Hello, I am debating between the ex2 ultra diskless, and purchasing 2 (4TB) Red PLUS drives and just purchasing the preconfigured 8TB system.
From what I can see, the preconfigured systems come with the standard Red drives. I can actually save about $40 by purchasing the diskless version, and then purchasing the higher quality PLUS drives.
My question is, what kind of “configuring” would I need to do with the diskless setup? I’m not really comfortable with “building or partioning” drives or anything like that. I would rather not have to install any OS or anything like that.
Is there really much of a benefit from using the PLUS drives vs the standard ones? Saving the $40 isn’t really a huge deal, but the quality of the drives is what I’m looking at. Thank you all!
At 4TB. . .the standard Red drives I believe are SMR.
SMR drives are to be avoided in all circumstances, regardless of cost savings.
They are supposedly good for archival purposes. . . but reading how this actually works… . .I wouldn’t touch it with a 10’ poll.
Red Plus should be conventional CMR technology, with 5400rpm spin. Red Pro is CMR with 7200 rpm spin. I think there are only limited advantages of 7200 rpm in a NAS. (definately the choice for a HDD in a gaming PC)
Although I have never done it. . .I understand that dropping drives into a WD NAS -and defaulting to wiping the drive for new use- is pretty much a default and a rather easy excercise.
Thank you for your reply! I am hoping that someone can confirm that by purchasing a diskless version, that I will be able to just drop in the red plus drives and be good to go, without having to create volumes or anything like that.
There is a volume creation step. . .and a raid configuration step . . . .but these are simple push buttons and are fairly straight forward.
Volume creation step: Confirms you are dropping in fresh drives that you want configured; and didn’t make a mistake and want to preserve daa on the drives. (if the drives came from another WD NAS, you would see an option to use “Raid Roaming”.
Raid configuration step:
Choices are:
Raid 0 (Both drives become a single volume; optimized for fast data retrival. No redundancy. One drive goes bad; all data is lost)
Raid 1 (Drives are mirrored; 2 x 4TB drives gives you 4TB of capacity. Redundant; One drive goes bad, you get a Red LED, a warning email; and you can replace the bum drive without even shutting down the EX2)
JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks) (Drives are independent; 2 x 4TB drives gives you 2 x 4TB shares. Non-redunant… . One drive goes bad; you lose all the data on that drive. Other drive will be fine)
Spanning (both drives are a . . . .aaahhhh. . .I forget the difference between this and Raid 0)
PS: Sounds like you are getting ready to make a purchase. While WD is economical; and quite fine for “simple” network file access. . . . for advanced users; streaming and Internet access. . . other more expensive vendors might be a better choice. You will see a number of threads regarding OS/5 (the current operating system) and it’s overall quality.
For the EX2 ultra, the O/S resides on chips on the motherboard.
Volume creation is indeed equivilent to “format”
The secret here is updating firmware is basically wiping and replacing the O/S. This is a simple LINUX based system. . .and the O/S files are relatively small. It takes under 10 minutes, and is not an all-day event like a Windows O/S upgrade.
I have done firmware updates a number of times, including a reversion back from the current OS/5 back to the obsolete OS/3. That non-sanctioned reversion process took 15 minutes.
Some say you should update firmware whenever firmware is available… . . .I say wait awhile to make sure the rest of the user base doesn’t have issues with that version.
So. . . I would check for a firmware update every few monthes.
(In 2020, new firmware was coming out bi-monthly. in 2021, it was once per month. Not sure the frequency is in 2022)
((NOTE FOR OS/3 USERS: don’t do any more firmware updates. The last firmware update just provides a nag screen to upgrade to OS/5. There will be one more firmware update. Supposedly to remove cloud services. No telling what else will be intentionally/unintentionally be included in that update. It certainly won’t be a security patch)
I want to thank you for all of your input on my dilemma. I went ahead and decided to order the EX2 Ultra, with 2 of the 4TB Red Plus drives. I know you mentioned that other companies offer better and more in depth devices, but this is my first time getting into a NAS and I certainly do not want to overwhelm myself with all of the possibilities of a higher end system. I think the very user friendly and limited options (limited possibilities for me to mess something up!) is what I need at the moment. I will definitely look into something like a Synology in the future. Thank you again!
