Add parity drive and replace data drive

[dhomas]

Hello there!

 

Still getting the hang of Unraid, so I have a lot of questions. I try to find answers before posting, but some answers seem older and may no longer apply to the latest versions of unraid. I also have a very particular situation that I am not sure how to handle. 

 

Here is the context: I currently have 1 x 22TB parity drive with 1 x 22TB, 2 x 16TB, and 1 x 14TB data drives. I am in the process of preclearing 1 x 22TB drive and 1 x 20TB drive. All my drives are hotswappable; I was happy to see that Unassigned Devices saw them as soon as I inserted them into the empty bays and I was able to preclear them without restarting the whole machine.

 

Here is what I would like to do: 

1. Add the 22TB drive as a second parity drive
2. Replace the 14TB data drive with the new 20TB drive

 

Can I perform these operation in a single step? I would think I would do so in the following manner:

 

1. Stop the array (after the preclear operations are done)
2. Add the second parity drive
3. Drop the 14TB (by setting it to "No Device")
4. Add the 20TB drive into the slot liberated by the 14TB drive Replace the 14TB drive with the 20TB drive
5. Start the array

 

Is it as simple as that? Will this actually work? Or does the parity need to rebuild first when adding a second parity drive? 

 

Thanks for any advice!

 

Regards,

 

Dhomas

Edited March 11 by dhomas
Clarity based on reply

[trurl]

Simple as that, except no need to set slot to no device. Just select the new device in that slot.

 

I prefer to reserve the verb "add" for situations where you are actually adding a disk to a new slot that didn't already have a disk assigned. Parity2, for example, in your case, but could be used when talking about a new data slot. What you are doing with the data disk is "replace".

[dhomas]

14 hours ago, trurl said:

Simple as that, except no need to set slot to no device. Just select the new device in that slot.

 

I prefer to reserve the verb "add" for situations where you are actually adding a disk to a new slot that didn't already have a disk assigned. Parity2, for example, in your case, but could be used when talking about a new data slot. What you are doing with the data disk is "replace".

Thank you for the advice and clarifications. I will try this today and mark your post as a solutions after successfully applying it.

[dhomas]

13 minutes ago, dhomas said:

Thank you for the advice and clarifications. I will try this today and mark your post as a solutions after successfully applying it.

I just performed the operation. Parity is being rebuilt on the newly added parity drive. The replaced disk is being reconstructed. All in parallel. It worked better than I expected! Thanks again!