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choosing the parity disk (best place for the new one ?)

grish4
Aspirant

choosing the parity disk (best place for the new one ?)

hello,

 

with RN 6.6 is it possible to choose wich disk will be the parity disk ?

On a pro 6 is it possible to decide to put 2 new disk for the raid 6 parity ?

Thanks

Model: ReadyNASRNDP6310|ReadyNAS Pro 6
Message 1 of 12
StephenB
Guru

Re: choosing the parity disk (best place for the new one ?)


@grish4 wrote:

with RN 6.6 is it possible to choose wich disk will be the parity disk ?

 


There is no parity disk (also true with 4.2.x and 5.x.x systems).  Parity blocks are distributed across all the disks.  That improves write performance (and evens out disk usage).

 


@grish4 wrote:

 

On a pro 6 is it possible to decide to put 2 new disk for the raid 6 parity ?

 


If you are using XRAID on the pro-6, then with 4.2.x firmware you can instruct the system to add the next disk for redundancy.  You need to do that before you insert that disk.  RAID-6 requires at least 4 disks, and the largest 4 should be the same size.

Message 2 of 12
bedlam1
Prodigy

Re: choosing the parity disk (best place for the new one ?)


@StephenB wrote:

@grish4 wrote:

with RN 6.6 is it possible to choose wich disk will be the parity disk ?

 


There is no parity disk (also true with 4.2.x and 5.x.x systems).  Parity blocks are distributed across all the disks.  That improves write performance (and evens out disk usage).

 


@grish4 wrote:

 

On a pro 6 is it possible to decide to put 2 new disk for the raid 6 parity ?

 


If you are using XRAID on the pro-6, then with 4.2.x firmware you can instruct the system to add the next disk for redundancy.  You need to do that before you insert that disk.  RAID-6 requires at least 4 disks, and the largest 4 should be the same size.


@grish4appears to be running OS 6 from the original post, how does that deal with Raid-6?

Message 3 of 12
StephenB
Guru

Re: choosing the parity disk (best place for the new one ?)


@bedlam1 wrote:


@grish4appears to be running OS 6 from the original post, how does that deal with Raid-6?


I wasn't sure if he had two ReadyNAS running different OS versions, or not.

 

Per the manual (page 37) you switch to flexraid, and then add the disk.  http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/READYNAS-100/ReadyNAS_Desktop_IG_EN.pdf?cid=wmt_netgear_o...

 

The manual says that the disk will be added for additional redundancy (with no option for anything else).  But I don't think that's correct - I think you do need to explictly say that you want to add the disk for data protection.  That's certainly the implication here: 

mdgm wrote:


You had to disable X-RAID and choose the next disk added to add parity, add that disk and then you could have re-enabled X-RAID again.


I don't recall if that's a volume setting, or if it's an option when you click on the disk you want to add - though I think it's the latter.  But look for that setting before you add that disk to the volume.

 

Note that with flexraid, the system will not automatically add the disk to the volume, you always do that manually.

Message 4 of 12
grish4
Aspirant

Re: choosing the parity disk (best place for the new one ?)

I start from scratch after a second hand buy. I'm cleaning drive houses because they are all blocked !and it's hard to open without using the screw driver. Aniway. 3 new disk, 3 old. No best way to arrange them in RAID 6.

Message 5 of 12
StephenB
Guru

Re: choosing the parity disk (best place for the new one ?)


@grish4 wrote:

 3 new disk, 3 old. No best way to arrange them in RAID 6.


If you are starting from scratch with OS 6, then you

  1. start the factory default, and do ithe nitial setup
  2. then turn off xraid on the volume page (click on the xraid button, the green stripe should go away)
  3. destory the volume
  4. create a new RAID-6 volume (I recommend calling it "data")
  5. turn XRAID back on.

You don't need to wait for resync operations to complete on any of these steps -  which saves a lot of time.

 

 

Message 6 of 12
grish4
Aspirant

Re: choosing the parity disk (best place for the new one ?)

wow ! no need to wait for resync ?

you mean, the last after the raid creation id enough ?

 

I already made the 3 first steps, just to see. i'm waiting for the new disk.

why go back to XRAID, isn't it not just a marketing name for something able to switch alone to RAID 6 in case of insertion of the #6 ?

Message 7 of 12
StephenB
Guru

Re: choosing the parity disk (best place for the new one ?)


@grish4 wrote:

wow ! no need to wait for resync ?

you mean, the last after the raid creation id enough ?

 


You can delete the initial volume right away, even though it is still building.  After the new one is created, you can switch to XRAID if you like before the resync completes.


@grish4 wrote:

 

why go back to XRAID, isn't it not just a marketing name for something able to switch alone to RAID 6 in case of insertion of the #6 ?


You don't need to go back to XRAID. But the auto-expansion is different than flexraid (and generally better if you have disks of differing sizes).

 

Also, you can do that later on too, so it's not a decision you need to make right away.

Message 8 of 12
grish4
Aspirant

Re: choosing the parity disk (best place for the new one ?)

I will choose XRAID now for the next disk. Is there a table to predict the size of the usable volume with XRAID ?

Message 9 of 12
bedlam1
Prodigy

Re: choosing the parity disk (best place for the new one ?)

This may help Raid Calculator

Message 10 of 12
grish4
Aspirant

Re: choosing the parity disk (best place for the new one ?)

thank's that's perfect, can be updated with the 8 and 10 To disk, netgear if you hear me...

 

the unused = 0 is the best selling reason a NAS seller can find 🙂

Message 11 of 12
StephenB
Guru

Re: choosing the parity disk (best place for the new one ?)


@grish4 wrote:

I will choose XRAID now for the next disk. Is there a table to predict the size of the usable volume with XRAID ?


With single redunancy you sum the disks and subtract the largest.

 

With dual redundancy you sum the disks and subtract the two largest.

Message 12 of 12
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