Is it possible to remove a drive from the array and rebuild it from the parity without replacing that drive? I have enough free space in the array to do this, just do not know if it is possible without screwing the whole thing up. Thanks!

Is it possible to remove a drive from the array and rebuild it from the parity without replacing that drive? I have enough free space in the array to do this, just do not know if it is possible without screwing the whole thing up. Thanks!

Yes, BUT ... you'll not be protected from another disk failure until you subsequently initialize a new disk configuration and calculate parity again on the new disk configuration.

 

Perform a parity check to be sure all is well before going forward.

Stop the array

un-assign the disk you'll be removing

power down

disconnect the disk you'll be removing

power up the disk will show as missing, but you'll still be able to get to its contents because it will be simulated by parity and all the other data drives.

Copy from the (un-assigned) simulated drive to others in your array with free space.

Once all the contents have been copied

Stop the array once more

use the "initconfig" command to set a new disk configuration without the drive you un-assigned.  All the drives should be blue when you go back to the main page and refresh it.  When you then start the array it will begin the process of calculating parity new on the new disk configuration

 

When it is done, perform a manual parity check to make sure the parity you wrote is readable.

 

Now... all that said, it is a long process.  You can shorten the time it takes without parity protection by copying your data off the drive you'll be removing prior to un-assigning it.  That will keep parity protection while you perform that step.

 

You'll still lose parity protection once you issue the initconfig command, but it will be a shorter interval.

So just to be clear, doing this will not loose any data? assuming there are no drive failures during this of course.

So just to be clear, doing this will not loose any data? assuming there are no drive failures during this of course.

assuming you copy all your data to the other drives, and have no other drive failure, you will not lose data.

 

After you issue the "initconfig" command do NOT proceed unless all the disk indicators are blue on the main page after you refresh it.

 

When you issue the initconfig command you'll need to respond with a"Yes" (capital "Y", lower case "es") for it to set the new configuration.

When you then refresh the main screen the description on the bottom of the screen should talk about initially calculating parity.  It should NOT say anything about clearing new drives.  If it does, do not start the array.