Can total of all disks in array in terms of storage capacity be greater than the total of Parity capacity ?

[AY.Z]

Hi. I have been using Unraid Basic version user for little over six months. 

My current setup is 

Cache 2 disks. 

Parity 14 Tb X 1. 

Array  8Tb + 4Tb + 2Tb. 

So currently, 

Array capacity = Parity capacity

 

My understanding was and still is that 

The array storage capacity shouldn’t be more than the parity’s storage capacity

Am I right here or there’s something I am not getting at all ?

 

I know somewhere down the line I will have to increase my array capacity. let’s say I want to replace my 2Tb disk with 14 Tb disk,  would that be possible without adding another parity drive with my current basic version? 

 

Thanks. 

Edited October 18, 2023 by AY.Z
Clarification.

[TastyTomato512]

Hi

 

The size of a single array drive must not be bigger than the size of a single parity drive. So the total size of the array can very well exceed the total parity size.

Since your parity drive is 14TB, you can "only" use array drives with 14TB max. So that means for your use case, you can already now swap your existing 2TB drive with an 14TB drive without having to adjust parity. In fact, you could do that with all of your array drives.

 

HTH

[Kilrah]

The parity drive just has to be larger or equal than the biggest data drive, but that's the only limitation. You can have 28x 14TB data drives if you want.

[AY.Z]

Thank you guys. This was really helpful.