Help me plan drive swap


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I was in need of some extra storage. I snagged 2x new 16 TB drives when they were on sale since they were the same price as the 14TBs. My only problem is that my 2x parity drives are 14TB. I'd like to replace the parity drives with these new ones, and then I'll just use the old parity drives as data drives.  Easy.

 

Except, I don't have enough connectors/space for 2x extra drives.

 

I will retire 2 of the older smaller drives in the array to my backup Unraid, so nothing goes unused. However, I will need to get the data off of them. I don't have enough Free Space in the aray to get all the data off those 2x drives....

 

Sorry, this is all confusing.

 

So can I:

 

Move 2x existing drives to the NetApp4243 extender temporarily (it's an LSI card or clone, I cannot remember which).  Physically remove drive from motherboard controlled and install in NetApp. Install new drive into array. Copy data back to the main drives in the array, and then get rid of the NetApp. (It served its time, but it's loud as hell and it was intentionally taken down). Concern: moving drives from existing controller to the NetApp changes the ?identification. Will I lose any data?  Since unraid changes the identification of the drive when going from existing motherboard controller onto the netapp, would I be able to shut down array, physically remove drive and change to new lcoation/controller, then reassign the newly identified device to the same array location.

 

In the past using for example the same drive on the motherboard controller "ST4000DM000-1F2168_S3006ZHY - 4 TB" when moved to the NetApp4243 would gets an identification like "000-1F2168_SA_S3006ZHY - 4 TB".

 

Eg.  Array Devices/Disk 7 is "Disk 7    ST4000DM000-1F2168_S3006ZHY - 4 TB (sdn)"

 

1. Stop Array

2. Take Snapshot of all device locations

3. ????? Tools->Preserve Current Assignments->None->Yes

4. Physically move ST4000DM000 to NetApp4243 

5. ????? REBOOT in ?? Maintenance Mode (I don't want the array starting yet, but in the past the NetApp drives don't show up until a reboot

6. Reassign newly identified (but same) drive to the previous Device under Array Devices on Main page so I would set "000-1F2168_SA_S3006ZHY - 4 TB" as Disk 7

7. Start up the array

8. This would rebuild the parity :( which takes around 34 hours right now.

 

I really don't want to rebuild the parity with each step, because when putting in the 2x new parity drives (new 16TB drives in place of old 14tb drives), it will have to rebuild anyway.

 

Stupid questions:

moving a drive from Parity to Data, do I have to pre-clear?

 

I frustrated, I'm not sure which step to do first.

 

 

 

 

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Would it be easier maybe to go down to single parity.

 

If I decrease from Dual Parity to Single Parity, then I would turn the 14TB parity drive into a 14TB data drive.  I would then have open space to migrate out 2 drives physical (I could migrate out a 8TB and a 4TB). Then I'd have room to add the drives back. Downside would be single Parity, but at least I'd never lose parity. If I tried migrating 2 parity drives at once, then I'd lose parity.

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5 hours ago, mikesp18 said:

Would it be easier maybe to go down to single parity.

 

If I decrease from Dual Parity to Single Parity, then I would turn the 14TB parity drive into a 14TB data drive.  I would then have open space to migrate out 2 drives physical (I could migrate out a 8TB and a 4TB). Then I'd have room to add the drives back. Downside would be single Parity, but at least I'd never lose parity. If I tried migrating 2 parity drives at once, then I'd lose parity.

Always maintains parity was why I suggested doing the Parity Swap procedure twice as each time around you are still protected against another drive failing by the parity you are NOT doing this process on.  The first time round you get a 16TB drive as one of the parity drives and the 14TB drive that was parity replaces the selected data drive.    During that process you still have the data drive being replaced intact in case anything goes wrong.   You then repeat for the Parity Swap procedure to replace the other parity drive with a 16TB drive and get that 14TB drive to replace another data drive.  

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