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Possible to have two different size NAS drives

harshofdhm
Aspirant

Possible to have two different size NAS drives

Hello,

 

I recently purchased my ReadyNAS 212 system to replace multiple external hard drives I had for data backups. I initially had two 4TB drives in system, once I noticed I was running out of storage (lots of photos), I decided to order a 12TB drive.

 

Initial Config:

  • X-Raid: Enabled
  • 2x 4TB drives

I did hot swap of bay 2 to 12TB, waited for the Resync to complete, noticed the Free Space to be still at 4TB even though it showed both of my drives (4TB & 12TB).

 

Second Config:

  • X-Raid: Enabled
  • 1x 4TB (Bay 1)
  • 1x 12TB (Bay 2)

I then purchased another 12TB drive to see if having the same size drives will update the amount of Free Space I have available.

 

Third Config:

  • X-Raid: Enabled
  • 2x 12TB drives

Is there a for me to access the remaining space on the 12 TB hard drive? Attaching screenshot of me installing the new 12TB drive.

 

Firmware: 6.10.7

Model: RN21200|ReadyNAS 212 Series 2- Bay (Diskless)
Message 1 of 10

Accepted Solutions
StephenB
Guru

Re: Possible to have two different size NAS drives


@harshofdhm wrote:
My goal is if I have two 12TB in both bays then at least I get 12TB 

Not sure if your goal is to get 12 TB with RAID redundancy or 24 TB without RAID redundancy.

 

If you'd let 2x12 TB finish syncing, you would have had a 12 TB volume, and your data would have been on that volume.  

 

I also sketched out how to get 24 TB earlier.  You set up the system with one disk, and then switch to FlexRAID.  Then you can add the second disk, and set up a second 12 TB jbod volume.  Alternatively (though I don't recommend this), you could concatenate the two RAID groups onto a single volume.  Preserving your data is not possible (at least not from the Admin UI).  So you'd need to offload it before you begin.  One way to do that is to connect one of the two disks to a PC, temporarily format it, and copy the files from the NAS to that disk.  Then copy the files back to the NAS after you install the first 12 TB.

 

BTW, you don't use ReadyTier to set up the volumes - that has a different purpose. I suggest you read through chapter 2 of the software manual here: https://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/READYNAS-100/READYNAS_OS_6_SM_EN.pdf

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Message 7 of 10

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StephenB
Guru

Re: Possible to have two different size NAS drives

Your NAS is configured to use X-RAID - which for 2 bays is the same as RAID-1.  In that configuration, you get the space of whichever drive is smallest.

 

So 2x12 TB will give you a 12 TB (10.9 TiB) volume size.  But you need to wait for the resyncs to complete.  There are two steps - one is to resync the old 4 TB setup, the second is to expand to 12 TB (which requires a second resync).

 

Message 2 of 10
harshofdhm
Aspirant

Re: Possible to have two different size NAS drives

Thank you, @StephenB !

 

So I reverted back to 3TB and 4TB setup. As you can see in the new attached screenshot, X-Raid is turned off and resync finished too but my free space is still 3TB. I still can't expand or change Tiers. 

 

Message 3 of 10
StephenB
Guru

Re: Possible to have two different size NAS drives


@harshofdhm wrote:

 

So I reverted back to 3TB and 4TB setup. As you can see in the new attached screenshot, X-Raid is turned off and resync finished too but my free space is still 3TB. I still can't expand or change Tiers. 

 


RAID-1 volume size is still limited to the smaller of the two drives (whether in flexraid or xraid).  It's impossible to get redundancy otherwise.

 

If your goal is to maximize space, then IMO the best option to to set up 2 jbod volumes (one for each drive).

 

It is possible to set up a single 7 TB volume that spans both disks (with no redundancy).  The downside is that if either disk fails, you lose all the data in the volume.  With two volumes, you only lose the data on the disk that fails.

Message 4 of 10
Sandshark
Sensei

Re: Possible to have two different size NAS drives

So instead of waiting for the re-sync of the second 12TB drive to complete, after which you would have had 12TB of space, you decided to start over?  What is your goal here?

Message 5 of 10
harshofdhm
Aspirant

Re: Possible to have two different size NAS drives

My goal is if I have two 12TB in both bays then at least I get 12TB is not close to full 24TB. I want the data from my 3TB transferred over to them as well.
Message 6 of 10
StephenB
Guru

Re: Possible to have two different size NAS drives


@harshofdhm wrote:
My goal is if I have two 12TB in both bays then at least I get 12TB 

Not sure if your goal is to get 12 TB with RAID redundancy or 24 TB without RAID redundancy.

 

If you'd let 2x12 TB finish syncing, you would have had a 12 TB volume, and your data would have been on that volume.  

 

I also sketched out how to get 24 TB earlier.  You set up the system with one disk, and then switch to FlexRAID.  Then you can add the second disk, and set up a second 12 TB jbod volume.  Alternatively (though I don't recommend this), you could concatenate the two RAID groups onto a single volume.  Preserving your data is not possible (at least not from the Admin UI).  So you'd need to offload it before you begin.  One way to do that is to connect one of the two disks to a PC, temporarily format it, and copy the files from the NAS to that disk.  Then copy the files back to the NAS after you install the first 12 TB.

 

BTW, you don't use ReadyTier to set up the volumes - that has a different purpose. I suggest you read through chapter 2 of the software manual here: https://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/READYNAS-100/READYNAS_OS_6_SM_EN.pdf

Message 7 of 10
Sandshark
Sensei

Re: Possible to have two different size NAS drives


@harshofdhm wrote:
My goal is if I have two 12TB in both bays then at least I get 12TB is not close to full 24TB. I want the data from my 3TB transferred over to them as well.

"Having 12TB in both bays" doesn't really answer the question.  Do you want that to be in RAID, so you have 12TB total available but also data redundancy, or 24TB total with no redundancy?

Message 8 of 10
harshofdhm
Aspirant

Re: Possible to have two different size NAS drives

Goal is to get 12TB redundant. I was the data to be spread between the two drives, if one fails then I can just hot swap with new drive.  

Message 9 of 10
StephenB
Guru

Re: Possible to have two different size NAS drives


@harshofdhm wrote:

Goal is to get 12TB redundant. 


Put the NAS back into XRAID mode.  Check the XRAID control on the volume tab - it will have a green stripe if XRAID is already on  If it's not, then click on that control.

 

Then hot-swap the first 12 TB drive (NAS running), and wait for the resync to complete.

 

After that is finished, do the same with the second drive.  But this time, wait for the resync to fully complete.  Be patient, this will not be fast - it requires 24 TB of disk I/O.  Note there will be two resyncs - a 3 TB one for the existing data, and then a second 9 TB one for the new space.  Note you will end up with one volume though.

 

In both operations, the volume status will be reported as "degraded" when you first remove the old drive, and it will remain degraded until the resync(s) are done.

 

 

One thing to watch out for: You've already attempted this with both drives, so they are already formatted.  You might need to format them again to start the resync.  You do that by selecting the drive in the center graphic of the volume screen, and then clicking the format control on the right.  You can alternatively erase the drives, or unformat them manually (Windows disk manager can do this trick) before you insert them.

 

 

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