is still a "small" one
(5) shutdown NAS
(6) pull the other old disks, i.e. from slot 3 and replace with new disk with larger capacity.
(7) start NAS and let the first new disk in slot 4 resync the RAID volume with the second new disk in slot 3
(8) enjoy the increased capacity as both disks of the RAID 1 volume have now a larger capacity.

Can anybody confirm the above approach?

The other (hard way) would probably be:
(0) make Backup of both RAID 1 volumes (i.e. for all four disks)
(1) shutdown NAS
(2) pull disks 3 and 4
(3) replace with disks of larger capacity
(4) perform "30s factory reset" to wipe all content from the disks and create a clean slate
(5) restore all your settings (esp. the two RAID 1 volumes, share names, backup jobs, ...)
(6) restore data for both RAID shares to the newly restored RAID 1 volumes

I truely hope the first apprach works and I can make the RAID controler do the work.
Restoring disks and NAS settings which are not really affected by the capacity pinch of my RAID 1 pair in slots 3 and 4 by the second approach would be a real hassle 😐

Many thanks for your feedback and support!

Olaf

[mdgm-ntgr]

You can either backup the data on the two disks, delete the RAID-1 volume on the disks you choose to remove, then remove those disks and add two new ones, then create a new RAID-1 volume on the new disks;

or you can do the "hard way" you suggest.

Only X-RAID volumes are expandable on the NV+ v1.

[f_at_lo]

Thank you very much for your quick reply.

I don't think there there is a reason to do it the hard way for the complete setup.
As the procedure you describe needs to be performed on the "affected" disks only, it seems to be the way to go.

Olaf

P.S. (added on 9.1.2012): this still needs to be tested. If you look at viewtopic.php?f=66&t=60080, it seems not to be 100% straight forward to remove disks and to insert new ones in the same slot.

[f_at_lo]

This is how it worked for me to replace a 500GB RAID 1 pair in slots 3 and 4 with a 2TB RAID 1 pair in a NV+:

(1) did a backup of the 500GB disks and verified that the backup is good
(2) deleted the shares on the 500GB RAID 1 pair
(3) used Frontpanel/Volume menu to (virtuelly) remove one disk from the 500GB RAID 1 pair. I do not know if this step is really necessary. After this step, one disk appeared as available for use as a hot-swap
(4) deleted the volume(s) on the remaining 500GB disk => the "add volume"/"Laufwerk hinzufügen" tap appeared and offered the two 500GB disks in slots 3 and 4 as disks which are available to create a new volume.
(5) shut down the NV+
(6) physically remove the 500GB disks in slots 3+4
(7) insert the new 2TB disks in slots 3+4
(8) used Frontpanel/Volume menu to create a new RAID 1 volume on the 2TB disks
(9) restarted NV+ to create volume and synchronize disks
(10) recreated shares on the new volume
(11) restored contents of the recreated shares from the backup

[WelNas]

Just because I am a nervous chap:

Does this mean that my intended procedure of:
1 - Installing two fresh 2TB disks as a RAID1 volume,
2 - Sending over all the goodies from the other volume I have elsewhere, and then
3 - Installing two now empty and semi-fresh 1TB disks as a second RAID1 volume,
will work?

[StephenB]

WelNas wrote:
Just because I am a nervous chap: Does this mean that my intended procedure of: 1 - Installing two fresh 2TB disks as a RAID1 volume, 2 - Sending over all the goodies from the other volume I have elsewhere, and then 3 - Installing two now empty and semi-fresh 1TB disks as a second RAID1 volume, will work?

Are you using Flex-Raid now? Also, is the other volume on the same NAS?

-If the answers are yes, you can create a new volume with the new drives, and the existing volume is untouched. You can them move folders around as you wish - but there is no need to reinstall the existing drives.

-if the existing volume is on a different NAS or PC, then your procedure will work.

-If you are using xraid now, then you will need to factory default in order to switch to flexraid, which will wipe your existing data. So you would first make a backup, and then follow your procedure (copying from the backup in your step 2).

If you are re-purposing old drives, it is a good idea to delete the existing partitions (on your PC) before installing them on the NAS. It should work w/o that, but sometimes you will see a corrupt file system error if you don't.

[WelNas]

The ReadyNAS NV+ is fresh from the box, as well as the two 2TB drives. It is currently doing "something" out in the back room, so I assume it is running FlexRAID. There is no data yet, so the factory reset is no problem.
The existing volume is on my desktop computer (I decided to move it after a virus on my laptop woke me from all-is-safe-land) and is currently on a no-name controller (so I'll be glad to get rid of that).

Gonna break out the paperclip then ^^

[StephenB]

WelNas wrote:

The ReadyNAS NV+ is fresh from the box, as well as the two 2TB drives. It is currently doing "something" out in the back room, so I assume it is running FlexRAID. There is no data yet, so the factory reset is no problem. The existing volume is on my desktop computer (I decided to move it after a virus on my laptop woke me from all-is-safe-land) and is currently on a no-name controller (so I'll be glad to get rid of that). Gonna break out the paperclip then ^^

If you are doing the normal install, the NAS is installing xraid. The way to get flexraid is to restart the factory default process. You have 10 minutes to override the xraid choice with RAIDar (at least that is the way the v1 works, I believe the v2 is the same in that respect).

The labeling is confusing, many people here purchased a v1, but thought they had a v2. If you aren't sure what you have, look at the firmware version before you factory default again. If it is 5.x.x you have v2, otherwise you have a v1.

[WelNas]

I knew before I ordered it that it was v1, and the first time around I installed it as normal. Right now it is resyncing the first RAID1 volume, I think I'll let it finish before I start transferring data. No telling when I'll get the other volume in.
Thanks for the help =P