ioSafe R4 - Manual (Page 37)

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Volumes
Volume Management
The ioSafe R4 consists of two RAID volume technologies – Flex-RAID, utilizing the industry-
standard RAID levels 0, 1, and 5, and X-RAID, NETGEAR-patented expandable RAID
technology. Your system defaults to X-RAID, 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 nd disk; it becomes a mirror to the 1 st . Add
a 3 rd , your capacity doubles; add a 4 th , and your capacity triples – the expansion
occurring while maintaining redundancy.
4. 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, or specify a
different RAID level, you will need to reconfigure your volume. The first step is to delete the
existing volume you wish to replace.