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I have a 2 x ReadyNas Ultra 2 chassis with 5 Seagate 2 TB disks... 2 in each and 1 spare. I only use one chassis live, the other was purchased as a replaement when I originally couldn't access the original any more. I also purchased 5 Seagate disks so I could hot swap... rebuild and then have multiple copies. Everything is running fine, the live chassis has no errors and is configured as Xraid across two discs. When I fired up the replacement chassis I then plugged in each of the other discs in turn to make multiple copies, however that was some time ago now and a lot of data has been added. So I want to repeat the process of changing out the discs one at a time to rebuild copies. The question is can I remove one of the live xraid discs... (keep it safe) then plug in one of the out of date discs in order for it to be rebuilt as the second disc of the live array. Then once that has completed do another one... etc so I end up with 5 identical discs. Do I have to reformat each one to ensure a blank disc is inserted to be rebuilt onto ?
Any advice much appreciated. Ultra2 is running 4.2.31 and Raidar is 4.3.8 on windows.
The disks aren't precisely identical, as each has some metadata on it the identifies it as a physical volume in the RAID array.
The process can work if you are careful, but isn't one that is recommended here. One reason is that the SATA drive connectors aren't really designed to be reinserted often. Another is that the strategy requires a lot of resyncing of the RAID array. If the array fails during a resync, then data will be lost, forcing you to fall back on the backup (which might be somewhat out of date).
A better plan is to put your backup ultra on a power-schedule, and set it up to back up your main NAS using the built-in backup facility (using the built-in backup program). I do that myself as part of my backup strategy. It's automatic, and doesn't require doing a lot of unnecessary resyncs of the RAID array.
Ok I understand the risks. The automated back up facility would have to be NAS to NAS, via the network correct? How do I configure the main Nas to connect to the back up Nas? Both would be connected to the same router. I can't see on the Raidar interface how to configure a back up set to another Netgear box attached via local lan only options are to a "Time machine" or an online Netgear vault.
Most of the kb articles are centered on OS-6 now - they can be helpful even with your older OS 4.2 system - the screen layouts are completely different than OS 4.2, but most of the settings are identical.
wrote: Thanks, I clicked on the link but I get file not found...
The forum software added a space at the end of the URL - I've corrected it.
FWIW, you can get to the documentation (and current firmware, etc) by entering "ReadyNAS Ultra Support" into Google, and then clicking on the Netgear support link for the product. There are sometimes multiple hits (with the above search string the Ultra plus and NVX links also show up early in the list), so you do need to watch for that.
Thanks... I've finished all the back ups and set it to nightly incremental... I do recall now that I was going to get round to setting this up after the last chassis failed and I bought the new one... but after rebuildind everything... life just got in the way.... much better now... very happy with the results after following your advice..
