Help building array and keeping data


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Hello,

 

This is my first post here and my first trip into the land of RAID/Servers/etc so please be gentle!

 

I have got myself one of the trusty HP microservers and am going to be using it as a NAS/Media server but I have a few questions

 

At the moment I have these disks-

 

HTPC disks:

64gig SSD boot drive for HTPC

2tb - With all HTPC data in HTPC(1tb free)

 

Main rig disks

1tb - Backup of HTPS data in main PC

500 gig - Used for storing videos before being placed into HTPC/Backup drive

300 gig - Can be used for storage/empty

320 gig - Laptop hard drive run through caddy - Photoshop/picture backup

250 gig - Came with server 7200rpm - empty

 

The question I have is this:

How can I build the array with these disks without losing the HTPC data?

 

Ive racked my brains but I just end up failing to see how I can do it.

Obviously Ill be using the 2tb, 1tb, 500 gig and the 300 gig at the moment to create the media server until payday when I will be upgrading the 300 gig to another 2tb.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

DiCe!/Alex

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The following is important:

 

- The moment you add drives to the unraid array they will be erased and data will be gone;

- Your largest drive needs to be your parity drive (and will therefor NOT be a drive that counts towards your total amount of storage);

 

Based on the drives you have (and assuming you do not want to buy a new drive, see my remark below on that) the following would be the setup imho:

 

- The 64gig SSD can be used for cache drive lateron (you can do that after everything is done, not necessary to do upfront);

- The 2TB drive will need to be your parity drive, this means that you will have to empty it OR take the risk of building your array without a parity drive at first, doing that will result in data loss in the event of a disk issue, I would not recomment that;

 

- The remaining drives will be your data drive pool, this means that after completion you will have a total amount of 2.37TB available in your array and all your data will be on these drives (the 2TB will not hold your physical files but will make sure that if one of these drives fails you will be able to rebuild your data (eg: no data loss).

 

Take into account that all of your drives are used, you will need to preclear them (I would advise 3 cycles per drive) to make sure they are fine (the fact that you have been using them without issues is not enough).

 

I think your setup is great to do some experimenting in setting up the system and toying with drive removal and learning the system (if that is something you like).

 

There are a few ways I would see you could go:

 

- NO COST -

- MAke the 1TB drive your parity drive (you will loose your backup and run risk until the array is setup, personally I would not do this but it is possible);

- enter 300 gig and 250 gig and make part of array;

- enter 500 gig, copy to array and make 500gig part of array

- enter 320 gig, copy to array and make 320gig part of array

- enter 2TB, copy to array, remove your parity drive and make the 2TB your parity drive, use the 1TB to add to the array pool

 

This will give you with an array of 2.37TB.

 

- LOW COST-

1) invest in a fresh 2TB drive to be used as parity drive from the start;

2) make the 300gig and 250gig part of the array (they are empty and give you data space for 550 gig)

3) put the 500 gig in the server but do not make it part of the array, copy all data from the 500 gig to the array, this will leave you with an empty 500 gig;

4) make the 500gig part of the array, this will give you a 1.2TB array;

5) put the 320 gig in the server, copy all data to the array, this will leave with an empty 320 gig;

6) make the 320 gig part of the array, this will give you a 1.37TB array;

 

Now it comes down to the amount of space you have left in your array (this depends on how much data was on the 500gig and 320 gig).

 

If you are lucky then you will have 1TB free and you can:

 

7) put the 2tb htpc data drive (with 1tb data) in the system and copy all dat to the array, this will leave you with an empty 2tb;

8) make the 2tb part of the array;

9) Since all your data is now on the system and protected by parity you could now also add the 1tb backup drive to the system and the array making your array 4.37TB big (remember however that the parity only protects against drive failure, if you used your 1TB for off-site storage you will want to continue doing that probably.

 

 

It all depends on budget and the way you want to go towards this but if you have the means I would personally:

 

 

- FUTURE PROOF-

Invest in 2 TB ecogreen drives (one for parity and one for your first part of the array) and forget all your current drives (with execption of the 2TB and 1 TB). Remember that all those drives will be running and costing you power. Also they are used and will need to be replaced at some point anytime... The more disks you have running the more likely that one will fail which will cause you work to replace..

 

With an initial 2TB free in your array you can easily copy all your data to the array and then add the 2TB and 1TB drives, this will leave you with a 5TB array.

 

Lots of succes !

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Thanks for the advice :)

 

I think I will have a play with having unRAID installed in a flash and playing with the blank 250gig, waiting till pay day and getting a 2nd 2tb drive, that will make the transfer of the htpc data effortless and wont risk me playing around while I dont know much :)

 

Once again thanks, I expect to see you guys around :D

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That is absolutely the best way to go... Get the free 3 drive license, play around, learn the system and then do the initial invest, it will make the whole operation a lot more effortless !

 

Actually... With the amount of data you have you could run the whole system without paying for unraid... Have 1 2TB drive for parity (a new one), then add your current 2 and 1 TB for data, that gives you a 3TB array that can easily hold all your current data. If, in some time you need more space (or want to use a cache drive, this is not needed) you can easily upgrade..

 

AND the price of the license that you will not have to pay goes a long way towards that 2TB drive :-)

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