ReadyNAS Ultra 2 upgrade

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tuvok78 wrote:

I have a readynas ultra 2, with 2x2TB disks, I would to upgrade to os6 if it is possible. 

Is there a guide?

 

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I recommend increasing the RAM before you begin.  Shipping OS-6 NAS have at least 2 GB of RAM, your ReadyNAS only has 1 GB.  It might work, but there have been a lot of folks who have run into out-of-memory issues after converting.  The upgrade is inexpensive, and is simple to do.  If you aren't sure what to purchase, you can open the chassis and examine the RAM that's already installed in order to find something compatible.

 

Also, if you have the skills, you should probably back up the VPD before conversion.  There can be VPD corruption. Backing it up would allow you to resolve the issue on your own if you run into it.  More information on this is here:

• https://community.netgear.com/t5/Using-your-ReadyNAS-in-Business/Backup-and-restore-of-VPD-file-for-legacy-ReadyNAS-running-oS6/td-p/2253308

 

The conversion steps are:

 

(Optionally) make sure the latest BIOS is installed before you do the conversion.  To do this you install  http://www.readynas.com/download/addons/x86/4.2/BIOS_Update_Package_0.5-x86.bin as an add-on and reboot the NAS.  Do this after you backup the NAS.  This isn't necessary, but if you do want to update the BIOS it is easiest to do it prior to conversion

 

Basic instructions for the conversion itself are

1. BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP
2. Upload PREPR4TOR6_0.1-x86.bin as an add-on using the ReadyNAS web gui, but do not reboot afterwards (avoids the need to do manual factory resets)
3. Upload R4toR6_6.9.5.bin using the ReadyNAS web gui firmware update
4. After you upload the addon+firmware and reboot, it will update the firmware and start a factory default.
5. Go through the setup process on the converted NAS 
6. Update the NAS to the current OS 6. (https://kb.netgear.com/000065653/ReadyNAS-OS-Software-Version-6-10-9 ).  check-for-updates will work, but will likely only give you 6.10.8.
7. Restore files from the backup.

There is a small risk that the process could fail, and if that were to happen it might not be possible to get the NAS running again.

 

Note that if you ever need to do a USB recovery later on, you will need to use the procedure for 4.2 systems - substituting an OS-6 image for the 4.2.31 one.

• https://kb.netgear.com/30267/RAIDiator-4-2-USB-Recovery-Tool