This article discusses volume expansion applying to RAIDiator and ReadyNAS OS 6 devices.
- ReadyNAS OS 6 has no volume expansion limitations.
Since RAIDiator 4.2, the default RAID type is X-RAID2. X-RAID2 allow for automatic single volume online expansion. Because expansion happens online, you can continue to use your ReadyNAS system while the volume capacity increases.
X-RAID2’s single-volume architecture has two major advantages:- Easy system management
- Auto-expansion
With Flex-RAID formatting, if you want to add disks to expand your storage capacity, you must back up the data to another system, add a disk, reformat the RAID volume, and restore the data to the new RAID volume.
With X-RAID2, none of those administrative tasks are required. Your volume automatically expands to accommodate additional disks or larger-capacity disks. You can start out with one hard disk, add a second disk for data protection, and add more disks for additional storage capacity. Adding further disks of the same TeraByte size is known as Horizontal expansion. You can replace existing disks with larger-capacity disks, one at a time, and they will add to Volume. This is known as Vertical expansion.- This screenshot is taken from the Desktop PDF Data sheet. The physical limits for the desktop range are discussed here.
So looking at the Capacity line, let me explain the internal and Total solution figures.
The RN312 takes 2x 4 Tera disks. Internal Capacity is 8 Tera, but due to RAID and mirroring, you have 4 Tera actual data storage, minus overhead. One Expansion chassis takes 5 disks. 5x 4T=20Tera. 8Tera + 20T= 28T.
The RN316 takes 6 disks. 6x4=24Tera. 2 eSATA ports each take (5x 4Tera) =40Tera. So the total is 24T internal + 40T = 64Tera.
Be clear that Physical Capacity is not the same as Data capacity. RN516 for example has a physical capacity of 24Tera, but due to RAID, where the loss of one disk will not affect you data, the Data storage is (6-1)x 4Tera= 20Tera minus overhead.
- EDA500
You can added disks physically using an EDA500 Expansion chassis. However this will be a separate Volume. X-RAID is not supported across different chassis. Therefore, as you have at least 2 Volumes, the concept of an expansion limit does not apply. - For x86 ReadyNAS, with V4.2.xx firmware, there are limitations to volume expansion.
The file system can not expand more than 8TB total, in its lifetime.
Examples:
2TB->10TB expansion OK
2TB->8TB->10TB expansion OK
5TB->13TB expansion OK
2TB->11TB expansion NOT OK
2TB->8TB->10TB->12TB expansion NOT OK
5TB->14TB expansion NOT OK
No x86 system can expand past 16TB. Systems already above 16TB may not expand further. If you are hitting a limit, you have the option of factory resetting the NAS to achieve full capacity if disk capacity is over 16TB. This will delete your data.
The process would be:
(a) Backup your data
(b) Insert the set 2 Tera or 3 Tera disks you have.
(c) Perform Factory reset.
(d) Allow 3-4 hours for Disk Synchronisation to take place.
(e)Copy your data back on to NAS.
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For Sparc units with V4.1.xx firmware, you are limited to 2TB drives, so the expansion limits above are not applicable.
Furthermore for Sparc:
- If you last did a factory default on RAIDiator 3.x or earlier, you cannot expand past 5TB. You need to do a factory default, preferably on the latest firmware.
- If you last did a factory default on V4.1.6 or earlier, you should consider updating firmware, and factory defaulting, if using one or more 4k sector disks.