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RAID with JBOD

CharlesR
Guide

RAID with JBOD

With 6.2 is there anyway to have a raid (two or more disks) and still have a separate addressable drive "outside" of the raid itself? I know it doesn't make sense but I might want to setup a dedicated drive for my WMC recordings via iSCSI. I have no interest in backing them up and the drive might get moved from one NAS to another (same OS release). Heck with the RN102's current pricing I guess I could simply throw one of them into action and be done with it...
Message 1 of 18
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: RAID with JBOD

You would disable X-RAID, destroy the default volume and create the volumes you want. You could create a volume that uses just the one disk.
Message 2 of 18
CharlesR
Guide

Re: RAID with JBOD

My hope was to have both.. a raid and a standalone drive? My other data would reside on the multi drive raid. Let's say I have one disk now...

    I would disable X-Raid.
    Insert new drive (2nd) - dedicated to iSCSI
    Later insert a drive (3rd) matching the first drive

Then I could create a raid using drives one and three?
Message 3 of 18
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: RAID with JBOD

Well if some drive bays are empty, you could simply disable X-RAID, add a disk and create a new volume for the added disk. You can use a mixture of multiple drive and single drive volumes. Volumes don't have to all use the same RAID level.
Message 4 of 18
CharlesR
Guide

Re: RAID with JBOD

OK. Thanks. I'll do some reading now that I believe it's possible.
Message 5 of 18
CharlesR
Guide

Re: RAID with JBOD

One last silly question... since I would have different volumes the type of drive wouldn't be important as along as any in a RAID were compatible with each other? I would go Red with the RAID(s) and who knows what with the standalone.
Message 6 of 18
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: RAID with JBOD

It is still important that you use a compatible drive with the standalone disk. I would still use at least a RED for the standalone disk. Green disks are not suitable.
Message 7 of 18
CharlesR
Guide

Re: RAID with JBOD

After some reading I'm left with one question which could be unsupported to a large degree. I guess it evolves around where and how the OS resides or doesn't...

Let's take for granted each device will have the same OS release. The first being a Legacy x86 device (say 6.2) and I bring it up with one drive. I turn off X-RAID2 and insert a new drive creating a second volume. The short question is... is this volume compatible with other devices running other chipsets? Such as say a RN102? Could it be inserted once the RN102 is up and running or is it dependent on firmware which supports the same processor architect?

Long story is I'm wondering if I can create a volume (outside of USB) which can be transferred to virtually any device as long as its on the same firmware level. I'm guessing no, but what the heck...
Message 8 of 18
vandermerwe
Master

Re: RAID with JBOD

You can do this between OS 6 devices, if you transfer the disks into a unit with different architecture you would need to do so with its power off, then do an OS reinstall using the boot menu.

I am not certain whether you could take a disk from legacy unit and put it into any of the current line of devices.

Obviously you can't do this with only part of an array.
Message 9 of 18
CharlesR
Guide

Re: RAID with JBOD

vandermerwe wrote:
You can do this between OS 6 devices, if you transfer the disks into a unit with different architecture you would need to do so with its power off, then do an OS reinstall using the boot menu.


Thanks. I didn't know this was possible. Presuming the data (partition) is untouched?

I am not certain whether you could take a disk from legacy unit and put it into any of the current line of devices.

That is the question... I thought you couldn't swap drives between chipsets without erasing them.
Message 10 of 18
vandermerwe
Master

Re: RAID with JBOD

Well the current line of devices have several different architectures and the OS reinstall method works and preserves data and config.
What I don't know if there might be something different in the way disks from a legacy device behaved when moved even of they had OS 6 on them.

I must say that in general moving disks between units is not a good idea as a premeditated event. If it's being done in a crisis because of hardware failure then I think a backup is a simpler strategy. The data can then be restored to any device from backup.

PS
viewtopic.php?f=65&t=70642
Message 11 of 18
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: RAID with JBOD

I wouldn't move from x86 to ARM.

OS6 x86 can boot from disks with 4.2.x on them for the purposes of copying data off a 4.2.x array. We have a procedure for this.

Moving an array from a legacy x86 device running OS6 to a new OS6 x86 device should work, but if the legacy device is still working copying the data across your network e.g. using backup jobs would be a better option.

Unfortunately a number of users don't backup their data. We do what we can by allowing migrating disks from one NAS to another with the same CPU architecture and OS, but sometimes someone may think their NAS has failed only for it to turn out the problem is with one or more disks or the array.
Message 12 of 18
CharlesR
Guide

Re: RAID with JBOD

I agree such "activities" shouldn't be performed under most circumstances. Especially with data of importance.

As my first post stated one case would be creating a volume on a single drive (perhaps using iSCSI) which does nothing but hold recordings. It would be nice to be able to move the volume/drive from one device to another and have it simply show up online. Another would be a volume (of perhaps more than one drive) which holds files for streaming.

I guess my real question (more for understanding than practice) is does the NAS have a boot drive per se (the first drive found or inserted) and are all of the other drives only (data) filesystems... not containing any OS. Much like your typical OS where there is a boot drive (containing the OS) and all of the other drives only contain data and can be installed and mounted by another device's OS.

If so it sort of leads to the ability to install a single drive in any device and upgrading it to the same OS version (X-RAID2 disabled in both cases). Once it's operational insert the drives for the volumes you want transferred and they are back online.

Again... it's more abstract than desired practice.
Message 13 of 18
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: RAID with JBOD

All of the disks contain the OS partition. If there is a problem with a disk, information on the OS partition stored on other disks can be invaluable.
Message 14 of 18
CharlesR
Guide

Re: RAID with JBOD

Thanks. Makes sense although transferring volumes around certainly doesn't. 🙂
Message 15 of 18
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: RAID with JBOD

I would move all disks or none across and remove any disks already in the new NAS before moving the disks across.
Message 16 of 18
StephenB
Guru

Re: RAID with JBOD

mdgm wrote:
I would move all disks or none across and remove any disks already in the destination NAS before moving the disks across.
Yes. Since that works from OS6 ARM to OS6 x86 it is a convenient way to migrate to a new NAS.

It'd be nice to know if it also works from x86->arm, though that seems less likely.
Message 17 of 18
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: RAID with JBOD

I don't think we would test x86 to ARM. There are definitely some situations where moving disks from x86 to ARM couldn't work. It's not something we would support.
Message 18 of 18
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