I have a ReadyNAS 212 with 2TB HDD. I'm slowly filling it up so i need to expand. I also thought that the ReadyNAS would work as a server and backup through the RAID thingy. Is this a novice mistake to make?? I would like to expand to at least 10TB but unsure how best to do it. Do i.... 1. purchase another 2 bay NAS and install 10TB drives throught out and link them together, one acting as a backup for the other? 2. purchase a 4 bay NAS and somehow get two drives working as server and raid thingy and the other as the backup and raid thingy? 3. stick with what i've got and just increase the HDD size? 4. consider a backup of the NAS to the cloud/remote HDD??

Crofty7 wrote: Purchase a 4 bay NAS (advice on best type would be greatly appreciated) and use two slots until i require more space Purchase a USB HDD (what is quickest? USB or SATA?) and backup what's on the NAS. Store this HDD at my parents for safe keeping. It's a good approach. Using two USB drives might be a small improvement - doing more frequent backups at home, and then swapping it with the one at your parents periodically. The RN214 is a good entry-level NAS. You could also go with the RN424 (about $150 more expensive at the moment). As far as the drive type goes a USB 3 drive is a good option. Get one that has it's own power adapter. I'd format it as NTFS, so you can read the files with a PC.

Your current NAS is also a suitable backup device, at least till you run out of space. Put ZeroTier on them and you can even put the backup NAS off-site (a relative's house, for example). I have local backup, but my most critical files are also backed to my brother's house in N. Carolina, where a hurricane that hits Florida is unlikely to go.

Crofty7 wrote: could i use the two existng HDD as individual HDD rather than in the RAID format? Yes. This is "jbod". You'd need to switch to flexraid, destroy your current volume and create new one(s). Crofty7 wrote: I'm guessing i would have to manually split the file structure for the backup as at some point i will have more than 2TB's worth of data on the new NAS and the current NAS is 2 x 2TB. Ideally the two 2TB drives are independent (each have their own file system). You can join them into a single 4 TB volume, but I don't recommend doing that. The reason is that if either disk fails you'd lose all the data on both. So it is better to have two volumes. Then use one backup job per share. The downsides: You need to balance the storage manually (putting some shares on each drive, and keeping approximately even free space on each). Expansion isn't as easy. Increasing the storage requires deleting a volume, installing a bigger disk, creating a new volume, and then doing a full backup of those shares from the main NAS. This is a mode I use myself on one of my backup systems. The downsides are definitely managable. Crofty7 wrote: my prefered option as it saves me having to purchase external HDD. I get the cost argument. But in my opinion the more compelling arguments are The backups can be fully automated. Backup disk maintenance (including periodic disk testing) can also be automated. In my experience internal disks are more reliable than USB disks (debatable perhaps). If your internet speeds are fast enough you can put the backup NAS in a different location FWIW, if you go with a 4-bay NAS you don't necessarily have to go with 2x10TB drives. 2x10TB costs about $600 (US amazon pricing) at the moment. For the same money you could get 3x6TB. So I'd put 2x6TB+2x2TB in the new NAS, and a single 6 TB drive in the RN212. You still get a 10 TB volume in the new NAS, and you get a full 6 TB jbod volume in the RN212 (with an open bay for expansion later). And you will need to expand your backup storage before you expand the storage on the main NAS.

Wow, lot's of questions. Let's talk about migration first. There are a lot of steps below, but it's not as difficult as it might sound. If you get a ReadyNAS RN214, then you'd update the firmware on the RN212 to whatever is current. power down the RN212 Install a 6 TB drive in the new NAS, and update it's firmware to the current version Power down the new NAS, and remove the 6 TB disk (we use it again later). remove the 2x2 TB disks from the RN212 and put them into the new ReadyNAS. power up the new NAS. All settings and data will be preserved. Then Install the 6 TB drive that you used in the first step into the RN212 Power it up Configure the system, and create shares to match the old ones. Change the system from XRAID to FlexRAID by clicking on the XRAID control on the volume page (no stripe means flexraid). Create rsync backup jobs (one for each share, plus one for "home" if you use it). Run the backup jobs to get you an initial backup. The last step is to expand the array in the new ReadyNAS to 10 TB Install a blank 6 TB into the new ReadyNAS (leaving 2x2TB in place). Wait for the system to resync Verify that the volume has expanded from 2 TB to 4 TB. Install the second blank 6 Tb disk Wait for the system to resync. reboot the system wait for a second resync verify that the volume size is expanded to 10 TB. If you were to get an x86 ReadyNAS (RN4xx or better), there are a couple of more steps here. But most of it is the same. Crofty7 wrote: The 4 bay NAS 1. I would be able to set it up to the new netgear account wont I? nasname will have to be different but my personal account stuff and cloud app would work as normal? If you migrate using the procedure above, the NAS name is carried to the new NAS and everything (including ReadyCloud) would continue to work. The RN212 would be set up from scratch, and it would need a new name. If you wanted to connect it to ReadyCloud using your current account you could do that. Crofty7 wrote: 2. I would want to split what's held on the HDD's, larger one would hold the photos and the smaller one would hold documents. As i've never had a 4 bay before how would it look through MS Explorer? Currently when i select the nas through the network it shows all the share folders, would this on a 4 bay be subdivided further? For example select netwrok, nasname, 6TB HDD name or 2TB HDD name, and then share folders?? Apologies for the crappy explenation there but i hope you get the jist of it? I don't recommend this. You're better off using XRAID with a single volume - it gives you more space, and you'd find it simpler to expand when the time comes. If you use XRAID, you can expand by upgrading one of the 2 TB drives with a 6 TB drive. That would gain you 4 TB more space. Upgrading the remaining 2 TB drive would give you another 4 TB. Two volumes on the 4-bay would give you 8 TB of storage (2x2TB RAID-1, and 6x6TB RAID-1). Expanding either volume would require you to replace both paired disks with bigger ones (either upgrading both 6 TB or both 2 TB drives). So you get 2 TB less space now, and more expensive upgrades later. Either way, you'll see the same share list you see now. Crofty7 wrote: The 2 bay NAS 1. This would then become a glorified remote HDD?? Or would it still be linked to the network as it is now and all that will change is how it works?? RAID removed and changed to Jbod (whatever the hell that is!!)? The RN212 is still a NAS (network attached storage), so it is connected to the network. The procedure above leaves it in flexraid mode (jbod). When you add a second disk you can then decide if you want XRAID/RAID-1 or second volume. Crofty7 wrote: Backups Assumptions are the 4 bay is connected to the network through LAN. The 2 bay is also connected to the network through LAN. 1. for backup purposes are the two NAS's linked together through an ethernet cable? Or is the backup over the network? Connect them both to your network. That's simplest, and will let you log into the RN212's web UI, and receive any email alerts. Crofty7 wrote: Backups Assumptions are the 4 bay is connected to the network through LAN. The 2 bay is also connected to the network through LAN. 2. If i have data on the 6TB HDD and 2TB HDD on the 4 bay can i backup both onto the 6TB HDD on the 2 bay? (assumption that the data held on the 6TB and 2TB is not greater than 6TB). I'm recommending one backup job per share. The backup job specifies a source and destination share. The two NAS both know what volumes their respective shares are on, so that isn't specified in the backup jobs. Note I'm also recommending a single volume on the 4-bay. But if you decided to use two volumes on the 4-bay, you'd still be able to back up all shares on both volumes to a single volume on the RN212. When you eventually add a second volume to the RN214, you'd still be able to back up any share on the new NAS to a share on the RN212. It doesn't matter what volume those shares are on.

StephenB gave you a great roadmap, and you should have no trouble following it once you've digested it. But I wanted to emphazize one thing: You must use the smaller drives first, then the larger ones. You can only add drives that are at least as big as the largest already installed. His plan does that, so don't try to deviate in a way that won't work.

Soon to run out of capacity and do i need a back up of a backup?

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StephenB
Guru - Experienced User
Jan 17, 2019
Crofty7 wrote:

I also thought that the ReadyNAS would work as a server and backup through the RAID thingy.

Well, if the NAS is used for primary storage then you need a copy of those files somewhere else. RAID isn't enough to keep the data safe.

If you are using it for backup storage (meaning you have at least one other copy), then the data is much safer, since if either device fails you still have the other copy. Though personally I've had my backups fail when I needed them, so my own policy is to keep at least 3 copies of anything I care about.

Crofty7 wrote:

1. purchase another 2 bay NAS and install 10TB drives throught out and link them together, one acting as a backup for the other?

This does provide a backup, though you should also price a 4 bay NAS. An RN214 sells for about $50 more than an RN212 at the moment. That gives you empty slot(s) for future expansion.

Crofty7 wrote:

2. purchase a 4 bay NAS and somehow get two drives working as server and raid thingy and the other as the backup and raid thingy?

You really should backup to another device. You can easily lose both the primary and backup volumes if they are in the same NAS. A power failure when the backup is running is one of several ways that can happen.

Crofty7 wrote:

3. stick with what i've got and just increase the HDD size?

You could do that, if you are willing to risk data loss. I don't recommend it. Data recovery is uncertain and expensive. So at least add USB disks for local backup.

Crofty7 wrote:

4. consider a backup of the NAS to the cloud/remote HDD??

This is a reasonable approach to backup. I use cloud backup myself for disaster recovery (protecting from theft, power surges, etc).

A couple of caveats:

you are trusting the cloud provider to keep your data safe. Personally I'm not comfortable having my only backup in the cloud.

two-way sync isn't a good approach for backup, since if either copy is compromised, the compromised copy will be copied back onto the other device. So make sure you are doing a one-way backup, not a two-way sync.

Cloud backup will be much slower than a local one. If you have ~10 TB of data, it can take several months to get everything backed up (or everything restored). Another reason why I combine cloud backup with local backup.
- Crofty7
  Aspirant
  Jan 17, 2019
  I use the NAS as a server to keep the laptop free of documents and photos. I also use office 365 fo document cloud storage on OneDrive. I will at some point need to back this up to the NAS.
  
  Would you agree to this as being my best approach?
  
  Purchase a 4 bay NAS (advice on best type would be greatly appreciated) and use two slots until i require more space
  
  Purchase a USB HDD (what is quickest? USB or SATA?) and backup what's on the NAS. store this HDD at my parents for safe keeping.
  - StephenB
    Guru - Experienced User
    Jan 17, 2019
    Crofty7 wrote:
    
    Purchase a 4 bay NAS (advice on best type would be greatly appreciated) and use two slots until i require more space
    
    Purchase a USB HDD (what is quickest? USB or SATA?) and backup what's on the NAS.
    
    Store this HDD at my parents for safe keeping.
    
    It's a good approach. Using two USB drives might be a small improvement - doing more frequent backups at home, and then swapping it with the one at your parents periodically.
    
    The RN214 is a good entry-level NAS. You could also go with the RN424 (about $150 more expensive at the moment).
    
    As far as the drive type goes a USB 3 drive is a good option. Get one that has it's own power adapter. I'd format it as NTFS, so you can read the files with a PC.

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Soon to run out of capacity and do i need a back up of a backup?

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