Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[urnrg]

Hi. I'm a new DNS-323 owner. This unit was purchased for SOHO.

I want to start a conversation regarding good data management strategy for my situation.

I have a mixed environment: Windows Vista, Windows 7, OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

I purchased this device primarily for backup using RAID 1.

I'm impressed by the mix of features and intend to use most if not all of them.

The strategy I would like to follow is to setup RAID 1 and to have an off-site backup copy.

Two smaller drives have been installed and I want to temporarily use JBOD as a combined volume.

tl;dr

Can I convert the two JBODs into a RAID 1 without losing data?

Is it possible to swap a mirrored drive with an off-site drive on a regular basis?

As my needs grow and larger drives are required, can I expand the RAID capacity by adding new larger drives incrementally?

Thanks.

[fordem]

Can I convert the two JBODs into a RAID 1 without losing data?

No

Is it possible to swap a mirrored drive with an off-site drive on a regular basis?

Not recommended - it can be done, but expect to lose data at some point

As my needs grow and larger drives are required, can I expand the RAID capacity by adding new larger drives incrementally?

No

[urnrg]

Thank you for the quick reply.

Can you comment on the first point of converting JBOD to RAID?

In the user manual it says, "Enables you to change from Non-RAID to RAID 1 configuration without losing data on the hard drives." (PDF, p. 7)

On the third point, I would expect the RAID 1 to increase capacity to the smallest drive capacity.

How then is a RAID 1 capacity increased as required?

[JavaLawyer]

Thank you for the quick reply.

Can you comment on the first point of converting JBOD to RAID?

In the user manual it says, "Enables you to change from Non-RAID to RAID 1 configuration without losing data on the hard drives." (PDF, p. 7)

The DNS-323 supports converting from Standard Volumes to RAID, but not JBOD to RAID

On the third point, I would expect the RAID 1 to increase capacity to the smallest drive capacity.

How then is a RAID 1 capacity increased as required?

The DNS-323 does not support RAID resizing. The size of a RAID 1 array is determined by the size of the smallest HDD at the time the RAID 1 array is created. Swapping the smallest HDD for a larger HDD at a later time will not re-size the array.

[Wiggs]

Is it possible to swap a mirrored drive with an off-site drive on a regular basis?

I would be wary of routinely swapping drives.  Aside from the obvious chance that a RAID array won't be rebuilt properly, you run the risk of damaging the DNS.  It isn't designed to have drives swapped in and out on a routine basis.

Regards,

Wiggs

[urnrg]

Very good, very important information. This modifies the scope of a data management strategy that I was trying to achieve where I could dynamically grow data storage and mitigate against catastrophic loss of data.

I just got my Dec. Entrepreneur issue (p. 46) saying that there is no universal backup solution, to have a good plan in place and that cloud solutions are pricey per buck. This pretty much backs up what my meta senses are saying.

I have a mixed environment where I want to do three things with data which are data storage, data archiving and data backup in co-locations with very reasonable prices. I can't imagine cloud storage prices coming down since they are in tandem with physical drive prices, a la Thailand.

There are a lot of value-added features on the DNS-323 but according to the answers here there is a physical weak point of a statically sized RAID 1 that does not allow for regular hot swapping.

Is this something where a magical firmware update can address some of these issues?

I'll leave it at that for a final word. Now, I'm going to go and formulate a new strategy that doesn't involve throwing a lot of money at it.

[JavaLawyer]

You may benefit from this sticky post in the ShareCenter FAQ board: Data Backup vs. Redundancy

[janetkissho]

you can get help from here or the answers provided above are also not bad.