Replace drive with a larger one and retain the old drive as a backup (mountable in unassinged devices)


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I have a question regarding the replacment of drives. I want to replace an old smaller drive with a new larger one. As far as i can gather the procedure should be as follows:

1) Stop array and set the old drive to "not assigned"

2) Start array and then shutdown the unraid server

3) replace drive with new larger drive

4) Let unraid rebuilt the data on the new drive

5) unraid automatically expands the rebuilt disk to maximum capacity

 

If this is the correct procedure, will i be able to access the data from the old drive with any xfs capable computer. And more importantly, could i just plug the disk in the unraid server and mount it with unassigned devices to access the data? Or would there be problems because unraid recognizes that the drive was from the array previously?

 

 

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Thanks for the info. I am still unsure exactly when I need to change the UUID. Do i have to do it before i remove the drive, or do i change the UUID before mounting it with unassigned devices for the first time? Is there a reason why i have to change the uuid? I thought that when i set the drive to "not assigned" (step1) and start the array (step 2) unraid will forget that this uuid belongs to the array. Is this assumption wrong?

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1 hour ago, Videodr0me said:

Is there a reason why i have to change the uuid?

The UUID is part of the filesystem, and since rebuilding a drive clones everything including all the filesystem stuff, the original and rebuilt drive have the exact same UUID, and only one will get mounted until you change it to a unique UUID.

1 hour ago, Videodr0me said:

unraid will forget that this uuid belongs to the array.

The UUID is copied to the rebuilt disk, so it still belongs to the array.

1 hour ago, Videodr0me said:

when I need to change the UUID.

Only needed if you want to mount both the rebuilt and original drive at the same time in the same OS.

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8 hours ago, JonathanM said:

The UUID is part of the filesystem, and since rebuilding a drive clones everything including all the filesystem stuff, the original and rebuilt drive have the exact same UUID, and only one will get mounted until you change it to a unique UUID.

The UUID is copied to the rebuilt disk, so it still belongs to the array.

Only needed if you want to mount both the rebuilt and original drive at the same time in the same OS.

Thanks very much for explaining. I think i understand the issue better now but one question remains. If the uuid is identical how does unraid know which drive to include in the array? Lets say I have the new drive inside the array (the old drive is removed from the server) and everything is already rebuilt: If i now shutdown the server, connect the old drive (now both drives are connected), power on and start the array - how does unraid know which of the two drives to include in the array? Or does it remember the drives not only by uuid but other info as well?

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