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RN21400 Change from Flex-RAID to X-RAID increased volyme
Hello everybody.
I have one RN21400 NAS that a client needs help with. They have one disc (Western Digital RED 4 TB, no empty space, one volume) and wanted to increase volyme size so they put one more disc in the NAS (same disc WD RED 4 TB). What happen was that the disc number 2 install itself as a mirror disc of the first disc. The client asked me for help and i have some questions for you.
When i log into the NAS i see that the system is installed as FLEX-RAID (RAID 1). When i read about Flex-Raid i see that the second disk will act as a mirror disc. But i have also understand that i can change the settings in the NAS to X-RAID, in this case the disc number 2 will not be a mirror, but it will increase the size of the volume. I have no place for a backup of this data (the data consists on a medical PC, this is only the backup from that PC).
1. If i change from Flex-RAID to X-RAID, will the data on disc one be erased?
2. If i change from Flex-RAID to X-RAID, will i have 8 TB (roughly) as one volume?
3. Would it be best if i only put in one more bigger disc as the settings are now? If i put in one WD RED 8 TB, we would get 12 TB of volume, but only 4 TB as mirrored. Would this be a good solution? I do not think so, but what do you say?
I hope you understand my questions. Thanks in advance!
It is actually the opposite, the reason why it became RAID1 is because it is on XRAID. To answer your Qs:
1. If i change from Flex-RAID to X-RAID, will the data on disc one be erased?
No, it will not erase the data on the first disk
2. If i change from Flex-RAID to X-RAID, will i have 8 TB (roughly) as one volume?
No, I think it is already on XRAID and XRAID's action is to automatically change the RAID level or expand your volume. In this case XRAID automatically changed the RAID level from JBOD to RAID1. You need to have it changed to FlexRAID first before inserting another drive to avoid this action.
3. Would it be best if i only put in one more bigger disc as the settings are now? If i put in one WD RED 8 TB, we would get 12 TB of volume, but only 4 TB as mirrored. Would this good solution? I do not think so, but what do you say?
With OS6 using 4TB and adding 8TB you will have 4TB of unused volume and until you change the 4TB to the same 8TB capacity then that will be used. IMO, this is not the best solution.
It would be best to backup your data, change to FlexRAID and then Destroy the volume. This way, you can set the 2 disk (4TB and 8TB) as JBODs. This will be two volume (1 volume per disk) but you will be able to utilize the disk space. Note though that no protection is present on JBOD setup.
Or
Add another 8TB drive to your RN214, XRAID will automatically change it to RAID5 and expand the volume. I think this is the best option.
Please see the following links that my help you and give more information:
It is actually the opposite, the reason why it became RAID1 is because it is on XRAID. To answer your Qs:
1. If i change from Flex-RAID to X-RAID, will the data on disc one be erased?
No, it will not erase the data on the first disk
2. If i change from Flex-RAID to X-RAID, will i have 8 TB (roughly) as one volume?
No, I think it is already on XRAID and XRAID's action is to automatically change the RAID level or expand your volume. In this case XRAID automatically changed the RAID level from JBOD to RAID1. You need to have it changed to FlexRAID first before inserting another drive to avoid this action.
3. Would it be best if i only put in one more bigger disc as the settings are now? If i put in one WD RED 8 TB, we would get 12 TB of volume, but only 4 TB as mirrored. Would this good solution? I do not think so, but what do you say?
With OS6 using 4TB and adding 8TB you will have 4TB of unused volume and until you change the 4TB to the same 8TB capacity then that will be used. IMO, this is not the best solution.
It would be best to backup your data, change to FlexRAID and then Destroy the volume. This way, you can set the 2 disk (4TB and 8TB) as JBODs. This will be two volume (1 volume per disk) but you will be able to utilize the disk space. Note though that no protection is present on JBOD setup.
Or
Add another 8TB drive to your RN214, XRAID will automatically change it to RAID5 and expand the volume. I think this is the best option.
Please see the following links that my help you and give more information:
I thank you for your advice. I will do this, get a new 8 TB disc and put into the NAS. Less work, and faster.
That's the path I'd take too. Note that you'll end up with an 8 TB volume (displayed as ~7.27 TiB on the NAS). The capacity rule for XRAID is "sum the disks and subtract the largest". 4 TB of the new disk won't be used until you add a second 8 TB drive (either in the last slot, or replacing one of the 4 TB disks).
