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Re: swapping drives from a rn 214 over to a rn104

exibar
Aspirant

swapping drives from a rn 214 over to a rn104

Hi all!

     after fighting with a Sans Digital NAS, that nearly litterally cooked a couple drives they got so hot, I aquired an RN104 to compliment my existing rn214.

     I was not able to find another 214 at a reasonable price, just the 104 was available so I grabbed at it.

 

  What I'd like to do is take my existing 4x4TB raid5 drives out of my 214 and put them into the 104.  Then I'll place 4x8tb drives into the 214 and build a new raid5 array.

   Can I simply swap those 4 x 4tb drives on over to the 104 and will it recognize the raid5 array?

 

   my sole purpose of these NAS is for Plex datastore.  Plex is running on a pc that accesses the NASs for content via UNC shares.  So the NAS boxes will only be as a file server and nothing else.  Plex will not be running on the NAS itself.  So I don't think I'll have any issues at all with the 104, however, I figured I might as well put the smaller array into the 104, and use the power of the 214 with the larger array.  The smaller array will be relatively static as far as receiving content, as there is barely 800Gig free.

 

 thanks all!

   Mike B

Message 1 of 12
Sandshark
Sensei

Re: swapping drives from a rn 214 over to a rn104

Short answer:  Yup!

 

Longer answer:  It's best to insure the new chassis has the same OS version as the old before you do it.  If it's not, it'll be a case of "most recent wins" and either the unit flash or the OS on the drives will update to the newer one.  It is extremely important to do this if either unit is on a very old version.  The release notes explain what multiple steps must be taken to upgrade some ARM units when making a big jump in versions.

 

And not asked:  You could have gone to any OS6 based NAS with 4 or more bays.  The 104 is memory restricted (and cannot have memory expanded), so is going to run slower.  If you're relegating it to backups, then it probably doesn't matter.

Message 2 of 12
exibar
Aspirant

Re: swapping drives from a rn 214 over to a rn104

cool, so make sure they are both running the same OS version.  If not upgrade them (or the one not running the latest version), then I can swap the drives over, nice.

 

 yah I'll jsut be using the 104 to serve up files for my plex server that will connect to it via UNC path.  the only 214 I could find was like $450 on ebay, and I didn't want to pay that much for it as I bought this one for $250 filled with drives LOL.  The 104 was less than what I paid for the 214 so I jumped on it.

  I'll keep my eyes out for a 214 though, I really like it.

 

but you said I can swap into a 6bay or 8bay as well huh?  nice I'll keep my eyes open for one of them.

 

quick question, if I get a 6 bay, can I expand the raid5 array just by adding 2 additional drives?  or do I have to rebuild the entgire array then restore from backup?

 

thanks!

 Mike B

Message 3 of 12
StephenB
Guru

Re: swapping drives from a rn 214 over to a rn104


@exibar wrote:

quick question, if I get a 6 bay, can I expand the raid5 array just by adding 2 additional drives? 


Yes.

Message 4 of 12
Sandshark
Sensei

Re: swapping drives from a rn 214 over to a rn104

As long as you're just using the 104 for file storage, not the Plex server itself, I think you'll find it quite adequate.  The price you saw for the 214 is about typical right now, there being no new stock of ReadyNAS.  Some are asking really exorbitant prices, but I suspect they never actually sell.  Since you are in no hurry, you can continue to wait for one that's lower priced.  You just need to jump quickly before it's gone.

 

BTW, in the category of NAS running OS6 that will work, that includes legacy machines upgraded to OS6.  Even an Ultra4 (with memory upgraded to 2GB) will out-perform a 104 in most tasks.  One exception is that it has no USB3.

Message 5 of 12
exibar
Aspirant

Re: swapping drives from a rn 214 over to a rn104

BTW, in the category of NAS running OS6 that will work, that includes legacy machines upgraded to OS6.  Even an Ultra4 (with memory upgraded to 2GB) will out-perform a 104 in most tasks.  One exception is that it has no USB3.

 

My main issue with the older NAS's is that they do not seem to support 8TB or larger drives.  Have you successfully been able to use larger than 4TB drives in an Ultra4?  or an NV+ ?

   I do see a fairly inexpenxive rndp6000  6-Bay ReadyNas Pro6, would I be able to run 8TB drives on that?  and would it be better than the 104 or close to the 214?

 

thanks!

  Mike B

Message 6 of 12
StephenB
Guru

Re: swapping drives from a rn 214 over to a rn104


@exibar wrote:

 

My main issue with the older NAS's is that they do not seem to support 8TB or larger drives.  Have you successfully been able to use larger than 4TB drives in an Ultra4?  or an NV+ ?

   I do see a fairly inexpenxive rndp6000  6-Bay ReadyNas Pro6, would I be able to run 8TB drives on that?  and would it be better


One thing to keep in mind is that Netgear normally specs capacity using the largest compatible drives on the market when the NAS is released.  They don't update their datasheets as larger drives come onto the market.  The hardware compatibility lists are also neglected for older ReadyNAS (and honestly, Netgear is slow to update them for the most recent platforms). 

 

 

Sparc-based ReadyNAS running 4.1.x firmware (NV+ v1 and Duo v1) are limited to 2 TB disks, in part because they do not support GPT formatting.  They cannot be converted to run other firmware.

 

The Arm-based 5.x firmware systems (Duo v1, and NV+ v2) also cannot be converted to run other firmware.  Disks can be bigger than 4 TB, but there are limitations.

  • The maximum volume size is 16 TiB
  • a volume cannot grow more than 8 TiB larger than its initial size

 

x86 legacy NAS that are still running 4.2.31 also have these limitations.  However, these are both software limitations, and if they are converted to run OS 6, then both limitations are removed.  Users who have converted their Pro and Ultra systems have successfully used much larger disks (and like other OS-6 systems, there is no known limit to the disk size, and no practical limit to the volume size). 

 

Other posters have confirmed that 14 TB drives will work in converted Pro-6 systems, and there is no reason to think that they won't work in converted Ultras.My own Pro-6 is converted to run OS-6, and currently uses 3x8+3x3 TB X-RAID.  

 

 

Message 7 of 12
Sandshark
Sensei

Re: swapping drives from a rn 214 over to a rn104

As for performance of the RNDP6000, it depends on whether it's a -100 model (Pro Business Edition) or -200 (Pro6).  The -100 has a Pentium Dual E2160 @ 1.80GHz, while the later -200 model has a Pentium Dual E5300 @ 2.60GHz.  The processor on both can be updated (all the way to a Core2 E7600 @ 3.06MHZ if you want), though IMHO it's not really worth the bother on the -200 version.  With or without the processor change, both will out-perform a 104 with OS6 and at least 2GB of RAM.  The -200 will be on the order of a 214, as will either with an upgraded processor.  In general, unless there are many concurrent users, the speed of the network becomes the restricting factor.  Not having had a non-upgraded -100 for many years before the 214 was introduced, I can't say which is faster, but I suspect the 214.

 

The RNDP6000's also have no USB3 as well as SATA2 rather than SATA3.  But unless you are using SSDs, SATA2 will make nearly no difference.

Message 8 of 12
StephenB
Guru

Re: swapping drives from a rn 214 over to a rn104


@Sandshark wrote:

As for performance of the RNDP6000, it depends on whether it's a -100 model (Pro Business Edition) or -200 (Pro6). 


The photo shows -200, so my own response assumed that.

Message 9 of 12
Sandshark
Sensei

Re: swapping drives from a rn 214 over to a rn104


@StephenB wrote:

The photo shows -200, so my own response assumed that.


I don't see a photo or a link to one.

Message 10 of 12
exibar
Aspirant

Re: swapping drives from a rn 214 over to a rn104

i think th ephoto was in another thread of mine.  here it is again.

Message 11 of 12
Sandshark
Sensei

Re: swapping drives from a rn 214 over to a rn104

Yup, that's a Pro6 with the faster processor.  If RAM has not already been upgraded on it, you'll need to bump it up to at least 2GB.  But that RAM is dirt cheap since it's slow by today's standards.

Message 12 of 12
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