For an old build I made an array device with parity using high capacity HHDs that I stored things like my movie files. I also made a pool device on an NVME drive that I used to store my apps, dockers, system files, and a Maria Database.

I like this setup, and want to replicate it for a new build, but I hate that the pool data isn't protected.

What is the best way to protect my pool data?

 

1 hour ago, jhugh said:

What is the best way to protect my pool data?

I use two SSDs in Raid1 (mirror) configuration for my cache pool.

6 hours ago, jhugh said:

I like this setup, and want to replicate it for a new build, but I hate that the pool data isn't protected.

What is the best way to protect my pool data?

 

 

The easiest way is to make the pool redundant by adding another drive to it and running it in RAID1 configuration.   However that is still not foolproof as things other than drive failure can cause data loss so you should still have a backup strategy for the data such as using something like the appdata backup plugin to make regular backups to the main array.

Thank you both very much! I have two M.2 slots I can use for drives. I'll plan on two NVME drives set up in a pool with RAID 1 and then periodic backups of it.

Backups aside, if one of the pool drive fails, does Unraid have any support for detecting this and allowing me to remove, replace, and "reload" the bad drive?

Can I also setup one drive now (not protected) and add another drive later, like how I can add a parity drive later to an array?

11 hours ago, jhugh said:

does Unraid have any support for detecting this and allowing me to remove, replace, and "reload" the bad drive?

Yes, install the replacement it will rebuild from the pool partner.  

 

11 hours ago, jhugh said:

how I can add a parity drive later to an array?

Install the disk and assign it to the parity slot.  The only requirement is you must use a disk size which equal or larger than any of the data disks in the array (not pools).