Upgrading to Ultra 6+ from NV+

[nandu]

Hello all,

I am considering upgrading my aging NV+ and NV units to a Pro 6 or Ultra 6+. I had some questions regarding my potential upgrade:

1) Is there any file size limitation on Time Machine backups on the newer units? The NV+ has a 2TB file size limit which is a big limitation. I wanted to use the newer unit with at least 4 disks of 3Tb. I want over 5tb available to Time Machine.
2) I see from the specifications that the Ultra 6+ and the Pro 6 have noise levels of about 25dbA, which are considerably less than the NV+. Are these numbers for a fully loaded unit? Can an Ultra 6+ or Pro 6 reliably be used in a quiet setting (living room or bedroom) without being annoying? Currently, I am using a fully loaded NV+ with a Noctua 92mm fan replacing the stock fan -- it is virtually inaudible.
3) Are WD Caviar green drives supported without issue? These drives make some clicking noises due to the head parking -- does this need to be disabled before the disks are used in the ReadyNAS? I had to use a DOS utility supplied by WD to disable the head parking (a real pain to do since I don't have any windows machines any more) and it would be a real help if the ReadyNAS were to take care of this on its own.

Thanks for the help. My NV+ and NV have served me well. I am hoping my experience with the Ultra 6+ or the Pro 6 will be as positive. And by the way, if anyone has any ideas on whether the Pro 6 would be preferable to the Ultra 6+, please feel free to chip in. I am less interested in features -- I am more concerned about overall responsiveness and noise.

Thanks for your help.

Nandu

[tenney]

I'm thinking of doing the same thing... but don't seen any responses yet.

In addition, I'm wondering:

1) Is there any way to take my existing drives (and data!) and just plug them into either a Ultra 6 Plus or Pro 6 and poof everything is just moved over? Or will I need to have all new drives (at today's post-typhoon/flooding prices) in the new unit -- and then figure out how to copy everything over?

I had nothing buy complete grief in copying everything from one NV+ to another and almost don't want to face that hassle again. Is is now easy to copy EVERYTHING from an NV+ over to either the Ultra 6 (or plus) or Pro 6?

2) I'm seeing Ultra 6 vs Ultra 6 Plus price differential at US$150. Is it worth it for a bit faster cpu? It's unclear that the Pro differential is worth it for a SOHO of a dozen clients accessing the NAS, and almost never more than 2 at once. Any comments on how to contemplate Ultra Plus vs Pro?

3) I'm not seeing any Pro 6 diskless units for sale and the populated units seem fairly pricey. Any reseller suggestions? (typically Amazon is cheaper than Fry's)

Thanks

[yoh-dah]

1) Is there any file size limitation on Time Machine backups on the newer units? The NV+ has a 2TB file size limit which is a big limitation. I wanted to use the newer unit with at least 4 disks of 3Tb. I want over 5tb available to Time Machine.

We've taken out the Time Machine capacity limitation as of 4.2.16 (back in April) on the Ultras and the Pros.

2) I see from the specifications that the Ultra 6+ and the Pro 6 have noise levels of about 25dbA, which are considerably less than the NV+. Are these numbers for a fully loaded unit? Can an Ultra 6+ or Pro 6 reliably be used in a quiet setting (living room or bedroom) without being annoying? Currently, I am using a fully loaded NV+ with a Noctua 92mm fan replacing the stock fan -- it is virtually inaudible.

The larger fan on the Ultra/Pro allows it to spin at a slower RPM thus it is quieter than the NV+, even fully loaded.

3) Are WD Caviar green drives supported without issue? These drives make some clicking noises due to the head parking -- does this need to be disabled before the disks are used in the ReadyNAS? I had to use a DOS utility supplied by WD to disable the head parking (a real pain to do since I don't have any windows machines any more) and it would be a real help if the ReadyNAS were to take care of this on its own.

Caviar Green is supported -- check our HCL -- http://www.readynas.com/hcl

Thanks for the help. My NV+ and NV have served me well. I am hoping my experience with the Ultra 6+ or the Pro 6 will be as positive. And by the way, if anyone has any ideas on whether the Pro 6 would be preferable to the Ultra 6+, please feel free to chip in. I am less interested in features -- I am more concerned about overall responsiveness and noise.

The Pro has a faster CPU that allows it to transcode full 1080p videos whereas the Ultra 6+ can do 720p. This can be important if you plan on running Plex (see http://www.readynas.com/plex) in full HD mode.

[yoh-dah]

1) Is there any way to take my existing drives (and data!) and just plug them into either a Ultra 6 Plus or Pro 6 and poof everything is just moved over? Or will I need to have all new drives (at today's post-typhoon/flooding prices) in the new unit -- and then figure out how to copy everything over?

NV+ runs X-RAID which is a different format that X-RAID2 which is run on the Ultra/Pro platform. You will need to move the data across, perhaps using the NFS backup option between the two.

2) I'm seeing Ultra 6 vs Ultra 6 Plus price differential at US$150. Is it worth it for a bit faster cpu? It's unclear that the Pro differential is worth it for a SOHO of a dozen clients accessing the NAS, and almost never more than 2 at once. Any comments on how to contemplate Ultra Plus vs Pro?

The Ultra 6 Plus will have more transcoding power than Ultra 6. As mentioned above, Ultra 6 Plus can do 720p transcoding. Ultra 6 can do SD. This would be important if you're wanting to run Plex (see http://www.readynas.com/plex) a popular way of sharing video within and away from your home with mobile devices.

[tenney]

1) Is there any way to take my existing drives (and data!) and just plug them into either a Ultra 6 Plus or Pro 6 and poof everything is just moved over? Or will I need to have all new drives (at today's post-typhoon/flooding prices) in the new unit -- and then figure out how to copy everything over?

NV+ runs X-RAID which is a different format that X-RAID2 which is run on the Ultra/Pro platform. You will need to move the data across, perhaps using the NFS backup option between the two.

So I've got to buy all new drives... Too bad.

I've been trying to find out if the Ultra 6 plus and/or Pro support 3TB drives (or they do, but the drive technology isn't solid enough). So far I can only find the 3TB drives mentioned in the drive compatibility list and nothing in the specs for the ReadyNAS itself. Are 3TB drives (a) supported and (b) a good idea?

I sure hope that the royal utter PITA I had to go through going from one NV+ to another NV+ won't exist in going from the NV+ to an Ultra 6 plus (or pro). The only way it would work was to ssh in as root and copy some of the shares / timemachine images by hand! Should I expect that the movement of all the user shares, time machine images, shares, etc. from the NV+ to the new Ultra Plus or Pro will go easily (taking a long time, but easily)? Or is it going to be a huge huge hassle as it was to go from one NV+ to another?

2) I'm seeing Ultra 6 vs Ultra 6 Plus price differential at US$150. Is it worth it for a bit faster cpu? It's unclear that the Pro differential is worth it for a SOHO of a dozen clients accessing the NAS, and almost never more than 2 at once. Any comments on how to contemplate Ultra Plus vs Pro?

The Ultra 6 Plus will have more transcoding power than Ultra 6. As mentioned above, Ultra 6 Plus can do 720p transcoding. Ultra 6 can do SD. This would be important if you're wanting to run Plex (see http://www.readynas.com/plex) a popular way of sharing video within and away from your home with mobile devices.

You've convinced me that between ultra 6 and ultra 6 plus the plus is a no brainer! Thanks!!

How about the choice between an ultra 6 plus vs a pro 6? Any information to help decide whether the pro vs the ultra plus makes enough sense would be most appreciated. It seems to be a small difference in price, but the NIC stuff doesn't seem to matter -- the only thing that I think would matter would be CPU speed and RAM (for things like transcoding on the fly).

And wow, I didn't know that you got Plex server running as a plugin. I might be able to get rid of one server if I can have the Ultra Plus (or pro?) share files from an NV+ (I've got multiple NASes with files for the Plex server). That's great. I've got several questions about that and will seek out another topic...

[mdgm]

Pro 6 for transcoding 1080p. Pro 6 has faster CPU, business features and 5 year warranty. Ultra 6 Plus has 3 year warranty and lacks business features.

3TB drives work fine in all Ultra/Ultra Plus and Pro units. If the NAS comes with firmware older than 4.2.16 less than 1TB of a 3TB disk will likely be recognised. But you can easily update the firmware via System > Update > Remote (may need to do this a few times to get to 4.2.19) and then do a factory reset to get a clean setup on the latest firmware.

I found it quite easy to go from a NV+ v1 to an Ultra 6 last year. It's actually a little easier going NV+ v1 to NV+ v1. With a few simple tricks you can migrate the data fairly easily without needing to use SSH at all (though it's handy to have installed just in case you want to use it).

As for using the NAS as a client so it can share via Plex files from other NAS units you'll need SSH for that.

[yoh-dah]

What mdgm said. With regard to migrating Time Machine backups, I believe we had some folks do this though I haven't had first hand experience on this, so I'll defer your question to others.

[tenney]

Pro 6 for transcoding 1080p. Pro 6 has faster CPU, business features and 5 year warranty. Ultra 6 Plus has 3 year warranty and lacks business features.

Thanks. That makes it a more simple decision based on cost differential really. Since there's no real need for Plex to transcode except to an iOS device, 1080p shouldn't be a biggie (any LAN based client would have access to the same media files).

I found it quite easy to go from a NV+ v1 to an Ultra 6 last year. It's actually a little easier going NV+ v1 to NV+ v1. With a few simple tricks you can migrate the data fairly easily without needing to use SSH at all (though it's handy to have installed just in case you want to use it).

When I did it (late last year), all of the things that made it easier were not available on any of the Sparc implementations. So the only way to do it (the ONLY way) was to use SSH. Every other option was only for x86 ReadyNASes.

As for using the NAS as a client so it can share via Plex files from other NAS units you'll need SSH for that.

hmmm... so NAS "A" can't NFS share from NAS "B" natively without using SSH? Well, maybe I'll be better off letting my Plex server be a separate machine which just NFSes to the two ReadyNASes. That's too bad. Would have been nice to have it all on one box. But... maybe with 6x3TB drives I can do it.

Thanks

[mdgm]

When I did it (late last year), all of the things that made it easier were not available on any of the Sparc implementations. So the only way to do it (the ONLY way) was to use SSH. Every other option was only for x86 ReadyNASes.

I disagree. I migrated to an Ultra 6 earlier that year and even then it was a little easier to migrate NV+ v1 to a NV+ v1 rather than NV+ v1 to x86 NAS. Sure there wasn't the option to backup Time Machine in Frontview, but you could backup "C" volume with ".timemachine" path.

As for using the NAS as a client so it can share via Plex files from other NAS units you'll need SSH for that.

hmmm... so NAS "A" can't NFS share from NAS "B" natively without using SSH? Well, maybe I'll be better off letting my Plex server be a separate machine which just NFSes to the two ReadyNASes. That's too bad. Would have been nice to have it all on one box. But... maybe with 6x3TB drives I can do it.

The ReadyNAS is only designed to be a NFS client for the purposes of backup jobs. Using it as a NFS client for other purposes is not supported but if you know the commands to use then it'll work fine.

[nandu]

Thank you all for your responses. I purchased the Pro 6 and am looking forward to using it. All of you in the forums are amazingly knowledgeable and I learn something new each time I read your responses. I was one of the earliest purchasers of the original ReadyNAS from Infrant, and felt even then that the support from the company's staff and the knowledge of the users in the forums were second to none. As must be obvious to everyone here, that still is very much the case. Yoh-Dah, as always, you are an awesome fount of information.
Thanks again for the help.
Nandu

[Jjnsgy]

Pro 6 for transcoding 1080p. Pro 6 has faster CPU, business features and 5 year warranty. Ultra 6 Plus has 3 year warranty and lacks business features.

Thanks. That makes it a more simple decision based on cost differential really. Since there's no real need for Plex to transcode except to an iOS device, 1080p shouldn't be a biggie (any LAN based client would have access to the same media files).

I found it quite easy to go from a NV+ v1 to an Ultra 6 last year. It's actually a little easier going NV+ v1 to NV+ v1. With a few simple tricks you can migrate the data fairly easily without needing to use SSH at all (though it's handy to have installed just in case you want to use it).

When I did it (late last year), all of the things that made it easier were not available on any of the Sparc implementations. So the only way to do it (the ONLY way) was to use SSH. Every other option was only for x86 ReadyNASes.

As for using the NAS as a client so it can share via Plex files from other NAS units you'll need SSH for that.

hmmm... so NAS "A" can't NFS share from NAS "B" natively without using SSH? Well, maybe I'll be better off letting my Plex server be a separate machine which just NFSes to the two ReadyNASes. That's too bad. Would have been nice to have it all on one box. But... maybe with 6x3TB drives I can do it.

Thanks

Doesn't the question of transcoding relate to the native file? If all of your files are stored in HD (1080p) then don't you need the extra processing power of the Pro6 to transcode to a handheld/portable device? Do you need the extra processing power if there are copies on the NAS copied at SD (say 720) to play on iPad (not stream) or other tablet device and you want to transcode to stream to a handheld device?

Thanks.