I've build a new Unraid server to backup the data from my current Unraid server. I'm copying the data via a 10G network connection and I'm tranfering a bit less than 5TB/day. At this rate it will take somewhere around 30 days to conplete the backup.

 

I was wondering if I could;

 

• put a new drive in the old server
• format it to XFS
• copy files locallly
• put a new drive in the NEW server
• add it to the array and not lose the data
• Rinse and repeat
• Once all data has been moved, rebuild the parity

 

Is something like this possible?

 

Edit: I know I could use unassigned devices, but I'm not sure copying the data twice would be any faster than the network copy.

Edited May 15, 20233 yr by subagon

That process will work if the new server does NOT have a parity drive.   If you do have a parity drive Unraid will try and clear it while adding it to the array thus wiping the data.

 

If you do have parity on the new server then you have the option of using the New Config Tool on the new server to add the drive (which will preserve its data) and recalculate parity.   The data would be unprotected until parity completed its rebuild.   If you used this technique then you would probably want to do multiple drives at once to minimise the number of times parity would need rebuilding.