To start, I wanted to say that I've been using UnRAID for 6 months now and it has performed exceptionally well. It is very convenient to have all my data in one location and that it has some type of protection. I look forward to each and every new release and the added features/bug fixes they bring.

 

For the record, this is the hardware I used to build the server:

GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3R motherboard

Intel Pentium E2160 1.8GHz

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB)

XCLIO GOODPOWER 500W

2xSamsung 750gig (1 used as parity)

2xSeagate 320gig (1 used as cache)

2xWD 320gig

1xSeagate 500gig

1xSeagate 300gig

 

The upgrade I am looking at is moving everything to a new case and adding 3 1.5TB drives. The case I am moving everything to is the NORCO RPC-4020. In order to add more SATA connections, I am also adding the SUPERMICRO AOC-SAT2-MV8 controller.

 

I am looking for some advice when doing this upgrade. First, will my power supply be addequate for 11 drives total? When I add the drives to UnRAID, am I able to add all 3 at once, and after formatting, assign one as a parity drive then the other 2 as data drives? Needless to say, I will make sure to do a full parity check right before the move.

 

All in all, I'm hoping for this to go as smooth as possible and appreciate all the advice.

Some input:

1. Yes, one of the three 1.5TB drives will be your new parity, freeing up the 750GB you now use as parity.

2. Make sure you do a parity right BEFORE the move as well.

3. Not sure if the PSU will suffice - it's a good time to upgrade.  I just ordered the 650W Corsair.  Check out the separate PSU thread.

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2648.0

 

 

Cheers,

Bill

When I add the drives to UnRAID, am I able to add all 3 at once, and after formatting, assign one as a parity drive then the other 2 as data drives? Needless to say, I will make sure to do a full parity check right before the move.

 

All in all, I'm hoping for this to go as smooth as possible and appreciate all the advice.

You can physically add all three disks at the same time.

Before you shut down to add them, do a full parity check.  It will alert you of anything you might not be aware of if your existing disks are acting up in any way.

 

Then, stop your array, un-assign your existing parity drive and assign the new larger drive as the parity drive.

Start the array back up.  It will do a full parity calc once more to populate the new parity drive.

 

Then, stop the array, assign the remaining two new drives and the old parity drive to data slots on the devices page and re-start.  You will probably need to check the checkbox under the "Start" button to proceed as it will want to format the two new drives and the old parity drive as a data drive.

 

The unRAID software will then first clear the new drives, then format them.  Clearing will take hours.. formatting will take minutes.  At that point, you should be up and running. (you will not be able to access your data while the disks are being cleared, this is normal)

 

As there were several versions of unRAID that did not properly clear drives before adding them to the array, be sure you are on a current version of unRAId before you do anything else. 4.3-final or 4.4-beta2 would be appropriate.  (4.3-beta4,5, and 6 had the clearing flaw)

 

Joe L.

Thanx for the info. When I placed the order earlier, I added the Corsair 650w power supply. I rather be safe than sorry. Especially since I plan to keep adding drives. Looks like I got a little project to do this weekend. I will update you when I finish the upgrade. Hopefully it will go nice and smooth. I will post that in the hardware section. Wish me luck.