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First Unit with Three 4TB Disks Raid 5 / One 4TB Disk JBOD (this JBOD is redundant data and will be Destroyed and incorporated into the RAID at some stage) - bitrot enabled.
data Raid 5 3.08 TB free of 7.27 TB
Second Unit with Four 4TB Disks Raid 5 - no bitrot enabled
data 6.89 TB free of 10.90 TB
All are showing Healthy with latest 6.9.3 Firmware
Neither of these units have been:
Scrubbed
Defragged
Balanced
I recently had a disk failure on the second unit; the disk (3) was replaced with a spare and successfully resynced (time taken - 6 Days) although the replaced disk was not the same model (Seagate Disk Model:ST4000VN000-1H4168) as the others (WD40EFRX Red).I will replace after I have these questions resolved.
This problem has motivated me to look at all these issues.
The Two questions:
Given the above data capacity how long would each of the process take to complete?
Which of the below is the most crucial and in what order should they be implemented?
Scrubbing
Defragmentation
Balancing
I do use both units to access media along with document and graphic files and have noted the difference in the directory and files names and structure on media payers such as TV and some computers to the structure and file names through ReadyNAS admin page after editing (basically tidying up the directory and file names), I believe this is also due to lack of maintenance; legacy metadata etc. I believe this also causes delayed access to files from various media players throughout my network. The network has been tested and I use Apple extreme routers with extended Apple express units (this is up for review soon).
I will download logs / diagnostics for both units and send if required.
I do know this is a little long-winded and thank you in advance.
I find that running each of the maintenance functions once every quarter works well for me. The time taken does depend on the NAS model and the amount of storage, and as @mdgm-ntgr says they often take longer the first time through.
On my RN526 (4x6TB X-RAID), a balance takes 2-3 minutes, a defrag takes roughly an hour. A disk test takes 13-14 hours, and a scrub takes about two days. The RN526 is much faster than your RN104 (though my volume is also bigger). But this should give you a rough idea on relative times anyway.
Scrubbing would be advisable on the NAS you use bit-rot protection but don't do it too often as doing so will likely shorten the life of your disks. Maybe once every few months, or once a quarter. Also scrubbing will take a long time to complete so you should schedule it for a time where you won't need to use the NAS activity
If you use snapshots then defragmentation may lead to significantly less free space.
With balancing you should take care to make sure that you have a reasonable amount of free space before running it. We do start warning about volume usage when usage exceeds 70%. In my experience balancing works best if volume usage is less than 85%. Balancing will likely take a long time to run if you haven't run it for a long time.
I find that running each of the maintenance functions once every quarter works well for me. The time taken does depend on the NAS model and the amount of storage, and as @mdgm-ntgr says they often take longer the first time through.
On my RN526 (4x6TB X-RAID), a balance takes 2-3 minutes, a defrag takes roughly an hour. A disk test takes 13-14 hours, and a scrub takes about two days. The RN526 is much faster than your RN104 (though my volume is also bigger). But this should give you a rough idea on relative times anyway.
