How would you move data from ReadyNAS to ReadyNAS??
So I have a ReadyNAS Ultra 6 with 6x2TB drives. I was getting low on space and was planning on buying new, bigger HD's and replacing them one by one.
However, I ended up just buying another used Ultra 6 with no drives and populating it with (6) new HGST MegaScale 4TB drives (was finding good Ultra 6's on Ebay for like $110!).
Sow now I have my original Ultra 6 with 6x2TB drives (4GB RAM) and I also have the "new" Ultra 6 with 6x4TB drives (2GB RAM).
Now I need to figure out the best way to copy my data over (after I have it copied over, I will set up some sort of selective sync to have another copy available if needed). I can obviously just copy the 8TB of data from NAS to NAS over my gigabit network using a Frontivew backup job via NFS. But then I thought that maybe I'd be better off coping the data to a 8TB drive that I have in an external USB encloseure - and then connecting the drive to the new NAS and copying the data from the external USB drive. I'm just thinking that it would save a LOT of wear-and-tear on the NIC's - and really not take much longer. Or should I not worry about wear and tear on the ReadyNAS NICs? The external 8TB drive is just an "extra" drive that I use for various tasks.
Thoughts?
EDIT: By the way - I got the Ultra 6 for $135 shipped and got 6 brand new 4TB drives ( NOT "Renewed") for $381 (including tax and shipping). So I got a 6-slot NAS with 24TB of space (brand new drives) for $516!! Can't beat it... 🙂
EDIT: By the way - I got the Ultra 6 for $135 shipped and got 6 brand new 4TB drives ( NOT "Renewed") for $381 (including tax and shipping). So I got a 6-slot NAS with 24TB of space (brand new drives) for $516!! Can't beat it... 🙂
Good pricing. But 20 TB of capacity if you are using RAID-5/single redundancy XRAID. Note it won't be expandable if you use XRAID, bcause with 4.2 firmware doesn't support expansion over 16 TiB.
FWIW, Ultras can be converted to run OS-6, though I do recommend upgrading the RAM to at least 2 GB if you want to do that. That requires a factory reset, so it is best to do it now.
Now I need to figure out the best way to copy my data over (after I have it copied over, I will set up some sort of selective sync to have another copy available if needed). I can obviously just copy the 8TB of data from NAS to NAS over my gigabit network using a Frontivew backup job via NFS. But then I thought that maybe I'd be better off coping the data to a 8TB drive that I have in an external USB encloseure - and then connecting the drive to the new NAS and copying the data from the external USB drive. I'm just thinking that it would save a LOT of wear-and-tear on the NIC's - and really not take much longer. Or should I not worry about wear and tear on the ReadyNAS NICs?
NICs don't wear out - no mechanical parts - so that is not a concern.
The fastest way to transfer the files is over your gigabit connection. Ultras are limited to USB-2 speeds.
Re: How would you move data from ReadyNAS to ReadyNAS??
Thanks for the repsonse.
I have already upgraded the RAM to 2GB (recently upgraded the RAM in the original Ultra 6 to 4GB, so I took the 1GB of RAM I took out of the original Ultra 6 and added it to the new Ultra 6). So I have 4GB in the original and 2GB in the "new" one right now. Will probably swap the RAM once the "new" one becomes the "primary" one. 🙂
Both are running 6.10.4 Hotfix 1.
Regarding the data transfer - yes, I completely understand that NIC's don't "wear out" in a physical sense (obviously), but surely using the NIC so heavily for days at a time is more "taxing" on the NIC hardware than an idle NIC, isn't it (I'm assuming the components heat up more, etc)? I mean NIC's still fail even though they are not mechanical devices. Is a heavily-loaded NIC no more likely to fail than a completely idle NIC? I honeslty don't know, which is why I asked the question. I assumed a heavily-used NIC would be more likely to fail than an idle NIC, but maybe that is completely false? I mean that thing will be going full-throttle for quite a while for ~8TB of data.
Since the NIC's are items that aren't easily "replaceable" in these devices - I'd rather limit the chances of a NIC failure, if possible. If using an external USB drive to trasnfer the data lessens the risk of a NIC failure, I'd prefer that. If there is virtually no reliability difference between a heavily used NIC and an idle NIC, then I'll just go ahead and use the network. Transfer speed is not a priority in this case.
Re: How would you move data from ReadyNAS to ReadyNAS??
Ethenet is differential. That is, one side is driven high and the other low. So even at rest, it's pumping current on one wire of each pair and sinking it on the other. In other words, if it's going to overheat and eventually fail due to it, it doesn't require any traffic to do so. There are also two ports that are pretty much independent, and you only need one, so you can switch ports if one quits. If that somehow concerns you, that is what a "green" switch reduces to lower overall power.
I have never seen or heard of a legacy NAS with a NIC failure that was not induced by something external like a nearby lightning strike or allowing the unit to get too hot. The NIC is powered when the unit is "off" except via the rear switch or unplugging, and some don't realize they can't let it get too hot when it's "off". There were some more recent NAS (202's I think) that must have had a bad batch of tranceivers, as there were a lot of overheat issues, but that was early in life, in normal use, and fixed under warranty if reported.
Rsync jobs are best for periodic backup between NAS, though the initial transfer can take a bit longer than other methods. But if you plan to set up periodic jobs, it would be a good test to set them up and use them for the initial transfer.
That is a good price on the Ultra6. I figure their value without caddies (so as a replacement to a broken one) to be around $150 and the caddies go for $25 - $35 each. I've bought some "as-is" ReadyNAS for just the price of the caddies and/or drives they contain, though I was able to get many running. But they are getting harder to find, propbably because replacement OS6 units are in scarce supply.
Re: How would you move data from ReadyNAS to ReadyNAS??
Great information on NIC's! Thank you vey much. I never realized that NIC's operate like that and that the amount of "activity" doesn't impact the longevity/reliability of a NIC at all. That is great to know. Now I will start my data transfer and just not worry about it.
Yeah, I couldn't believe how cheap these Ultra 6's were on Ebay - all very clean and loaded with (6) original disk trays. I saw that people are asking $30+ for the empty trays by themselves! So I snagged one up since I feel a lot more comfortable just copying the data to another unit vs. replacing single drives one at a time with larger drives in order to upgrade the capacity, like I was originally going to do. For the price of the used Ultra 6 and (6) brand new 4TB drives, it's a no-brainer, IMO. I love these Ultra 6 devices - especially when you can find them dirt cheap in the used market. 🙂
Both of my Ultra 6's are running OS6. That is the very first thing that I did to each of them when I bought them. Also upgraded RAM once I saw that large file copies would crash the system with only 1GB of RAM on OS6. 🙂 Even the RAM for them is dirt cheap. Plus they use pretty standard power supplies, which is nice (had to replace the power supply in my original Ultra 6 once already).
Thanks to everyone for their input - I appreciate it!
Re: How would you move data from ReadyNAS to ReadyNAS??
Used just for storage, the Ultra6 running OS6 is a fine system. It's a bit underpowered to run some apps, though, and probably will slow if there are a lot of concurrent users.
You probably already know this, but besides the advantages of having a more up to date OS, running OS6 on a legacy NAS also means that if the NAS ever dies, you don't have to look for an older replacement. Any current OS6 system with sufficient bays can accept your volume as-is. Of course, at that price, another legacy system might still be a good choice.
