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[Fralex]

Hello to all of you,

I registered to this forum since I am planning to make a very big upgrade on my NAS.

It is currently running firmware 1.04 with 2 X 500 Go HD in RAID 1 mode for years with no trouble.

My target is to go to 2 X 2 To in RAID 1 mode.

After having read information here and there I know that I will have to upgrade first the firmware to be able to support HD of 2 To.

Here are my questions to you guys :

- Can I upgrade from 1.04 to 1.09 in one hop or should I process step by step (1.05, 1.06, 1.07 ect..) ?
- Is there a risk to loose data when upgrading firmware ?
- Which 2 To HD should I plug in it after upgrade ? I mean brand and model.

For sure addtionnal questions are coming, but starting with the 3 above is already something important to me.

Thank you with anticipation for your replies.

Francis.

[dosborne]

I've never heard of anyone losing data with a firmware upgrade,....but you should always have a backup.
You can load the new firmware version directly. Each one is a full release, not incremental.

My suggestion:
1 Backup data
2 Remove both 500GB HDDs
3 Upgrade firmware
4 Install and configure 2TB HDDs (Reconsider RAID1 - Is it really what you want?)
5 Restore data

If you really have no way to do a backup (REALLY!?) then skip step 1. Use a cheap USB enclose to attach the 500GB HDDs to a PC along with the appropriate device driver and copy the data in step 5.

[Fralex]

Hi Dosborne,

Thanks for your reply.

Why should I reconsider the mirroring solution ?

I was considering this plan (not sure if all steps are possible) :

- removing both drives from the NAS
- upgrading the firmware
- put in place the two new HDs
- restoring data from a PC running Ubuntu with one of the 2 500Go HD connected on a USB port (not sure if it is possible)

Your thought on that ?

Francis.

[fordem]

Why should I reconsider the mirroring solution ?

I'm curious about that suggestion too.

I was considering this plan (not sure if all steps are possible) :

- removing both drives from the NAS
- upgrading the firmware
- put in place the two new HDs
- restoring data from a PC running Ubuntu with one of the 2 500Go HD connected on a USB port (not sure if it is possible)

Your thought on that ?

Francis.

As the FIRST step, powerdown the NAS and remove a single drive, connect it to the PC running Ubuntu using the method of your choice, USB should be possible provided you can get the appropriate SATA/USB adapter AND Ubuntu supports the adapter of your choice, and make sure you have access to the data before proceeding - if that doesn't work you can still access the data on the remaining drive in the NAS and move onto a perhaps more conventional copy across the LAN type solution.

By-the-way Dosborne - if you haven't heard of anyone losing data with a firmware update, then I suggest you haven't been reading these forums - the horror stories are there.

[Fralex]

Thanks for the suggestion, I am going to get a USB dock for SATA disk and try to read my data with my laptop running Ubuntu.

What about the brand I should purchase to be sure on the compatibility matter with the NAS ?

[dosborne]

Why should I reconsider the mirroring solution ?

It sounds to me that you do not have the data backed up and feel RAID1 is a backup solution. It is not. Given that RAID1 provides little value, running separate volumes and scheduling a copy of one disk to the other is often a much more reliable, stable and safer approach. It is of course up to you. Running standalone volumes makes the disks easier to mount and manage in a Linux PC as well as dealing with RAID volumes can be tricky.

Also, you should consider using FW v1.10 if you have AFT drives. Once formatted you can roll the FW back to v1.09 as it is more stable (less bugs) as many users have done, including myself.

Typically a cheap $20 enclosure is fine. I've used a simple USB<->SATA cable adapter and windows linux ext driver to mount and read the drives.

[Fralex]

Hi dosborne,

I see your opinion on RAID1 versus two separate volumes and agree that this point should be really considered before the final design.

I am not mixing up backup and redundancy since I had been risponsible of serveurs, storage and backup in international companies during years and I had been dealing with EMC Symmetrix boxes particularily.

My NAS si currently collecting each night data coming from several systems. Therefore it is a kind of backup by itself since the data are duplicated anyway. My point is not to loose the NAS data otherwise I would have to collect everything manually.

I am reading your consideration with deep attention and will take it in account.

Yesterday i got good price on a NetGear ReadyNas Ultra 2 baies. So I am now considering upgrading the Dlink and making it working together with the NetGear (both with 2 HD of 2 To).

I will probaly put Samsung spinpoint HD204UI in the Netgear and will take this opportunity to test their compatibility with the Dlink.

I keep posting here i have the feeling this forum is plenty of good ideas.

Cheers,
Francis.

[fordem]

Given that RAID1 provides little value,

What is it that gives you this impression?

Granted, RAID1 is not a form of backup, but to suggest that RAID1 provides little value is misleading and totally incorrect.

Perhaps you should take a look at the server offerings of the top tier manufacturers - see how many of them come with a RAID1 solution as the default - even blade server solutions, which have to be mated to SAN solutions for storage, are shipped with a pair of drives in a RAID1 configuration for the OS.

In many implementations you will find RAID1 being selected over RAID5, RAID1's disadvantage is inefficient use of space, RAID5's disadvantage is reduced throughput (slow writes) and with the constant (and rapid) decline in the "cost-per-byte" of storage, more & more users are willing to overlook the "cost" of a RAID1 array.

[Fralex]

I must admit that during my IT professionnal carrier I always implemented RAID5. The only time I lost data was with a RAID1 with no uptodate backup. Both disks were corrupted and we lost a couple of days of data.

From my opinion RAID5 is the best solution regardless le cost. But it doesn't prevent to make backup.

One of my last implementation with a EMC2 was

- one volume in RAID5
- itself mirrored on a second RAID5 volume called Business Continuity Volume
- backup done on tapes at night by a robot library

This was for very important data, and at this point in time the cost of the solution was not the point. When I left the organisation we were running a project for a backup off site throught a dark fiber connection to a secondary site.

Now I am not working any more I have to implement a far smaller solution for my private usage 

Francis.

[Fralex]

At the light of this thread together with the not foreseen purchase of the ReadyNas I think I know the final design I will implement:
- data and services into the ReadyNas in RAID1 mode
- backups into the DNS-323 in two standard volumes mode

For money raisons I will proced by steps. So my next steps are :

- firmware upgrade of the DNS-323
- change the RAID1 impementation to two standard volumes of 500 Go each
- run the readyNas with one HD of 2 To for backup

My question is: is it possible with the DNS-323 to go from 2 X 500 Go in RAID1 to 2 X 500 Go in 2 standard volumes without reformating the drives ?

[fordem]

My question is: is it possible with the DNS-323 to go from 2 X 500 Go in RAID1 to 2 X 500 Go in 2 standard volumes without reformating the drives ?

No - however, you should be able to do it without losing the data by removing one disk and formatting the other, on reinstallation of the removed disk, you should have separate volumes, one of which will contain the data.

[Fralex]

I will order a HD of 2 To for the ReadyNas next week and will start to move.

ReadyNas:
- installing and formating 1 X 2 To
- firmware upgrade

DLink:
- data backup to the ReadyNas
- shutdown
- removing one disk
- power on
- breaking the RAID1 and formating the disk
- firmware upgrade to 1.09
- inserting the second disk
- check if the data are still there

[Fralex]

I am replying to myself to inform you about my upgrade.

- I purchased 2 HD from Seagate : green 2TO réf. ST2000DL003 and put them into the ReadyNas.
- Formated the two disks in two separate standard volumes
- Upgraded the NAS to the latest firmware

For what concerns the DNS323 :

- Backup the data to the ReadyNas
- Shutdown
- Removed the left HD out of the NAS
- Powered back ON the box (RAID1 running in degraded mode and lost all the shares but the administrator)
- Upgraded the firmware from 1.04 direct to 1.09
- Broken the RAID1
- Formated the HD as a single standard volume (seen as volume_1)
- Shutdown
- Inserted back the second HD and powered ON (seen as volume_2 and the shares were back)
- Shutdown the NAS
- Swapped the two HD for convenience
- I am currently busy with reorganizing the data within the two volumes and will have to rearrange the shares

I will run for a while this config :

Live data on the DNS323 (2 standard volumes of 500 GO each) and backup into the ReadyNas (2 standard volumes of 2 TO each). As soon as I get out of space with the DNS323 I will put two HD of 2TO into it and my storage capacities will be better balanced.