Warning
The Remove operation is a maintenance feature and is not recommended in
a live environment. Its function is equivalent to hot-removing the disk or
simulating a disk failure.
The
Locate
option is a way to verify that a disk is correctly situated in the expected disk slot.
Clicking on
Locate
will blink the LED of the disk for 15 seconds.
Volume Management for X-RAID
The X-RAID technology offers a simplified approach to volume management. X-RAID works on
the premise that what most people want to do with their data volume over time is either adding
redundancy or expanding it without the headaches usually associated with doing that. By using
simple rules, X-RAID is able to hide all the complexities yet provide volume management features
only previously available in enterprise-level storage solutions.
►
X - R A I D R E D U N D A N C Y O V E R H E A D
To maintain redundancy from disk failure, X-RAID requires a one-disk overhead. In a two-disk X-
RAID volume, the usable capacity is one disk. In a three-disk X-RAID volume, the usable capacity
is two disks. In a four-disk X-RAID volume, the usable capacity is three disks.
►
X - R A I D H A S O N E D A T A V O L U M E
X-RAID devices only have one data volume. This volume encompasses one to four disks, utilizing
the capacity of the smallest disk from each disk. For instance, if you had one 80GB disk and two
250GB disks, only 80GB from each disk will be used in the volume. (The leftover space on the
250GB disks will be reclaimed only when the 80GB disk is replaced with a 250GB or greater
capacity disk. See “Replacing All Your Disks for Even More Capacity” below.)
►
A D D I N G A 2
N D
D I S K F O R R E D U N D A N C Y
A one-disk X-RAID device has no redundancy and provides no protection from a disk failure.
However, if and when you feel the need for redundancy, simply power down the device, add a new
disk with at least the capacity of the first disk, and power on. Depending on the size of the disk,
within a few hours, your data volume will be fully redundant. The process occurs in the
background, so access to the ReadyNAS is not interrupted.
►
A D D I N G A 3
R D
A N D 4
T H
D I S K F O R M O R E C A P A C I T Y
At a certain point, you will want more capacity. With typical RAID volumes, you will have to
backup your data to another system (with enough space), add a new disk, reformat your RAID
volume, and restore your data back to the new RAID volume.
Not so with X-RAID. Simply power down the device, add the 3
rd
and perhaps 4
th
disk and power
on. The X-RAID device will initialize and scan the newly added disk(s) for bad sectors in the
background. You can continue working normally with the device during this process without any
lag in performance. When the process finishes, you will be alerted by email to reboot the device.
36
Page 36
