Re: Putting 2x4TB in with 2x4TB on RAID 1

Zippyduda · ‎2021-05-20

Hi there.

I have a ReadyNAS104 with 2 x 4TB disks in RAID 1 currently. I've purchased 2 more 4TB disks (same 7200rpm) and would like to know if I need to put 1 new disk in at a time or if I can just place both the new disks in, and should I be doing this whilst it is off or on?

Additionally can I just stick to RAID 1 or would I be better off putting the disks into RAID 10 along with the new disks, and if so how do I go about doing that if possible?

Doing some research I found these but wanted to be sure:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Using-your-ReadyNAS-in-Business/ReadyNAS-104-in-X-RAID-mode-does-no...
https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1011056-add-disks-to-readynas-that-already-has-2-disks-in-rai...

Never done this before so want to be sure of what I'm doing 🙂

Thanks and kind regards, Zippy

StephenB · ‎2021-05-20

@Zippyduda wrote:

I have a ReadyNAS104 with 2 x 4TB disks in RAID 1 currently. I've purchased 2 more 4TB disks (same 7200rpm) and would like to know if I need to put 1 new disk in at a time or if I can just place both the new disks in, and should I be doing this whilst it is off or on?

Additionally can I just stick to RAID 1 or would I be better off putting the disks into RAID 10 along with the new disks, and if so how do I go about doing that if possible?

You could of course just use XRAID. That would give you RAID-5, with a 12 TB (~10.9 TiB) volume with single redundancy. You'd just add the first new disk (hot inserting it), wait for the resync to complete, and then add the second new disk. Personally that's what I'd go with. Best practice is to back up your data before you begin, as if you have a disk failure during expansion you can lose your data.

If for some reason you want two RAID-1 volumes instead, then you first switch to flexraid. Go to the volume tab in the web ui. If you see a green stripe on the XRAID control then you are using XRAID. Click on the control, and it should switch to flexraid. Then hot-insert the two disks, select them in the center graphic, and create a second RAID-1 volume.

You can't get directly to RAID-10 unless you do a factory default - which would require you to set up the NAS again, and restore all your data from backup. I wouldn't go with RAID-10 myself - there isn't much performance benefit with an RN104, so I don't really see the point of it.

View solution in original post

StephenB · ‎2021-05-20

@Zippyduda wrote:

I have a ReadyNAS104 with 2 x 4TB disks in RAID 1 currently. I've purchased 2 more 4TB disks (same 7200rpm) and would like to know if I need to put 1 new disk in at a time or if I can just place both the new disks in, and should I be doing this whilst it is off or on?

Additionally can I just stick to RAID 1 or would I be better off putting the disks into RAID 10 along with the new disks, and if so how do I go about doing that if possible?

You could of course just use XRAID. That would give you RAID-5, with a 12 TB (~10.9 TiB) volume with single redundancy. You'd just add the first new disk (hot inserting it), wait for the resync to complete, and then add the second new disk. Personally that's what I'd go with. Best practice is to back up your data before you begin, as if you have a disk failure during expansion you can lose your data.

If for some reason you want two RAID-1 volumes instead, then you first switch to flexraid. Go to the volume tab in the web ui. If you see a green stripe on the XRAID control then you are using XRAID. Click on the control, and it should switch to flexraid. Then hot-insert the two disks, select them in the center graphic, and create a second RAID-1 volume.

You can't get directly to RAID-10 unless you do a factory default - which would require you to set up the NAS again, and restore all your data from backup. I wouldn't go with RAID-10 myself - there isn't much performance benefit with an RN104, so I don't really see the point of it.

Zippyduda · ‎2021-05-21

Thanks Stephen, much appreciated 🙂

Unfortunately last night I updated the NAS from 6.10.4 to 6.10.5 and now the admin web interface keeps kicking me out whenever I log in. I'm trying to setup an Amazon S3 bucket (using Backblaze B2) to backup my data first before putting new disks in. Anything I can do about this? Had a look around and there didn't seem to be a fix other than wipe the NAS OS which isn't an option for me. I can still access via SSH but the admin web interface was fine before I upgraded.

Is there anywhere where I can see known issues (other than the release notes) or that I can report this issue to Netgear?

Zippyduda · ‎2021-05-21

Have managed to fix my Amazon S3 bucket access issue from https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047425453

"Note: If an Application Key is restricted to a bucket, the listAllBucketNames permission is required for compatibility with SDKs and integrations. The listAllBucketNames permission can be enabled upon creation in the web UI"

Recreated the application key and ticked the listAllBucketNames permission.

Useful documentation note: https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047779633-Configuring-the-AWS-CLI-for-use-with-B2

Next step I have to overcome is it turning red when selecting the existing Bucket as per https://community.netgear.com/t5/Using-your-ReadyNAS-in-Business/Amazon-S3/td-p/1417022

I think the fix here was to use lowercase names for the buckets.

Still getting kicked out of the admin web interface though which is annoying!

Tried Chrome, Incognito Chrome, Edge and Firefox (can't access in IE due to SSL) and it happens on them all which indicates it's the NAS itself since this update.

Sandshark · ‎2021-05-21

There are already at least two threads on the issue with the GUI kicking you out. It only seems to affect a small percentage of users, but they are, reasonably, quite vocal about the problem. One solution that works for some is using IE. Another is quickly selecting the "System" menu bar selection as soon as it is visible. Some have found that they need to use a private/incognito browser window for that to work.

Netgear is asking for log zips from as many users as are willing so they can figure out the common denominator, as they have been unable to re-produce the error.

Zippyduda · ‎2021-05-21

Thanks @Sandshark 🙂

I will try the System, IE and Incognito Chrome methods again and see how I get on.

Where is the best place to send netgear the logs?

Zippyduda · ‎2021-05-21

Seems the System method did not work. The page you land on is System anyway but clicking did not help unfortunately.

Also tried the IE and Incognito Chrome methods again and they failed, same issue.

I have noticed it does not load the System page properly and the Apps haven't loaded by the time it kicks me out.

Sandshark · ‎2021-05-21

You have to put the zip file in an accessible location, like GDrive, DropBox, etc. and then PM the moderators @JohnCM_S and @Marc_V with a link and referencing the reason.

Zippyduda · ‎2021-05-21

Thanks 🙂 I will try via SSH as I have access as can't get them from the Web UI for obvious reasons haha. Will send them the logs, is there a set location or list of files for all the logs that are normally gathered from the web zip DL?

StephenB · ‎2021-05-21

@Zippyduda wrote:

Thanks 🙂 I will try via SSH as I have access as can't get them from the Web UI for obvious reasons haha. Will send them the logs, is there a set location or list of files for all the logs that are normally gathered from the web zip DL?

They ( @JohnCM_S , @Marc_V ) always want the full log zip file. Just upload it to dropbox, google drive, etc.

Don't post a download link publicly - send a PM (private message) using the envelope icon in the upper right of the forum page. Include the download link, and a link to thiis thread.

Zippyduda · ‎2021-05-21

As I can't access the web UI to download log files, which logs shall I zip up on the NAS via SSH to send them?

I wasn't going to post them publically, I was going to send them via PM 🙂

StephenB · ‎2021-05-21

@Zippyduda wrote:

which logs shall I zip up on the NAS via SSH to send them?

they are built on the fly from journalctl.

You can create the zip from ssh using

# rnutil create_system_log -o filename

Filename can of course include a path, so something like /data/sharename/$(hostname)-$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)-system.zip will work.

Zippyduda · ‎2021-05-21

Thanks, that's worked 🙂 Will send them over

Error: Connection failure: Connection refused
sysctl: reading key "net.ipv6.conf.LeafNets.stable_secret"
sysctl: reading key "net.ipv6.conf.all.stable_secret"
sysctl: reading key "net.ipv6.conf.default.stable_secret"
sysctl: reading key "net.ipv6.conf.eth0.stable_secret"
sysctl: reading key "net.ipv6.conf.eth1.stable_secret"
sysctl: reading key "net.ipv6.conf.lo.stable_secret"
system log /data/Documents/Logs/$hostname-20210521_162831-system.zip created successfully

Zippyduda · ‎2021-05-21

Logs sent to John and Marc

Zippyduda · ‎2021-06-29

John and the netgear team have now resolved my issue by applying version 6.10.5 Hotfix 1 via Remote Support.

I downloaded RAIDar version 6.5, clicked the NAS image 5-6 times, selected Remote Support, entered my username and password, typed AGREE and provided them with the PIN code. They then connected to my NAS remotely and applied the hotfix.

Thanks for their help in resolving this issue, I wasn't comfortable with downgrading via SSH and can now access my NAS again via the UI 🙂

StephenB · ‎2021-06-29

@Zippyduda wrote:

John and the netgear team have now resolved my issue by applying version 6.10.5 Hotfix 1 via Remote Support.

Good to hear.