» What is the advantage of using X-RAID over RAID 5?
The ReadyNAS systems support both RAID levels. RAID 5 is an industry-standard RAID level whereas X-RAID is an Infrant patented RAID technology that simplifies and automates the RAID management process. X-RAID utilizes a one-volume technology with built-in volume expansion support, either by adding more disks or by replacing existing disk with larger capacity disks. For instance, you can start out with one disk, and add up to 3 more disks when you need more capacity or when you can afford them. Volume management is automatic. Add a 2nd disk, it becomes a mirror to the first, providing protection from a disk failure; add a 3rd, the capacity doubles; add a 4th, and your capacity triples ? the expansion occurring while maintaining redundancy.
X-RAID also provides further expansion capability. At a future point in time, each disk can be replaced one by one, have it finish rebuilding, and after the last disk is replaced, your volume automatically expands utilizing the new capacity. This future-proof technology allows you to continuously expand as higher-capacity disks become available.
Performance-wise, X-RAID is optimized for larger sequential access request pattern, such as video streaming and editing. Performance over RAID 5 in large data transfer can be as much as 15-20% better.
Where X-RAID excels at large sequential transfers, RAID 5 performs better in smaller random access request pattern, fitting better in most office environments. Full volume management is available when you select RAID 5 (or Flex-RAID) mode. You can delete the existing volume and recreate one or more volumes, with each volume with different snapshot space and quota specification. You also have the flexibility of assigning an unused disk as a hot spare, allowing for the standby drive to kick in to replace a failed disk, minimizing the time where you may be vulnerable to a second disk failure.
In the future when you need more capacity, you can replace each disk one by one, and when the last disk is replaced, you can create another volume utilizing the new available space. This is in contrast to X-RAID where the single volume expands over the new space.
» What is the volume capacity when installing disks of different sizes?
Volume capacity will be limited by the smallest disk. For example, if you are installing one 250GB drive and three 750GB drives, your data volume capacity will be limited to 250GB on each of the four disks. In Flex-RAID mode, you can utilize the leftover space on the 3 750GB disks by creating another data volume (3 x 500GB). With X-RAID, if you replace the single 250GB disk with a 750GB disk, your capacity will automatically expand, utilizing all 750 GB from each of the 4 disks.
» Will NETGEAR provide data recovery service if needed?
NETGEAR will provide data recovery analysis and service for a fee. Each case will be vary in price based on time spent. NETGEAR Support can provide an estimate after doing an analysis.
» Does the ReadyNAS support scheduled power on and off?
ReadyNAS NV+, 1100, Rev. B NV and Rev. B X6/600 support scheduled power on and off. Rev. A NV needs add-on to turn on this feature, see add-on notes for details.
» What is the maximum number of users and groups on the ReadyNAS?
There is a limit of 32,000 users and 32,000 groups, however, depending on application, the ReadyNAS will support from 1 to 20 concurrent users. For large video files, the ReadyNAS can stream 4 HD-quality video without frame drops. For Microsoft Office-type applications, the ReadyNAS will handle many more concurrent users.
Filename length is limited to 255 bytes. If filename contains only alphabet and numbers, this limitation is the same as most of client. However if filename contains Germanic umlaut, Chinese character, Kanji, etc., filename will be limited to less charactors. The maximum filename length will be 85 characters if filename cosists of only Chinese charactors.
» What is largest file size that the ReadyNAS will support?
The ReadyNAS will support up to 1TB (terabyte) file size. Some protocols, such as HTTP will have a limitation where maximum file transfer size can be much less.
» I am using ReadyNAS as primary storage, how do I backup my ReadyNAS?
You can use the built-in FrontView Backup Manager to backup shares to a USB disk, another PC, or another ReadyNAS. Alternatively, you can use a PC, Mac, or Linux backup software to backup shares from the ReadyNAS.
» What is the difference between the ReadyNAS NV and NV+?
First of all, the NV+ is an evolutionary running production change over the original NV. In retrospect, the NV itself was already improving through running production changes, and a lot of features we are introducing formally in the NV+ hardware had already started appearing in the latest batches of the NV, starting in August/September timeframe. So pretty much other than the LCD panel, the hardware on the NV+ is very much the same as the "rev B" NVs that we have been shipping. That said, I will post the improvement in the NV+ since the original NV which was introduced back in February this year. Keep in mind that the RAIDiator firmware runs across commonly across the ReadyNAS family, so the software features remain the same.
LCD panel. Feedback on status and event information are now available immediately just by glancing at the NV+. By default, the IP address and disk usage of the NV+ is displayed, so there's no guessing what IP the ReadyNAS is set for and how much disk space is still available. Also status and events such as disk failure, disk removal and insertion events, USB device events, overtemp condition, etc are displayed as soon as it's triggered. This is in addition to the alerts and logging you've grown to be accustomed to with the ReadyNAS. In addition, boot statuses are now in readable form, so you no longer need to rely on a LED chart to see what's going on. The LCD panel will shut itself off after 5 minutes if there are no failure condition. This prolongs the life of the LCD and eliminates the unnecessary glow if the NV+ powered on at night. Also, it keeps the nice clean look you're accustomed to with the NV.
Quiet power supply. The original NV had a small high-revving fan in the power supply that helped out in cooling the PSU components, but, let's just say, also caused the NV to be louder than it could be. The NV+ now uses a fanless power supply with updated components that can withstand the higher temps. This results in the NV+ being noticeably quieter than the original NV. The "rev B" NV also utilizes the same NV+ power supply. We value our original NV users, and will be providing a retrokit power supply kit that will allow for the same quiet operation.
Improved fan circuitry. The mainboard now has a more robust threshold for handling the wider a ranges or fan RPM. The original NV fan safe range was ~1900-2100 RPM. The NV+ now utilizes a fan that can span speeds from 1600-3000 RPM, allowing for a slightly quieter setting at idle mode, and allowing the fan to spin up high enough for the hottest drives in warmer climates and air condition-less rooms. The "rev B" NV also utilizes the same mainboard with a different fan that ranges from 1600-2400 RPM.
More robust scheduled power-on. The NV+ mainboard now handles scheduled power-on events more gracefully when there is no power to the unit. Previously with the original NV, a power-on event when no AC was applied would result in needing to release the battery before the NV would boot again. The "rev B" NV utilizes the same board so it will also handle this condition identically to the NV+.
Retrospect for Windows and Macs. The NV+ comes bundled with a 5-user license for Retrospect for Windows and Mac users. We have a growing Mac user base (which we love), and partnering with EMC to bring a quality backup program for both Windows and Macs was definitely a high priority. Now more users have a choice on how to safeguard their data -- centralizing backups with our integrated FrontView Backup Manager or using Retrospect where FrontView Backup is not feasible.
Yes in almost all cases; however, it does degrade performance. The only case which does not support SMB signing at all is using the ReadyNAS built-in backup manager, with the Windows (Timestamp) protocol.
You can depress the power button on the front of the ReadyNAS for about 5 secs until the disk LEDs start blinking, and then release. The shutdown process will take about 10 secs or so. Alternatively, you can shutdown from FrontView from the System→Shutdown page.
» Can I update the ReadyNAS firmware before doing the installing my disks?
No, you need to have at least one disk installed before you can update to the new firmware. You can do a factory default with all your disks after the firmware has been loaded.
» Can I mix disk models and sizes when installing the ReadyNAS?
Yes you can, however, please note that the smallest capacity disk will be used to determine the overall size of your data volume. Also, your performance may be limited by the slowest of the disks.
» Can I use the disk(s) that were previously used in a PC/MAC?
Yes you can. But old data will not be able to be preserved, because of this, it is always better to start from factory reset when old disks are used. This will ensure that you have a clean installation on used disk(s).
» How do I configure a RAID 1 or RAID 5 volume with a spare disk?
After installation, delete the existing RAID volume and recreate it with one disk configured as a hot spare. Please be aware that X-RAID does not support hot spare.
You can force a re-installation of the firmware from flash to the disk. This is helpful if you have lost your admin password and want to set it back to default, if errors in your network settings has made it impossible to connect to the ReadyNAS, or if you suspect that the operating system on your disk may somehow be corrupt. The firmware re-installation process will not touch your data volume.
Here are the steps:
Power down the ReadyNAS.
Locate the reset pinhole.
ReadyNAS 600/X6: the pinhole is on the back in the lower left corner.
ReadyNAS 1000S/1100: the pinhole is in the front.
ReadyNAS NV/NV+/Duo: the pinhole is next to the USB port in the back.
Get a straightened paper clip and depress the hidden switch in the pinhole while the power is off, and then power on the ReadyNAS, keeping the switch depressed for about 5 secs.
You will see the drive LEDs in the front blink once. Release the switch at immediately. Do not wait for the 2nd blink which will cause the ReadyNAS to reset itself to factory default and wiping out your data. If you see the LED flash a 2nd time, turn off the power immediately from the back.
The firmware installation will begin from that point. You can monitor the progress with RAIDar. You admin password will reset to 'infrant1' (v3.01) or 'netgear1' (v4.0+).
Simply download the add-on and upload it from FrontView System→Update→Local tab. You will need to reboot before the add-on is installed.
Some of the Add-on packages will not be removable after they are installed. Add-on packages that install a service can be removed from the Services tab.
You can reset your ReadyNAS Admin password by accessing http://ip_address_of_readynas/password_recovery . If you have forgotten the password recovery answer, you will need to perform a firmware re-installation to reset the admin password.
» Why is my volume capacity is lower than expected?
There are several things that factor into the usable capacity of your ReadyNAS volume.
Disk manufacturers use 1GB = 1000^3, whereas most modern operating systems, including RAIDiator, use 1GB = 1024^3. This means a 500GB disk will show up as 465 GB in FrontView.
RAID requires one disk capacity to maintain redundancy. This means if you have 4 x 500GB disks, your end usable capacity will be 3 x 500GB.
RAIDiator operating system takes up roughly 2.25GB per disk.
The overhead of RAID and filesystem takes up roughly 2% of the total space.
Snapshot space takes up 5GB by default during installation. This is resizable.
For example, let's calculate the usable capacity of a 4 x 500GB system in RAID 5 or X-RAID mode. For simplicity, we'll calculate this based on
Raw capacity (GB = 1000^3) = 2000
Conversion to (GB = 1024^3) = 1862
Minus one disk for redundancy (-465) = 1397
Minus OS (10) = 1387
Minus RAID/Filesystem overhead (2%) = 1359
Minus snapshot reserved space (5GB) = 1354
Based on our calculation, the approximate usable capacity for a 4 x 500GB system is 1354GB.
On ReadyNAS systems supporting disk hot-swap (i.e. NV, 1000S), you can take out the failed disk and replace it with a new disk while the ReadyNAS is online (there's no need to shutdown the ReadyNAS). Make sure after taking out the failed disk, you wait about 10 secs before inserting the replacement. On other ReadyNAS systems, you'll need to shutdown the ReadyNAS and replace the failed disk while powered off, and then power-on the ReadyNAS. Once the replacement disk is in-place, the disk will be initialized and sync'd into the RAID volume.
» How long does it take to sync a replacement disk?
This depends on the size of the disk. Typically it'll take anywhere from an hour to several hours. You can monitor the progress in RAIDar or FrontView RAID Settings tab.
» How do I switch between Flex-RAID and X-RAID mode?
RAID 0, 1, and 5 are part of the Flex-RAID RAID levels. If you want to switch from this mode to X-RAID (expandable RAID), you will need to backup your data first, and then perform a factory default. During the factory default process, there will be a 10-minute window during the boot where you can use RAIDar to click the Setup and set the box to the desired RAID mode (Flex-RAID or X-RAID). RAIDar will prompt with "Click Setup" during this 10-minute period.
» How do I add disks to an existing X-RAID volume?
First, make sure the disk is at least as large as the smallest disk in the existing X-RAID volume. Then simply add the disk into the ReadyNAS. If the ReadyNAS supports drive hot-swapping (NV, 1000S), you can hot-add it while the ReadyNAS is online. Otherwise, you will need to shutdown, add the disk, and reboot.
The newly added disk will go through an initialization and sync phase. This can take several hours (e.g. 750GB disk can take about 7 hours). You will be notified by email after this is done, and you will need to reboot the ReadyNAS. Upon boot, your existing volume will either be made redundant if this is the 2nd disk, or your volume capacity will expand if this is your 3rd disk or higher. This is an offline process that can take several hours. You can monitor this with RAIDar, and you will receive an email when the process is complete.
» How do I expand an existing X-RAID volume with larger disks?
Replace one disk at a time with a larger disk, letting it finish initializing and syncing after each replacement (this process can take several hours depending on disk capacity, but you can continue access to the ReadyNAS), and after the last disk has been replaced, reboot the ReadyNAS. The expansion will occur at boot time. The expansion time will depend on your existing volume size, the ending volume size, and the number of files in your volume. Typically, it'll take anywhere from an hour to several hours. You will be notified by email at each step of the process.
Keep in mind that when your replace your disks, with ReadyNAS that supports drive hot-swapping (NV, 1000S), you do not need to shutdown the box before replacing the disks. Simply pull out the disk, wait at least 10 secs, and then add the replacement disk.
» Is it possible for ReadyNAS to restart when power is restored?
ReadyNAS 600/X6/1000S (Rev A and Rev B) will restart automatically, however, ReadyNAS NV/NV+ will not. ReadyNAS 1100 is configurable by on board jumper (J6, Default is on).
» RAIDar status said "Corrupted Root" during factory reset or installation. What should I do?
First, make sure your memory DIMM is seated securely. It may have come loose during shipment. Otherwise, the flash image may be corrupted and will need to be restored. For NAND Flash based systems, please use TFTP Boot Recovery, for USB Flash or Compact Flash based systems, please use Raw-writer.
TFTP Boot Recovery is useful in cases where the ReadyNAS fails to boot, and you suspect the flash may be corrupted. Download the TFTP Boot Recovery package from here and follow the instructions in Readme.txt
» How can I perform a Boot Recovery using a USB flash device?
If you are experiencing boot problems and TFTP Boot Recovery process cannot be performed, you can use the USB Boot Recovery instead. You'll need to download the latest USB boot recovery image for RAIDiator-3.01c1-p6 or for RAIDiator-4.01c1-p1 and write that image to the USB flash device. To write the image on a Windows PC, you'll need to use Rawrite32.zip. Make sure to click the Eject button after the write is complete. On Macs and Linux systems, you'll need to use the 'dd' command in the shell to write the image to the flash device(dd the image to the first partition of the USB drive).
Power down the ReadyNAS, insert the USB flash device, and depress the power button on the front for approximately 20 secs -- you'll see all the disk LEDs blink once at 5 secs, 10 secs, 15 secs, and 20 secs. Release the button right after the 4th blink. This will start the USB boot recovery process. Once the fan and the lights shut off and the lcd screen displays "Attemp", press the power button and the unit will boot up normally.
Note: ReadyNAS boot loader does not support USB flash drives with USB hub built-in, if RAIDar does not detect NAS after 5 minutes, please try other brand/model USB flash drives or you can check if the flash drive has built-in hub using Windows device manager.
» I've scheduled auto Power-On, but why is the ReadyNAS not powering up automatically?
You'll need to allow the ReadyNAS to automatically power-down for the auto power-on to work. Manually powering off the ReadyNAS overrides the automatic Power-On feature.
» I've enabled the schedule Power-Off/Power-On option on my NV, but now I cannot power-on my ReadyNAS. What should I do?
Note 1: This trick does not apply to NV+. NV+ will not run into this problem.
Note 2: If power is on momentary when press power button, the trick does not apply. (PSU is bad or there is circuit shortage somewhere)
Older revision of the NV main board will get into this state if the Power-On event comes on while the NV has no AC, or if there was a power-outage during this time. To recover from this, you will need to reset the timer following the instructions here. When lift battery clamp in Step 3), please do it gently.
Resetting the ReadyNAS back to factory default will wipe out all configuration and data. Please understand this before continuing. If you choose to continue, here are the steps:
Power down the ReadyNAS.
Locate the reset pinhole.
ReadyNAS 600/X6: the pinhole is on the back in the lower left corner.
ReadyNAS 1000S/1100: the pinhole is in the front.
ReadyNAS NV/NV+/Duo: the pinhole is next to the USB port in the back.
Get a straightened paper clip and depress the hidden switch in the pinhole while the power is off, and then power on the ReadyNAS, keeping the switch depressed for about 30 secs.
You will see the drive LEDs in the front blink once at about 5 secs and again at about 30 secs. Release the switch at the 2nd blink.
There will be a 10-minute window where you can use RAIDar to change the RAID mode and/or select the snapshot reserved space. RAIDar will prompt with "Click Setup". If you do not click Setup, the installation will begin with the default settings. Otherwise, it will begin when you've confirmed your option selection in RAIDar. You can monitor the installation progress with RAIDar.
» What is the FrontView default login and password after a factory default?
Prior to RAIDiator 4.0, the default login and password is 'admin' and 'infrant1'. Starting with RAIDiator 4.0, login and password is 'admin' and 'netgear1'. Please make sure you change the admin password after doing a factory default.
» RAIDar shows ReadyNAS IP is 192.168.168.168 and cannot access NAS, why? and how to fix?
This may happen when ReadyNAS is configured to obtain IP address from DHCP server, but DHCP server does not provide IP when ReadyNAS request for IP address. When this happen, correct DHCP server problem, etc. And wait for a while or until ReadyNAS obtain correct IP address from Server. You can also unplug and then plug ethernet cable to force re-initialize network.
This may happen in below situations for examples.
After power outage, DHCP server's boot process takes longer than ReadyNAS.
DHCP lease period expired while DHCP server die.
Click "renew" button in 'Ethernet' tab under 'Network' menu of FrontView, while DHCP server die.
» When I used IE7 or Windows Vista, I get security wanring. How to get rid of this?
ReadyNAS uses self-signed certificate. IE7 or Windows Vista will not trust this certificate unless you explicitly import this certificate by yourself. Below is brief procedure to import certificate.
First, examine the certificate. (Left click on "Certificate Error" in address bar, and click "View Certificate".) If the certificates "Issued to:" and current IP is different, navigate FrontView/Services/Standard_FIle_protocol. Under "HTTPS" service, there is "Generate new key" button. Specify "SSL key host" match with your ReadyNAS' IP, and click "Generate" button. And exit IE7 (to flush cache), and connect to FrontView again.
Then install certificate into IE7. Left click on "Certificate Error" in address bar of IE7, and click "View Certificate". There is "Install Certificate.." button. Click this button to start "Certificate Import Wizard", so follow Wizard to install certificate.
Once certificate is installed properly, you will not be warned.
Note for Vista Users: Please note that Windows Vista works different than XP. When you are using Vista, you need to specify ReadyNAS as "Trusted Zone", otherwise you don't see "Install Certificate.." button when viewing certificate. And while walking through "Certificate Import Wizard", you need to click "Place all certificates in the following store" radio button, and specify "Trusted Root Certification Authorities". (If you place a certificate in your personal store, IE will not trust it.)
» System boot seems to hang on a bad disk, how do I know which one is bad?
If you suspect that one of disks is bad and hanging system boot, please follow these steps to quick locate which one may be bad:
Starts RAIDar on PC
Power up ReadyNAS and keep rescan in RAIDar
As soon as disk LEDs shown in RAIDar, before bad disk hangs system, hover mouse on each disk LED, a pop up message should show disk model only if no ATA errors detected, otherwise, ATA error count will also be displayed
High ATA error count usually means that disk is failing. The best thing to do is to non-destructive test it on PC using vendor's tools, UBCD is one of the best disk utilities compilation, or simply replace the bad disk. The signs of bad disks: Clicking noise from disk, ACT LED flash only once or twice in half minute repeatly, No ACT blinking while power LED is not solid. General advises on bad disk handling: Backup data first, keep disks in original order, replace bad disk as soon as possible, never take more than 1 disk out of RAID.
If your system has RAIDiator 4.0+ on it, and you are having issues with the Volume Check on boot up, it is possible to skip the volume check.
To do this, start with the system off, then turn it on, while depressing the power button for 5 seconds (1 long flash). Users with an LCD on their ReadyNAS will see '5: Skip Vol Check'.
Skipping the volume check is not wise unless you are experiencing problems. It is wise to send your system logs to support for investigation to see why your volume check was having issues.
» How can I replicate my ReadyNAS settings for a large deployment of systems?
You may be in a position where you need to deploy a custom configuration (plus data) on the ReadyNAS to a bunch of units fast. If that’s giving you nightmares, have no fear ? there’s an undocumented but simple way you can do this, even if you have a thousand ReadyNAS boxes you need to replicate.
If you have less than 4 disks, simply add your disk(s) to the box. You can hot-add it if your ReadyNAS supports drive hot-swapping (i.e. NV, 1000S). If your ReadyNAS does not support hot-swap, simply power off the ReadyNAS, add the disks and power on. The newly added disk(s) must be at least the same size as the smallest existing disk. Note that you can add one or more disks at a time. You will be notified by email and through FrontView that the disks will be initialized (this can take several hours depending on the disk capacity). During the initialization phase, you can use the ReadyNAS normally. Once the initialization is done, you will be notified to reboot the ReadyNAS. Upon reboot, the expansion process will occur (this can take several hours or much longer depending on your drive capacity and the number of files in your data volume). You can monitor the status via RAIDar. Upon completion, you will be notified that the volume has been expanded.
» How do I expand my current 4-disk X-RAID volume?
You will need to replace each of your disks, one at a time, with a larger one. Each time the disk is replaced, you will need to allow the disk to initialize and sync before continuing with the next disk. The initialization and sync process will take several hours or longer to complete depending on the capacity of your disk. With the ReadyNAS that supports drive hot-swapping (i.e. NV, 1000S), you can replace the disk online; otherwise, you will need to shutdown the ReadyNAS and replace the disk while powered off. Once all the disks have been replaced, reboot the ReadyNAS to start the expansion process. This will take several hours or longer to complete depending on the volume capacity and the number of files in your volume. Do not interrupt the process during this time. Once completed, you will be notified of the new volume size.
» What happened if I add a larger disk to my current 2- or 3-disk X-RAID volume?
The expansion will still occur, but the expansion size will be limited by the smallest disk in the system. When you replace each of the smaller disks to the larger disk capacity, X-RAID will expand itself to utilizing all the space from this larger disk.
On a failure condition, we advise you to contact NETGEAR Support immediately and provide them with system logs and step you took to expand your X-RAID volume. Do not try to fix the problem yourself at this point as you may create a 2-disk failure condition that might make data recovery hard or impossible.
» What performance can I expect with jumbo frames enabled?
In our performance lab, using IOMeter in sequential read/write test with the ReadyNAS NV, we can achieve 30 MB/sec on reads and 24 MB/sec on writes. This is using a Dell 2.8GHz PC running Windows XP Pro.
» What transfer speed can I expect when reading and writing large files like CD or DVD images to/from the ReadyNAS?
The transfer speed should be similar to what you would get with the above IOMeter test, except that you would have to take into account the read speed from your PC hard disk as well.
» Will increasing the amount of memory in the ReadyNAS improve performance?
We've seen an increase of 12% on both reads and writes with IOMeter when going from the default 256MB memory to 1GB. Depending on the application you may or may not see any improvements. Typically if you will be indexing a large number of media files, running rsync backups, or accessing large folders, you will see improvements.
» Will mixing SATA types (I and II) have an impact on performance?
The ReadyNAS supports SATA II disks in SATA I compatibility mode. There should be little if any difference if the disk speed is the same. That said, performance will be limited by the slowest disk.
» How do I improve write speeds of USB External Drive attached to ReadyNAS?
You can enable the Fast USB Write option in the Performance tab. You will need to properly unmount the USB disk if you select this option; otherwise, you should run a file system check on the disk before accessing it next time. With RAIDiator 3.00+, you can use the front Backup button to unmount and mount a USB disk. Depressing the Backup button for 5 seconds until the disk LEDs blink will unmount a mounted disk or mount an unmounted disk.
» How do I improve my read/write speed of ReadyNAS?
Performance can be a hard thing to measure with the ReadyNAS because of so many different user environments. Folks have different switches, hard disks, PCs, operating systems, and different OS settings. If you feel you have a performance issue, please run IOMeter following the instructions at /forum/viewtopic.php?t=265 so that we can ascertain where the performance bottleneck might be. Update to the latest RAIDiator release before doing so.
As a reference, our performance lab uses the following:
