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I'm planning to upgrade a fully working ReadyNAS Ultra 2 Plus to OS 6 (unsupported of course). As a first step (obviously after backing up) I'd like to move the entire X-RAID2 volume to a recently acquire Ultra 2 unit. (Firmwares of both are 4.2.31). I have some questions on this:
1) Should this result in a working system and can I expect the installed addons (e.g svn, mysql, php) + iscsi + ssh access to available too? Not sure whether this stuff is installed on the volume or flash.
2) Would it also be possible to just take out the spare disk and insert it into the Ultra 2 chassis to have a working system instantly? There is a blank disk available to make the volume redundant again
If OS6 installation succeeds I'll be gradually moving stuff back to the dual core system again. Thanks in advance for any advice.
1) It should work. The one caveat to that is SSH. Note that if you have never installed EnableRootSSH on the Ultra 2, you'll need to install that before SSH will work on RAIDiator-x86 4.2.31. If EnableRootSSH has already been installed on that unit at some point and SSH is enabled on the disks then SSH should work straight away when you move the disks across.
2) It's best to move all disks across. Power down, remove disks (label order). The Ultra 2 must have no disks in it when you move the disks across and be powered down. You may wish to recalibrate the fan under Status > Health.
The Ultra 2 has a slower CPU, which is the main difference between it and the Ultra 2 Plus.
1) It should work. The one caveat to that is SSH. Note that if you have never installed EnableRootSSH on the Ultra 2, you'll need to install that before SSH will work on RAIDiator-x86 4.2.31. If EnableRootSSH has already been installed on that unit at some point and SSH is enabled on the disks then SSH should work straight away when you move the disks across.
2) It's best to move all disks across. Power down, remove disks (label order). The Ultra 2 must have no disks in it when you move the disks across and be powered down. You may wish to recalibrate the fan under Status > Health.
The Ultra 2 has a slower CPU, which is the main difference between it and the Ultra 2 Plus.
2) It's best to move all disks across. Power down, remove disks (label order). The Ultra 2 must have no disks in it when you move the disks across and be powered down. You may wish to recalibrate the fan under Status > Health.
Agreed. The OS conversion process reformats the disks anyway.
I recommend upgrading the Ultra Plus to at least 2 GB of RAM prior to conversion.
The migration to the Ultra 2 worked perfectly. I was a bit hesitant some parts of the config (e.g. network settings) would not be transferred, but it turned out it was essentially a chassis exchange. Turned all clients off, powered down the nas, moved the volume, powered up the Ultra 2, turn clients on again. Only a few minutes downtime.
@StephenBThanks for the tip on memory upgrade. I understand that 2GB is max for Ultra 2 Plus as there's only a single slot.
As I'd like to use the original disk set in the resulting OS 6 system the next step would be to pull out Disk 2 from the migrated volume and instantly replace with an empty disk to restore redundancy. How will the system handle this best, from a live system or turned off?
As I'd like to use the original disk set in the resulting OS 6 system the next step would be to pull out Disk 2 from the migrated volume and instantly replace with an empty disk to restore redundancy. How will the system handle this best, from a live system or turned off?
I always recommend doing disk replacements with the NAS turned on. Then it recognizes both the removal and the insertion.
2GB is not the max on an Ultra2. Ignore whatever the specs say -- they are based on the largest drives available at the time of release and a very old version of the OS. Having only a single-core CPU, there may be a practical limit before it's operation is too sluggish, but you should be able to use drives up to the largest currently available. Switching to OS6 won't make any real difference in this area with a 2-bay unit, but still offers you a lot of improvements if you intend to continue using the NAS as a primary device.
While the specs for the processor seem to indicate that's the max because the unit has but one RAM slot, the same is true of the Pro2 (same except architecture a dual-core processor) and some have found 4GB works in it. But 2GB should really be sufficient and the right kind of 4GB stick is rather expensive.
Thanks for all the advice. The new system is up and running a few weeks now with on OS6 6.10.7 and 2GB of RAM. Works like a charm. Nice new interface, more up-to-date packages and snapshot support. Hope this little fellow will last a few more years...
