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Re: Securely replacing 8 drives on 2 Pro Nas ?

volpone
Aspirant

Securely replacing 8 drives on 2 Pro Nas ?

Hello all,
I'm currently using two ReadyNas (x86) units:
  • Pro 6 OS 4.2.19: XRAID2 using 4 * Hitachi 3To drives => Media Server (Plex and SqueezeBox servers + others addons + media files)

  • Pro Pioneer OS 4.2.19: XRAID2 using 4 * WD 1To "green" drives => Partial backup (mainly media and configuration files)

My goal is to modify my setup to optain sufficent backup space on my Pro Pioneer to allow a full backup / mirroring strategy from the Pro 6 to the Pioneer.
  • Pro 6: Replace the 4 Hitachi 3To with 4 completely new WD 3To red drives

  • Pro Pioneer: Replace the 4 WD 1To with olds 4 3To Hitachi used on my Pro 6 (olds 10EADS would be used as spare or in other systems)

My main concerns is to ensure my systems and media data remains safe and also avoid to have to setup again from scratch Plex and SqueezeBox servers and database.
Is the following process secure and efficient ?
  • Pro 6: Hot Swap each Hitachi disks "one by one" with the new out of the box unformated WD red drives and let each time OS rebuild the array (very long process ?)

  • Pioneer: Power off

  • Pioneer: Extract the 4 WD 1To disks and replace them with the 4 Hitachi 3To removed from the Pro6 taking care of using the same slot location.

  • Pioneer: Power on.

  • Pray

Thank's for any remarks or suggestions.
Regards
Volpone
Message 1 of 10
StephenB
Guru

Re: Securely replacing 8 drives on 2 Pro Nas ?

-The resync process on the Pro-6 will be slow - I believe when I installed a 3 TB Red in September it took about 24 hours to sync. Though in my case there was an expansion, so yours might go quicker.

-If the Pioneer is already only used for backup, then I would do a factory reset on the pioneer, and then migrate the data from the Pro with Frontview backup. The Hitachi's are being pulled over time, so it is quite likely that they won't really be in sync.

Assuming the Hitachi's are running ok - I would probably do a clean install of 4 unformatted WD Red drives in the pioneer, and leave the Pro alone. Then create the mirror with frontview backup. This would certainly be easier/quicker, and avoids any possibility of data loss in the Pro that could be provoked by the repeated resyncs.
Message 2 of 10
volpone
Aspirant

Re: Securely replacing 8 drives on 2 Pro Nas ?

Thank you StephenB for your recommandations.
My only concern is i would prefer to use the new WD red disks on my Pro 6 for performance and cooling reasons because Pro 6 is always running (Pioneer wil run only time to time for backups).
StephenB wrote:
-The resync process on the Pro-6 will be slow ....
-If the Pioneer is already only used for backup, then I would do a factory reset on the pioneer, and then migrate the data from the Pro with Frontview backup. The Hitachi's are being pulled over time, so it is quite likely that they won't really be in sync.
OK i understand the "one by one" resync process is dangerous, very long, and above all i would risk to be unable to install the old Hichachi disks on the Pioneer because they will be out of sync. Correct ?
StephenB wrote:
Assuming the Hitachi's are running ok
Pro 6 and Hitachi's drives are actually running perfectly !
StephenB wrote:
- I would probably do a clean install of 4 unformatted WD Red drives in the pioneer, and leave the Pro alone.
OK , so i only have to plug the 4 unformated WD red on the pioneer, boot and factory reset ?
StephenB wrote:
Then create the mirror with frontview backup.
1) Is using frontview backup OK to get a perfect mirroring from the Pro6 to the pioneer including database, addons-config ..?
2) Is it possible to follow your process and then to swap the 4 disks (on same slot location): WD on the Pro and Hitachi's on the Pioneer ?
Regards
Message 3 of 10
StephenB
Guru

Re: Securely replacing 8 drives on 2 Pro Nas ?

volpone wrote:
OK , so i only have to plug the 4 unformated WD red on the pioneer, boot and factory reset ?
Power down, remove the existing drives (labeling them so you preserve the slot number). Then install all 4 new drives and power it up. It should automatically do the reset, as the drives are blank - this looks like an out-of-the-box install to the NAS.

volpone wrote:
My only concern is i would prefer to use the new WD red disks on my Pro 6 for performance and cooling reasons because Pro 6 is always running (Pioneer wil run only time to time for backups) ... Is it possible to follow your process and then to swap the 4 disks (on same slot location): WD on the Pro and Hitachi's on the Pioneer ?
I think this should work since the Pioneer and the Pro are both x86 platforms. Though I have no experience with the Pioneer - maybe someone who does will chime in... That would be an ideal approach if it works.

One way to test it - try putting the WD's into the pro (powered off), right after you have done the factory reset with the WD drives on the Pioneer. If if boots properly, then the disks can be migrated. If not, you haven't lost much, all you need to do it put the WD's back into the pioneer (and possibly do another factory reset there). Be careful not to migrate drives with the unit powered up, as it will assume it should reformat, etc.

volpone wrote:
...Is using frontview backup OK to get a perfect mirroring from the Pro6 to the pioneer including database, addons-config ..?
Frontview backup can update the volumes on the pioneer, but not the configuration, add-ons, or anything else that is on the OS partition. So you need to do handle those things manually. You can save the configuration on the Pro and restore it on the Pioneer - the main gotcha is that you need to manually install the addons on the Pioneer before you restore the config.

You can backup the entire C volume, though personally I use different backup jobs for each share. (I need to back up to 2 smaller NAS; neither backup device can hold the full volume) The fastest way is to use NFS for the initial backup, and then edit the backup job to use rsync. rsync is faster for updating, but is compute intensive, so it is not fastest for the initial backup.
Message 4 of 10
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Securely replacing 8 drives on 2 Pro Nas ?

You can migrate arrays between the Pro 6 and the Pioneer but do be aware that the Pioneer is missing some features found on the Pro 6.
Message 5 of 10
volpone
Aspirant

Re: Securely replacing 8 drives on 2 Pro Nas ?

Thank you StephenB
StephenB wrote:
think this should work since the Pioneer and the Pro are both x86 platforms.... Though I have no experience with the Pioneer - maybe someone who does will chime in... try putting the WD's into the pro (powered off), right after you have done the factory reset with the WD drives on the Pioneer. If if boots properly, then the disks can be migrated. If not, you haven't lost much, all you need to do it put the WD's back into the pioneer (and possibly do another factory reset there). Be careful not to migrate drives with the unit powered up, as it will assume it should reformat, etc.

I will try this to test
StephenB wrote:
You can save the configuration on the Pro and restore it on the Pioneer - the main gotcha is that you need to manually install the addons on the Pioneer before you restore the config.
OK
StephenB wrote:
You can backup the entire C volume, ...The fastest way is to use NFS for the initial backup, and then edit the backup job to use rsync. rsync is faster for updating, but is compute intensive, so it is not fastest for the initial backup.

OK i wil begin with NFS

Regards
Message 6 of 10
volpone
Aspirant

Re: Securely replacing 8 drives on 2 Pro Nas ?

mdgm wrote:
You can migrate arrays between the Pro 6 and the Pioneer but do be aware that the Pioneer is missing some features found on the Pro 6.
OK, thank you mdgm
Message 7 of 10
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Securely replacing 8 drives on 2 Pro Nas ?

The missing features are business features such as AD, NIC Teaming, Rsync over SSH etc.
Message 8 of 10
volpone
Aspirant

Re: Securely replacing 8 drives on 2 Pro Nas ?

mdgm wrote:
The missing features are business features such as AD, NIC Teaming, Rsync over SSH etc.

OK, but is Rsync mirroring still possible between Pro 6 and Pioneer ?
Message 9 of 10
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Securely replacing 8 drives on 2 Pro Nas ?

You can still use Rsync just not over SSH.
Message 10 of 10
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