Hope someone can help, I've an Ultra 6 initially it was configured with 3 No 3TB drives with one of them providing redundancy
I then added another 3TB drive to provide dual redundancy. All went well
Then i added another 3TB drive for expansoion all went well and I had something in the region of ofver 8TB of space.
Finally ia added the last 3TB drive expecting capacity to expand to around 10.5-11TB. Sadley that didn't happen 😞 I get expansion failure warnings with capaicty limited to 10TB.
I've searched the forum and I believe this is a result of a little documented but somehat significant "Feature" called the 8TB expansion limit. Could someone be kind enough to explain a simpler terms what it is, why it is, what I should have done to avoid it and more inportantlty what I can do to resolve the problem
the 8tb limit means you can not expand your filesystem by more than 8 tb going from the initial size (and 16tb in total, even if you started at 15tb).
with your original net capacity beeing around 5.6tb you should be able to grow it to around 13.6 tb (roughly). if it failed at 10 there most be some other reason.
But might not have been as clear as I should have been at the very beginning I had 1 * 3Tb I then added the second and for redundancy and then added the 3rd drive for expansion. Does this change things?
But might not have been as clear as I should have been at the very beginning I had 1 * 3Tb I then added the second and for redundancy and then added the 3rd drive for expansion. Does this change things?
Pete
Yes. The 8 tb limit then starts from 3 TB, giving you a ceiling of 11 TB (or 10.24 TiB). Which appears to be what you are seeing.
You backup up your data and your config, and then do a factory reset. This will wipe the data and build a new volume from scratch. (Since you want ensure dual redundancy, it might make sense to remove one disk before you do the reset, then after the volume builds, add the final drive, specifying dual redundancy).
After the raid array is rebuilt, you reinstall any add-ons, restore your config, and then reload your data onto the NAS.
I'd suggest following beisser's advice before trying a factory default (wipes all data, settings, everything).
If you want dual-redundancy no need to remove a drive when doing a factory default. When you initiate a factory default a few checks will be run then there will be a 10 minute window where you can pull the power to cancel or go into RAIDar (http://www.readynas.com/downloads) click setup and choose the RAID mode. Choose X-RAID2 and tick the dual-redundancy option then confirm your choice. The disks will then be wiped etc. If you don't do anything during the 10 minute countdown the factory default will proceed with the RAID options chosen for you.
Surprised... I have done more than a little research and didn't realize this limit. My understanding is if I start with one 3TB drive in X-RAID2 I will see...
- One drive 3TB space
Installing one drive at a time later...
- Two Drives 3TB space - total of 6TB (with redundancy) - Three Drives 6TB space - total of 9TB - Fourth Drive 9TB space - total of 12TB (losing 1TB)
Am I correct?
Best work around would be to install two drives 6TB initially? What configuration is this tied to... X-RAID2 only or?
Surprised... I have done more than a little research and didn't realize this limit. My understanding is if I start with one 3TB drive in X-RAID2 I will see...
- One drive 3TB space
correct, about 2750 gb
Installing one drive at a time later...
- Two Drives 3TB space - total of 6TB (with redundancy)
nope, two 3tbs still equals the same as one, with redundancy, the drives are mirrored, so no space is increased.
- Three Drives 6TB space - total of 9TB
three 3tb drives is about 5500 gb
- Fourth Drive 11TB space - total of 12TB (losing 1TB)
four 3tb drives is about 8250 gb
Best work around would be to install two drives 6TB initially? What configuration is this tied to... X-RAID2 only or?
the best work around is to install all drives at the same time and perform a factory default, which initizes and creates the whole 8.2 tb volume at one time.
- Two Drives 3TB space - total of 6TB (with redundancy)
nope, two 3tbs still equals the same as one, with redundancy, the drives are mirrored, so no space is increased.
I understand. I had a typo with 4 drives I corrected. That's why I said 3TB space - 6TB being total space installed (not available). And yes I rounded everything for easy reference.
So the 8TB expansion is based on the 2.7 which becomes available and not the 3.0TB size of the drive? Which means I would end up with the same space regardless of when I added them.
At least I wouldn't lose anything (total of 5.4TB expansion going from one to four drives)... at least until the 4TB drives start to ship. 🙂 If I go with flex-raid (JBOD) I would be...
If you went with flex-raid, individual raid0 volumes, it would not matter one bit because each volume would be the size of the disk, and there is no expansion for raid 0
