Netgear for some reason believe that ReadyNAS models that aren’t the “Pro” line don’t require network teaming across both their ethernet ports, so you have 2 network ports on your NAS, you’ve got your jumbo frames on and you want to configure load balancing/failover via the 2 interfaces.
Of course the ReadyNAS is based on Debian linux, you could SSH into the box and use /etc/network/interfaces to configure a networking bond using: mode=balance-rr or using aggregated link spec 802.3ad if you have a switch that supports it: mode=802.3ad.
However, Netgear also think it is a good idea to “bork” your install on reboot if you mess with your networking in such a way even though it’s a standard Linux package and kernel. As such the best way I have found to achieve what we are after on the non-pro models is to simply use an addon.
It is meant to be for the Pioneer models but works fine on my Ultra-6, wish i’d have found this sooner and not spent so much time trying to do it natively!
Configuring is simple, download go to your NAS’s admin page -> add-ons -> add new, upload & verify the addon:
Goto add-ons -> installed and enable Teaming for Pioneer, Choose your teaming method, I am running mine in round-robin at the moment with jumbo frames enabled:
Check it all worked in your Network -> Interfaces section – It should display Ethernet 1+2 at the top and the link as 2Gbit:
Why not follow @mylesagray on Twitter for more like this!
Thanks for mentioning such a great add-on! I can confirm this add-on works with the Ultra 2 Plus (firmware 4.2.21), at least in Failover mode. I’m looking forward to trying some of the active load balancing and jumbo packet features as well, but I want to learn a little more about the features first. Thanks!
Hi Edward,
Am looking to get my hands on this add-on, but seems all links are down or has 404 error. Can you please email it to me or provide me a link?
Big thanks.
Could you please reupload, getting a 404
working with the RNDU2000 as well. Download not working any more. Any tips for me how to configure in order to get best performance?
If you have them in a LACP (802.3ad) then that’s the best you will do, given each transfer is limited to 1Gb/s (the throughput of a single NIC), if you have two sessions to the NAS you could potentially have 2Gb/s total, 1Gb/s to each device, however it depends on how what hashing algorithm you use over the LACP link: http://serverfault.com/questions/171333/how-exactly-specifically-does-layer-3-lacp-destination-address-hashing-work