Parity Shuffle Help! (replace existing parity and failed data disk with 2 new larger HDDs)

[Snubbers]

Hi,

 

I had a drive 'disable' due to reallocated sector counts suddenly increasing.. (8TB Ironwolf NAS edition).

The plan was to buy 2 x 14TB HDDS and

1. Swap the current 8TB parity drive with one of the new 14TB Drives

2. Once swapped, pop in the other new 14TB drive as a replacement data drive.

(My plan for the old 8TB Parity is to actually replace the other remaining 8TB Ironwolf NAS drive in the array at at later date)

 

(For reference, Disk 3 is the 'disabled' drive)

 

So I started following the wiki for Parity Swapping

A. I pre-cleared both 14TB HDDs, then stopped the array.

B. I assigned the one of the new 14TB HDD to the Parity Drive Slot

C. I assigned the old 8TB Parity HDD to the missing data drive (Disk 3)

D. Both had blue icons next to them and a tick box / copy button appear, which I ticked and clicked 'copy'

E. I waited 30 hours until copying completed!

All good so far!

 

So it's completed copying and I think it probably did have the 'Start' button ready for me, but this is where I went off piste and messed up!

Since I didn't want to rebuild Disk 3 on the old 8TB Parity drive, but on the second new precleared 14TB Drive, I simply assigned Disk 3 to the second new 14TB Drive and erroneously assumed it'd keep the start array button and want to rebuild on to whatever was assigned in Disk 3..

 

Nope.. doing this just had 2 'x's against the parity and disk 3 slots and 'too many errors' preventing the array starting.. So I switched disk 3 back to the old 8TB Parity drive and that showed 'blue' icons against Parity/DIsk 3 and it reset the parity copy process back to the beginning.. 

 

I have kicked off the parity copy again, but once completed tomorrow, how should I proceed considering I want to actually replace the data drive with a new 14TB one..

I think the long way would be to let it rebuild the old parity drive as Disk 3, then once complete, stop the array and reassigned disk 3 as the other 14TB drive, and let it rebuild that..

Or is there are slightly better shortcut?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 7, 2021 by Snubbers

[JorgeB]

Assuming you have single parity you first need to complete the parity swap procedure, then upgrade disk3, parity swap procedure needs to be done from start to finish, any change you'll need to start over.

[Snubbers]

2 hours ago, JorgeB said:

Assuming you have single parity you first need to complete the parity swap procedure, then upgrade disk3, parity swap procedure needs to be done from start to finish, any change you'll need to start over.

Thanks,

 

I will certainly do that this time! I've just been reading up on reconfiguring the array, but honestly, just jumping through the hoop of letting it rebuild disk3 on the old Parity drive, then upgrade that afterwards isn't a big deal in the grand scheme!