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I have a 6 bay ReadyNAS Pro 6 RNDP6000-200 with 1 WD WD20EFRX 2TB Red drive in it. The drive is almost full, and I want to add some space. I am considering either adding 1 more WD20EFRX, then choosing to mirror those drives, then add 2 more 3TB Toshiba DT01ACA300 drives. I guess the XRAID2 will just make 2 mirror sets? Is this the best way to go, because if I were to add 3 more 2TB-Red drives (around $300), if XRAID2 did RAID5 then I would have 6TB total? If I go the 1-RED + 2 3TB-TOSHIBA route, it will cost me around the same $300 (but I already have 1 Toshiba drive, so the price is actually $200). But then again, if I went with 3 Toshiba 3TB drives, I would have 6TB+2TB of all redundant storage if my XRAID2 does a MIRROR and a RAID5 set )mirror the 2TB Red's, and Parity Stripe the 3TB Toshiba's)?
Again, here are my options, in list format:
1) Buy 3 x WD 2TB-Red drives for $300, and if XRAID2 does RAID5 I will have 6TB usable.
2) Buy 1 x WD 2TB-Red + 2 x Toshiba 3TB for $300, and see if XRAID makes 2 arrays for 8TB total.
I just an not sure what XRAID2 will make, is there a calculator somewhere, or can we use the Drobo online capacity calculator?
2. You would have a dual-layer array using X-RAID2. X-RAID2 will expand a volume when redundant space can be added. So you would have a 4x2TB layer giving 6TB, and a 2x1TB layer using the remaining space on the 3TB disks giving you an additional 1TB.
Note that like most computers we use TiB but call it TB. 6TB is approx 5.4TiB. It's still the same amount of space but just a different measure. Note also that there is a little space taken up by the OS partition, the swap partition and overheads.
Wow, thanks for the quick reply. To be honest, the fact that I get replies this fast might means I switch all my NAS's to NEtgear, you don;t get this support from everyone!
So, if upgrading to 6 means a complete wipe, maybe I should just start over fresh with some 5TB Toshiba drives (they are on sale for $129). I could start with 3 x 5TB Toshiba drives and get 10TB to start with?
So, my questions:
Questions #1:
Can I pull out the 2TB Red drive, or do I need that drive to do the upgrade? My thoughts are that some of the NOS is on the RED drive, so if I pulled it out, it won't boot?
Questions #2:
If I have to wipe, I guess I will have to reload my NOS (prob. version 4.2.x), then do the upgrade to 6 on the new drives? Can you drop me the link to reloading the base OS, ver. 4.x?
Question #3:
I see some people suggest you download the new NOS zip file, and also a BIN file script to rename, or whatever the prep is for upgrading from 4.x to 6.x. However, I also see some people have a file for download that is already prepped? Which is better, use the script and have it rename the latest NOS, or just use the already renamed NOS BIN file? Seems the renamed file is easier?
Question #4:
I have a 2TB USB drive, can I backup the data on the NAS now with a USB drive, and then restore when I have the new drives installed, or are backups from 4.x not compatible with 6.x?
Thanks again, wonderful support you guys have!!!
David
PS - I think my next NEW-NEW NAS will be a Netgear.
#1. If you've got the data backed up elsewhere then you're can take out the 2TB drive. The current OS will install on any new non-formatted/used drive and boot up as if you ran a factory default.
#2. I'd upgrade using the drive you already have in the device (the 2TB) then factory default the device once you're on 6.
#3. Download - Install first PREP4TOR6_0.1-x86.bin
Then download R4toR6_latest.bin
And depending on what version you're given in that bin file if it's not 6.4.1 beta 1 I'd suggest downloading that then installing it.
It's a very simple and straightforward upgrade. I've got 6 8TB drives running raid 5 in my pro 6. It's a total of over 36TB's of space.
On #4, yes you can backup to a USB disk and restore from that afterwards. After the backup completes I would unmount the USB disk in Frontview and disconnect it and reconnect it when you want to restore from backup.
The USB disk would use a filesystem such as NTFS, EXT3, EXT4 etc.
I have an Ubuntu Desktop, a Mavericks OSX Desktop and laptop, and a Fedora Laptop, so I think I am good with EXT 3 if that is the best filesystem option?
I am thinking the file permissions would be better kept intact if I keep Linux to Linux backup and restores?
I have an Ubuntu Desktop, a Mavericks OSX Desktop and laptop, and a Fedora Laptop, so I think I am good with EXT 3 if that is the best filesystem option?
I am thinking the file permissions would be better kept intact if I keep Linux to Linux backup and restores?
David
Since you can read ext3 formatted drives, there's no reason fo avoid the format.
My point was only that it is best if you can read the backup on another machine.
More capacity questions, not sure if I should have made a new thread.
So, I added another 2TB, and the size remained the same, I just became redundant. However, I then added 4 x 3TB drives, so I have this in my NAS now:
2 x 2TB
4 x 3TB
It shows my space as 9.99TB available? It that right? I thought the 2TB are redundant, and the 4 x 3TB are RAID5 which would give me 9TB? So (9+2 = 11, unless I lose that extra TB due to rounding (1024 vs 1000)...
I also have 2 more 3TB drives on order, so I will have 6 x 3TB drives, all same make and model. Any ideas on what my total space will be once I swap out the 2TB drives with 3TB ones? Also, do I just remove each 2TB drive 1 at a time, let it rebuild, then swap the last 2TB out for a 3TB?
Last question: If I expand, and want to be redundant, I guess I would have to buy 2 larger drives at the same time initially, say I added an 8TB drive (in a pair), I am guessing I would pull a drive, add the 8TB, let it rebuild, then repeat this a 2nd time? Would my space increase my 5TB then when I was finished? (8-3=5 TB gain for swapping out a 3TB with an 8TB)?
With 2x2TB+4x3TB xraid, you should have 13 TB of storage, which would be reported as ~11.8 TiB. The rule for volume size is simple - drop the largest drive, and sum the rest.
One of the limits to xraid expansion with 4.2.x systems is that the volume can't expand more than 8 TiB from the starting point. You started with 2 TB, so you can't reach full capacity. To get the full space, you need to backup up your data, do a factory reset on the NAS, and reload the data from backup.
To spell out the steps:
(a) make a list of any add-ons you have installed (removing any you don't care about)
(b) back up the NAS configuration
(c) back up the NAS data
(d) do the reset with all drives in place
(e) reinstall the add-ons
(f) restore the configuration
(g) restore the data.
The order of (e) and (f) matters - make sure any add-ons are reinstalled before you restore the configuration.
It's tedious, but not as difficult as the steps make it look.
Wow, I did not know about the expansion limited to 8GB beyond the starting size.
It makes sense, I started with 2TB, and I am capped at 10TB.
However, while I started with 4.2 NOS, I upgraded to 6.x before I added the drives. I guess the 8TB expansion limit still exists even if you upgrade to version 6, does that sound correct? So, my next question is if I start fresh with 6 x 3TB drvies, using version 6.x of the NOS, would I still have that limit, so I guess I am starting with 15TB, and if the 8TB expansion limit still exists with version 6.x, I guess I could not expand beyond 23TB (15TB start +8TB expansion = 23TB limit)?
However, while I started with 4.2 NOS, I upgraded to 6.x before I added the drives. I guess the 8TB expansion limit still exists even if you upgrade to version 6, does that sound correct?
I missed the OS 6 upgrade, and that does NOT have the 8 TB growth limit. So something else is going on.
Try rebooting the NAS, and see if expansion continues.
Even with 6.4.1, I am stilled capped by the 8GB expansion limit.
New problem: My 120mm rear fan does not spin? As per peoples suggestions on this forum, I bought a Noctura Fan (looks really nice) and installed it easily. However, the System still shows 0rpm and a red dot over the new fan. I know the old fan did not spin, and I even swapped out the Noctura with a coolermaster, nothing spins. The sensor works (maybe) as it shows 0rpm when it is not turning. I upgraded last night 6.4.0->6.4.1 (problem existed BEFORe upgrade).
EDIT: I plugged the OEM "Crown" brand fan back in, and when the system boots, it can spin the fan at full rpm it seems, but once I boot up, it stops spinning. So this verifies the electrical part is working, otherwise it would not spin at all. No idea why once booted it will not spin the 120mm fan in the back? The little fan and the CPU fan spin just fine...
Even with 6.4.1, I am stilled capped by the 8GB expansion limit.
No you're not. I'm not saying you don't have an expansion problem. Just that the 8 TiB growth limit does not apply with OS-6 - so the cause must be something else.
With 4.x, what are the specifics of the 8TB expansion limit? Is it caused by the OS storage driver, the XRAID binary, what exactly leads to this? Maybe that will shed some light since the array was created under 4.x?
And what about the new fan issue? What might cause that, as the system reports the 120mm as 0rpm, but spins it just fine during bootup?
With 4.x, what are the specifics of the 8TB expansion limit? Is it caused by the OS storage driver, the XRAID binary, what exactly leads to this? Maybe that will shed some light since the array was created under 4.x?
First of all, conversion to OS 6 requires a factory reset, so the array wasn't created in 4.2.x. The disks (OS partition, RAID and file systems) were completely rebuilt. Did you do something different?
@howarddavidp wrote: Should I start a new thread for this?
That's up to you.
I guess the bigger question is what you can do about the expansion problem. OS6 is unsupported, but perhaps someone from Netgear would be willing to take a look.
You could do a factory reset (forcing you to restore the data all over again), and see if that gives you the space you ought to have.
Looks like X-RAID is working fine, but you will likely have to wait until the "recovery" stage is over. You're only at 47.1% as of these logs. Wait until it is done resyncing and determine the total at that point.
The OS is currently running on 4 drives.
Your main data volume (the 2 TB segment) is currently in the recovery phase. The additional 1 TB phase from the 3 TB disks is already done. It's really only acknowledging 5 disks as well.
