Hello all,

 

Currently i have an array of 3x 4tb drives with a 14tb parity drive.  all 4tb drives are nearly full.  in addition i have 2x 500gb mirrored appdata and 2x 1tb mirrored cache.

 

I have 3x 14tb i want to swap for the 4tb drives except i want to have double parity.  so i want to end up with 2x 14tb parity and 2x 14tb array. 

 

I have read about shrinking the drive and other topics but want to get a plan down with as little down time as possible while maintaining all data.  

 

can someone help me with a step by step for completing this.  i dont care how long it takes if the array can remain up during the time.

 

thank you in advance.  if i forgot any important information, please let me know.

I've done something similar.

First add the 2nd parity drive and let the system build the parity2.

Then replace a 4tb drive with a 14tb. You could replace 2 4tb at the same time since you have now 2 parity drives but i find it more secure to replace a single disk at once.

When your 2 14 tb drives are reconstructed. You have to move data from the 4tb to a 14tb drive and follow the procedure documented in storage management (clearme script).

I've done it 2 times with success and very little downtime. Don't forget to setup your shares accordingly (disks included or excluded)

Depending on the number of ports usable on your computer you could do it differently but i think it's the safest way to go. It's quite long but there is very little downtime (only the time to stop and start array) each time you have to change disk assignment and your data remain protected. Also don't hesitate to see the doc of storage management it's very helpful (https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/manual/storage-management/)

 

Edited May 14, 20242 yr by caplam