Hey guys

 

As topic says, i want to convert my 20 drive jbod windows "server" to unraid for the security of parity,and thus have a few questions how i go about that?

 

I have 2 brand new WD20EARX that just came in to day,and i was thinking about doing pre_clear on these 2 drives,1 parity and 1 data, and then move my content from my existing jbod server 1 disk at a time,and the pre_clear free disk,until all 20 drives have been pre-cleared.

 

How do i go about this exactly? Do i run pre_clear from a windows platform,or do i remove all my current drives,including the boot drive,and replace them with the 2 new drives,install unraid to usb and run pre_clear from unraid usb on the 2 drives,and then add 1 drive at a time,move content from old ntfs drive onto new preclear data,and then pre-clear the old empty ntfs drive,and continue this until all 20 drives are rdy or failed? Can one move/delete/copy content from within unraid at all? Or do i need to put the content drives in different computer,and then move via gigabit lan?

 

The server is made up of brand new hardware,but not everything is to limetech specifications,for example,i use only 1x8 port supermicro sata card,and 4xasrock sata cards,and so far it has worked ok,sometimes it seems there is a conflict on boot where a drive or 2 disappears,then i have to physically change the drive to a different slot,and re-boot,then it re-appears,but i think this has more to do with windows failing to initialize the drives on bootup than the hardware.

 

Also, my drives are a mix of older WD and newer WD, 2 are 1TB but most are 2TB,so how does the 4k alignment feature in here? Do i inspect each drive,and pre_clear it accordingly with the 4k switch if drive is 4k,and no switch if drive is NOT 4k? and then change the format settings for each drive in unraid as i add them to array?

 

Anyhow, any help would be appreciated

Hey guys

 

As topic says, i want to convert my 20 drive jbod windows "server" to unraid for the security of parity,and thus have a few questions how i go about that?

 

I have 2 brand new WD20EARX that just came in to day,and i was thinking about doing pre_clear on these 2 drives,1 parity and 1 data, and then move my content from my existing jbod server 1 disk at a time,and the pre_clear free disk,until all 20 drives have been pre-cleared.

 

How do i go about this exactly? Do i run pre_clear from a windows platform,or do i remove all my current drives,including the boot drive,and replace them with the 2 new drives,install unraid to usb and run pre_clear from unraid usb on the 2 drives,and then add 1 drive at a time,move content from old ntfs drive onto new preclear data,and then pre-clear the old empty ntfs drive,and continue this until all 20 drives are rdy or failed?

Yes

 

Can one move/delete/copy content from within unraid at all? Or do i need to put the content drives in different computer,and then move via gigabit lan?

Either. See the wiki for info on mounting NTFS drives in unRAID.

 

The server is made up of brand new hardware,but not everything is to limetech specifications,for example,i use only 1x8 port supermicro sata card,and 4xasrock sata cards,and so far it has worked ok,sometimes it seems there is a conflict on boot where a drive or 2 disappears,then i have to physically change the drive to a different slot,and re-boot,then it re-appears,but i think this has more to do with windows failing to initialize the drives on bootup than the hardware.

 

Also, my drives are a mix of older WD and newer WD, 2 are 1TB but most are 2TB,so how does the 4k alignment feature in here? Do i inspect each drive,and pre_clear it accordingly with the 4k switch if drive is 4k,and no switch if drive is NOT 4k? and then change the format settings for each drive in unraid as i add them to array?

All disks perform optimally as 4-kaligned. Make all disks 4k-algned. (There is one exception: WD EARS and only WD EARS drives with a pre-existing jumper installed should be non-aligned. Do NOT add any jumpers!!)

 

Anyhow, any help would be appreciated

If you choose to copy over the lan, use a program called teracopy and enable it to do a TEST.

It will take longer, but it will verify the data read is the data written and re-read.

If there are any mismatches stop and double check all hardware.

 

OK,i already use teracopy,so no sweat there,just annoying i have to put the drives in other pc. Regarding the WD20EARS they make out most of the array,as i have 8 of those,i have 2xWD10EADS 1xWD20EACS and the rest is WD20EARX, wdidle has been run on all drives NOT EARX to stop the load count, and i think only the EARS and the EARX are 4k capable,correct? I have never used any of these drives with a jumper,so none are installed.

 

 

OK,i already use teracopy,so no sweat there,just annoying i have to put the drives in other pc. Regarding the WD20EARS they make out most of the array,as i have 8 of those,i have 2xWD10EADS 1xWD20EACS and the rest is WD20EARX, wdidle has been run on all drives NOT EARX to stop the load count, and i think only the EARS and the EARX are 4k capable,correct? I have never used any of these drives with a jumper,so none are installed.

 

All drives perform optimally as 4-aligned. It makes no difference if the drive has 4K sectors. Drives with 512 byte sectors perform equally regardless of selected alignment. 4K drives should perform better as 4k aligned. Non-4K drives can be formatted either way.

 

Format all drives as 4k aligned irregardless of whether the drive is 4K and all of the drives will perform optimally. Do not worry about whether a drive is 4k or not. They will all perform optimally formatted as 4k aligned.

OK,i already use teracopy,so no sweat there,just annoying i have to put the drives in other pc. Regarding the WD20EARS they make out most of the array,as i have 8 of those,i have 2xWD10EADS 1xWD20EACS and the rest is WD20EARX, wdidle has been run on all drives NOT EARX to stop the load count, and i think only the EARS and the EARX are 4k capable,correct? I have never used any of these drives with a jumper,so none are installed.

 

All drives perform optimally as 4-aligned. It makes no difference if the drive has 4K sectors. Drives with 512 byte sectors perform equally regardless of selected alignment. 4K drives should perform better as 4k aligned. Non-4K drives can be formatted either way.

 

Format all drives as 4k aligned irregardless of whether the drive is 4K and all of the drives will perform optimally. Do not worry about whether a drive is 4k or not. They will all perform optimally formatted as 4k aligned.

 

Did not know that, thank you.. Gonna begin the long tedious process of moving and preclaring,talk to you guys in about a month