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Hi, I have a ReadyNAS 104 with 3 of the bays in use and I would like to add the fourth disk (I'm using RAID1).
Ideally, I would like to add the new disk in bay 1 (as I assume this is the system disk where the OS is installed?) and then move the disk in bay1 to bay4. The capacity of the new disk is 5 TB (as is the existing disk in bay 1).
How can I do this without loosing my data? Is my assumption about the OS drive correct --- or should I just add the new disk in bay 4?
I've added a screnshot of Volumes from the admin panel.
You are running FlexRAID/JBOD (one volume per disk). So all you need to do is hot-insert the additional drive in bay 4, and create a new volume (data_4) on the disk.
The NAS always uses mdadm (software RAID), even with JBOD. So it does report RAID-1 in this situation, even though there actually is no RAID redundancy.
The OS is redundantly installed on every drive, so you needn't worry about that. You do not want to be moving the drives around -- it serves no useful purpose and has the potential for making things confusing.
If you started with two drives in XRAID RAID1 and added the third, then you have RAID5, not RAID1. If the 5TB is the largest drive, then you currently have unused space on it that will be used once you install another 5TB for redundancy. If you really do have RAID1, then likely that 5TB isn't being used at all. All this will be answered by the screen shot @StephenB asked for. Chances are, you simply need to insert the new drive in the empty slot, but wait till we have a look at the screen shot to be sure.
I'm not at home ATM, so can't provide a screenshot, but I'm not using xraid, so I guess it makes sense for me to just add the disk in the 4th bay - I was just puzzled that the admin UI tells me I'm running RAID1 .. 🙂
I'll see if I can add a screenshot later today or tomorrow morning, just to make sure..
I'm not at home ATM, so can't provide a screenshot, but I'm not using xraid, so I guess it makes sense for me to just add the disk in the 4th bay - I was just puzzled that the admin UI tells me I'm running RAID1 .. 🙂
We need to be certain exactly what you are using and what you are wanting to achieve before we can give you proper advice.
To answer one of your questions - the OS is actually installed on every disk, so the NAS can boot even if disk 1 fails. It is mirrored on every disk, so all copies would normally be up to date.
So there is no need to shuffle disks around, and it can make troubleshooting complicated.
But we need more information on your goal - whether you are trying
to add redundancy to an existing volume (and which one?)
to expand an existing volume (and which one?)
to create a new jbod volume
and
what disks you are using now
what volumes and RAID modes you are actually using
As far as disk replacements go, I am also wondering about the purchase of a 5 TB drive. I haven't seen a 5 TB internal drive model for many years now. If you have shucked an external drive, then it is quite likely that it is SMR technology. SMR isn't a good option for RAID, as the write speeds are extremely variable (and can be glacially slow). They generally don't work out well in ReadyNAS. Generally speaking, you need to be careful about SMR for any drive between 2 and 6 TB - desktop drives in that size range (and unfortunately WD Reds) are almost all SMR. I normally recommend WD Red Plus or Seagate Ironwolf drives for most ReadyNAS (including the RN100 series).
If you are not running in XRAID mode, then nothing is going to happen with the new drive until you tell the OS what you want to do with it. But then you should also have more than one volume. You've said one is RAID1, and then you should have another that's JBOD. If you don't have that second volume, then it sounds likely your current 5TB isn't being used at all.
Thanks for all your input - actually when you're telling me the OS is mirrored on all disks, my initial idea does not make much sense.. I've added a screnshot of Volumes from the admin panel.
The disk is a disk I bought a while back that I haven't had the use for yet and it's probably not the best disk for a NAS, but it'll do ... when it's time to replace the disk I'll keep in mind to find some disks designed for NAS usage 🙂
All in all it's a very simple setup with no redundancy (I can afford to loose the data) and speed is not essential, and I'll just be adding the new disk in the 4th bay.
I've added a screnshot of Volumes from the admin panel.
You are running FlexRAID/JBOD (one volume per disk). So all you need to do is hot-insert the additional drive in bay 4, and create a new volume (data_4) on the disk.
The NAS always uses mdadm (software RAID), even with JBOD. So it does report RAID-1 in this situation, even though there actually is no RAID redundancy.
