Allright! New guy here who just bought his first NAS (RND2000). Currently, I've got all my files spread across four different external USB-drives, understandably this isn't particularly efficient. I got a good offer on a RND2000 NAS so I thought I might go the NAS route and instead use the USB-drives as secondary backups and so on. However, since I'm new to NAS I might need some guidance on the proper setup procedure.
What I want from the NAS:
1) The disks to behave as seperate volumes (I have no need for any RAID functionality). 2) Have Disk 2 be the backup of Disk 1.
What I have done so far:
1) Attached each harddrive to the trays and inserted them into the NAS. 2) Installed the RAIDar Software.
From what I can gather, getting the disks to behave as separate volumes isn't straight forward:
1) Connect the NAS to the network and power on the device. 2) Perform a factory default to reset the NAS (Reset-button on the back of the NAS). 3) During the first ten minutes use RAIDar and change the settings from X-RAID to Flex-RAID (Setup->Mode). 4) Delete the RAID 1 Volume (Frontview > Volumes > Volume Settings). 5) Create two separate RAID 0 volumes, one for each disk (Frontview > Volumes > Volume Settings).
Does this setup procedure sound about right to you guys?
EDIT:
I've powered the NAS and launced RAIDar. Can't click on either Setup or Browse-buttons on first-time startup. It's currently syncing disk 2. Do I have to wait until this is done and then follow the above procedure (if it's right...) ?
Re: New to NAS: Initial setup of a ReadyNAS DUO 2000
No luck. I perform a shutdown, hold in the reset button while pressing the powerbutton, wait a minute or so and then start RAIDar. Still, the 'Setup'- button only becomes visible after the 'Info'- field shows the version number, not while it says 'Booting'. Hmm... what am I doing wrong?
Re: New to NAS: Initial setup of a ReadyNAS DUO 2000
Some progress. After much tinkering, I've been able to create Volumes C and D as RAID 0. In order to use the volumes I assume one must create a share on each volume? Before that however, when I attempt to view the volume via "Volumes->Volume Settings->Volume C or D" this error message pops up:
Error in evaluating table display raidvol [Exception... "Index or size is negative or greater than the allowed amount" code: "1" nsresult: "0x80530001 (NS_ERROR_DOM_INDEX_SIZE_ERR)" location: "https://192.168.1.3/js/dialog.js Line: 3182"]
I have no idea as to what that actually means or what i should do about it before I proceed any further.
Re: New to NAS: Initial setup of a ReadyNAS DUO 2000
xm8 wrote:
What I want from the NAS:
1) The disks to behave as seperate volumes (I have no need for any RAID functionality). 2) Have Disk 2 be the backup of Disk 1.
That's not really different from X-Raid or even Raid1. The true purpose of a real backup is to provide another source/device for your data. If your primary is volume C: in the Duo and your backup is volume 😧 (the other drive), what happens if something happens to the Duo (fire, theft, storm, accident)?.
In fact, your plan can be more effort than the default X-Raid. If you lose either drive during X-Raid, upon hot adding the replacement drive, the system will resync the two drives automatically. If you have two Raid0 volumes, one a manual backup of the other, and you lose one drive, then after you go through the effort of re-establishing the second volume again, you must then manually perform the backup again.
If you use X-Raid, when you create, save, modify a file, the second drive has the same exact information at the same time (2 drive array is mirrored).
I would continue with the X-Raid installation and copy the data from the USB external drives. I am assuming they are all smaller that the drives you are installing in the Duo (you have not given drive specs). You could then use the USB drives to back up the volume on the Duo, and they would be true backups as the data would then be on a separate device, not just a separate drive.
