(SOLVED) Unraid 6.9.2 - Steps to: Replace parity - reorder drives (physically and in array) - move data

[Lexicon]

I want to do the following:

1. Replace my parity drive
2. Remove Disk 4
3. Move Disk 2 to Disk 3 (physically from sde to sdf, and in the array)
4. Move Disk 3 to Disk 4 (physically from sdf to to sdg and in the array)
5. Add the old parity drive as a data drive as Disk 2 (physically sde)

 

The changes would be as follows:

 

[Device : Current config : New config]

 

Parity : 4TB Drive A : 4TB New Drive

Disk 1 : 4TB Drive B : 4TB Drive B

Disk 2 : 2TB Drive C : 4TB Drive A

Disk 3 : 2TB Drive D : 2TB Drive C

Disk 4 : 1 TB Drive E : 2TB Drive D

 

Only Drive B and Drive C have data, and I would want to move everything from Drive C to Drive A after the shuffle.

 

What are the proper steps to do all of the above?

Edited August 25, 2022 by Lexicon

[JonathanM]

1. Unraid tracks drives by serial, not physical location, so you can freely move drives around physically to different ports, Unraid won't change how they are assigned to their logical slots, so put the drives in any physical slot that makes sense to you.

 

2. Since Disk4 (E) has no data AND you are building a new parity drive, nothing particularly fancy needed for this.

   Take a screenshot or some other record of which serial numbers are in which logical slots.

   Power down, physically remove the old parity drive and and the 1TB drive, install the new parity drive, rearrange the drives the way you want in the case, power back up.

   Tools, new config, preserve current assignments ALL, apply, go to main page, drop down the parity slot, VERIFY the serial number of the new parity drive, CHECK IT AGAIN. B and C can stay where they are, since D is empty I'd leave it out as well as E, you can add D back later if you really need the space, better to leave it out, less power and less risk.

   Verify you have the correct serial numbers for the new parity, disk1 and disk2, at this point it should be new drive in parity, B in disk1 and C in disk2. Start the array and build parity. After parity builds, do a non-correcting parity check. If you have zero errors, you can proceed.

 

Stop the array, power down. Replace the 2TB disk with the old 4TB parity disk, power up, select the correct disk for the disk2 slot, and rebuild. Do a non-correcting check.

 

At this point, you should have your new 4TB parity drive, the original 4TB disk1, and the old parity drive as disk2 with all your data, and 2+TB free space on disk2. If you need the space NOW, then add back the 2TB you designated D, and optionally the 2TB you just replaced with the 4TB as well. Keep in mind that each extra spinning drive is a possible point of failure, since parity requires ALL remaining data drives to be read perfectly end to end to rebuild a single failed drive, even if some of those data drives don't have any data yet.

 

You would be better off not putting those older drive back in the array if you can help it.