User Manual

Table Of Contents
Expand Storage Capacity
You can expand the storage capacity of an existing volume in two ways:
Horizontal expansion. Expand the volume by adding more disks to the volume.
Vertical expansion. Expand the volume by replacing disks in the volume with
larger-capacity disks.
Both horizontal and vertical expansion is available for X-RAID and Flex-RAID volumes.
X-RAID makes horizontal volume expansion easy. If your X-RAID volume includes two
or more disks, the volume expands automatically when you add disks.
When you expand a Flex-RAID volume you need to add disks in increments compatible
with the RAID level of the volume.
You can continue to use your ReadyNAS system while the new disks are incorporated
in the background. The process of volume expansion can take several hours. If you set
up email notifications for your system, you receive an email message when the process
finishes. For more information about alert notifications, see Configure System Alerts on
page 186.
Horizontally Expand an X-RAID Volume
To horizontally expand an X-RAID volume:
Add a disk to an X-RAID volume that includes two or more disks.
For more information about how to add a disk to your ReadyNAS system, see the
hardware manual for your system, which is available at
https://www.netgear.com/support/product/ReadyNAS_OS_6.aspx.
The system automatically determines whether the new disk is used for protection or
storage. When you add a second disk, the new disk is used for data protection. When
you add a third or fourth disk, the new disk is used to increase your storage capacity.
For more information, see X-RAID on page 25. New disks are incorporated in the
background while you continue to use your storage system.
Horizontally Expand a Flex-RAID Volume
Horizontal expansion of a Flex-RAID volume is possible, by adding more space and
parity disks in the system. In effect, you create a new Flex-RAID volume and ReadyNAS
OS uses both the existing and new volumes as parts of the same larger volume. Other
configurations are possible, but we recommend expanding all the drives simultaneously
and then creating a single FLEX-RAID volume.
Software Manual39Volume Configuration
ReadyNAS OS 6.10