Issue:

 

I have a 2TB Parity Drive with bad sectors on it. That's why its going RMA.

(for info:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=15704.0)

 

I'm running 4.5.6 now.

I want to replace the bad sector Parity Drive with a new 3TB one, which I have in my hands richt now..

To use the 3TB one, I have to upgrade to 5.x, but in the release notes I can read that before upgrading to 5.x, I MUST have a working system with a working Parity Drive. And that's just why I'm upgrading to 5.x , because the stable non-beta versions doesn't support the 3TB's....

 

So what should I do? Try the latest 5.x and see what happens?

 

 

I am facing the same decision. There are plenty of threads here discussing this approach. I will wait until a stable 5.* version is released that supports 3TB drives. I have 4 of the Hitachi drives and am considering to do the HDParm trick of making a partition equal to 2 TBs. Then when the stable 5.* version is released increase the partition to 3TB and let the array do its rebuilding. I think this is going to be a lengthy process time wise.

Wait for the RMA to arrive and use it as parity. You must upgrade to version 4.7 before upgrading to the latest beta. Once you've upgraded then you can replace the parity drive. Be aware of the problems some are having with particular 8 port SAS PCIe cards. Check the announcements thread and read the upgrade instructions. Follow the instructions carefully.

You can upgrade without the parity. If you're not comfortable reading and understanding the announcement threads related to the 5.0 beta's then you might want to hold-out for a stable release.

 

You can change the 3T into a 2T drive to get the parity back working and just stick with 4.5.6 or 4.7 for now.

 

Peter

Ok thanx guys.

 

It's very tempting to just first upgrade to 4.7, then to 5.x, shove the 3TB drive in and see what happens leaving it 3TB..

But I'm gonna think and read about it for a bit longer.

 

If it all goes bad, I can remove the 3TB one, and use my new 2TB RMA drive as Parity.

(Or isn't that an option anymore then? What's the worst that can happen?)

 

I guess I'll never know if I didn't try it..