I've created a couple of BTRFS pools (6 drives each, 1 parity) to store some data offline.

What's the best way to remove the array and be sure that I can restore it again later?  It doesn't seem like it would be an unusual thing to do, but I can't find any writeups.

Thanks in advance!

Do you mean a raid5 btrfs pool or are they in the array?

7 hours ago, JorgeB said:

Do you mean a raid5 btrfs pool or are they in the array?

raid5 btrfs pool. 

I'm hoping to remove and put six-drive pools into storage and restore them at some future date.

As far as I know, I'd just stop the array and pull them out?

Edited April 16, 20251 yr by bithoarder

33 minutes ago, bithoarder said:

As far as I know, I'd just stop the array and pull them out?

Stop the array, click the first pool device and then "remove pool", or the array won't start (assuming 7.0 or newer)

 

To use it again in the future, you just need to reimport it:

 

on main click on the first device for that pool and then "remove pool"
back on main, create a new pool with the same name and number of slots
assign the pool device(s), leave the filesystem set to auto
start the array to import the pool

On 4/16/2025 at 11:34 AM, JorgeB said:

To use it again in the future, you just need to reimport it:

Thanks again!

I confirm for anyone who's planning to do the same: it worked flawlessly.   I've removed and restored several pools now.

When I recreated the pool, I manually chose "BTRFS/RAID 5"... I did not test "auto".  My confidence is higher now, though.

I'm very much open to suggestions for better ways to make backup sets, though.  My IDEAL would be creating another "UnRAID array", because of the flexibility, and because you can have parity while keeping the drives readable as standalones.  I don't know why I thought that feature was slated for 7.0.
 

Edited May 9, 20251 yr by bithoarder