Volumes; Volume Management; Advantages Of Flex-Raid; Advantages Of X-Raid - Infrant Technologies Readynas User Manual

Volumes

Volume Management

The ReadyNAS family consists of two RAID volume technologies – Flex-RAID, utilizing the
industry-standard RAID levels 0, 1, and 5, and X-RAID, Infrant Technologies' patented expandable
RAID technology. Your system defaults to one or the other, however, you can switch between the
two modes through a factory default reset process described in Chapter 4 – System Reset Switch.
There are advantages to both technologies.
► A D V A N T A G E S O F F L E X - R A I D
1. The default volume can be deleted and recreated, with or without the snapshot
reserved space.
2. Hot spare disk is supported.
3. Full volume management is available – you can create a volume utilizing RAID level 0,
1, or 5, specify the size of the volume, delete a disk from a volume, assign a hot spare,
etc.
4. Multiple volumes are supported, each with a different RAID level, snapshot schedule
and disk quota definition.
5. Each disk can be replaced, one by one, then rebuilt; after the last disk is replaced,
another data volume utilizing the newly added capacity can be configured.
► A D V A N T A G E S O F X - R A I D
1. One volume technology, but supports volume expansion, either by adding more disks
or by replacing existing disk with larger capacity disks.
2. You can start out with one disk, and add up to 3 more disks when you need them or
can afford them.
3. Volume management is automatic. Add a 2 disk; it becomes a mirror to the 1 . Add
rd
a 3 , your capacity doubles; add a 4 , and your capacity triples – the expansion
occurring while maintaining redundancy.
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.

Volume Management for Flex-RAID

If you wish to reconfigure the default volume C, wish to split it into multiple volumes, specify a
different RAID level, or specify a larger reserved space for snapshots, you will need to reconfigure
your volume. The first step is to delete the existing volume you wish to replace.
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