So, I have at the moment:

 

5 x 8TB (1 parity + 4 data)

1  x 2TB unassigned device for downloads

1 x 240gb SSD for cache

 

I need more space and I'm considering getting a larger HDD. 

The best price / Gb here in my country is the 12TB HD. 

 

So, I should upgrade the parity first, right? 

The first 12TB should go into parity and I can use the 8TB one that is parity today as data, is that correct?

 

How do I do all that? 

Install the 12TB set it as parity and after having 2 parity drives I'll set the 8TB one as data?

11 minutes ago, TheFreemancer said:

So, I should upgrade the parity first, right? 

 

Since you can't have a data disk that's bigger than your parity disk you must upgrade parity first.

 

12 minutes ago, TheFreemancer said:

How do I do all that? 

 

Stop the array. Unassign the old parity disk. Assign the new one. Start the array and let parity build. Then, stop the array. Assign the 8 TB disk to a new data disk slot in the array. Start the array and let the disk clear. Confirm that you want to format the newly added disk.

 

This page of the on-line manual has a lot of information on the subject: https://wiki.unraid.net/Manual/Storage_Management

 

Nice! 

Thank you, I wanted to be sure I wasn't doing anything wrong and might loose data.

There are faster and more risky ways of achieving the same result but the one I've described is safe and makes sense to me and has the advantage of keeping the old parity disk intact until after the new parity disk has been built, which might be very useful if a disk happened to fail during the process.

This is timely for me as well as I am about to do the same thing.

On 4/28/2021 at 12:12 PM, John_M said:

 

Stop the array. Unassign the old parity disk. Assign the new one. Start the array and let parity build. Then, stop the array. Assign the 8 TB disk to a new data disk slot in the array. Start the array and let the disk clear. Confirm that you want to format the newly added disk.

 

 

 

I might have screwed this up. 

 

I should have looked into the order of doing this as you mentioned. The order I did here was:

1. Install 16TB drive. 

2. Assign it as parity and start the array

3. let parity build

4. now I have Parity 1 (old) and Parity 2 (new).

5. Unassigned the parity 1 (old) and started the array

6. stopped the array

7. set the old parity disk into slot 5 and started the array and it's formarting now.

 

It might not be a big deal but now my Parity is called Parity 2

It say it's valid but it's labeled as parity 2. 

 

Could this be a problem in the future?

Is there a way now to relabel it to partity 1 again?

You can continue with psrity2 and no parity1.   Parity1 and parity2 use different calculations so the only way to get parity2 into parity1 would involve rebuilding its contents from scratch.

5 minutes ago, itimpi said:

You can continue with psrity2 and no parity1.   Parity1 and parity2 use different calculations so the only way to get parity2 into parity1 would involve rebuilding its contents from scratch.

 

So, it's better to rebuild it, correct?

 

I don't mind waiting for the whole process. 

But if this won't give me a headache in the future when a disk goes bad I'll leave it like that.

 

EDIT: and sorry for insisting on this question I just want to be sure I'm not screwing this up or missunderstanding what you are saying.

Edited May 9, 20215 yr by TheFreemancer

1 minute ago, TheFreemancer said:

So, it's better to rebuild it, correct?

No need unless your OCD bothers you running with parity2 present and no parity1.

Ok, I'll leave it as is. 

 

Thank you for the support.