I have a combination of changes that i want to make to my array and am not sure how best to accomplish them.

 

I have a few new sata hard drives that i want to add to the array and one ide drive that i want to remove. (sata =500Gb ide=80GB)

my array is currently

parity - 500 Gb SATA

disk1 - 500 GB SATA

disk2 - 80GB IDE

 

and I want

parity - 500 GB SATA - same drive

disk1 - 500 GB SATA - same drive

disk2 - 500 GB SATA - NEW

disk3 - 500 GB SATA - NEW

 

I know how to add the new drives without any problem but i was wondering how i should remove the 80GB ide drive? The ide drive has a small amount (18GB) of imformation that i want to keep... ( i have a pro key, so the number of drive will not be an issue).. I don't have enough space on disk1 to move the information from disk2 to disk1 temporarily.

 

What is the best sequence of events to follow that will minimize downtime and keep the array protected as best as possible? 

 

I also have external harddrives that i can use and have unmenu & mymain web interfaces available if needed.

 

Thanks,

Matt

well, you can

add new disk3

move the data from disk2 to disk3

remove disk2 and add the new disk2

run a parity check.

To eliminate learning of issues during a disk upgrade, it is recommended you do a full parity check before changing/adding disks.  It gives the SMART capability of the disks a chance to act to deal with any bad sectors.

 

To minimize down time, before you add the new disk to the array on the "Devices" page, pre-clear it.  That way you will not be faced with several hours of down-time as the disk is cleared.

 

That way, you will keep parity protection as you add the new disk to your array.  Once one of the 500 Gig drives is available for space, you can move the contents of the smaller 80 gig drive to it. 

 

 

At some point you will need to upgrade the 80 gig drive...  When replacing a drive with another unRAID does not need to clear the drive first.  You can skip the pre-clear.  This time, stop the array, go to the devices page, assign a new 500 Gig drive to the same logical slot the 80 gig drive was assigned (un-assigning the 80 Gig drive), go back to the main page and press "Start" (and the 80 gig drive's contents will be re-constructed onto the new 500Gig drive)  You will not have "parity" protection until the new drive is finished being rebuilt, but your data will be on the other drives. 

 

Subsequently, you might want to re-assign the 80 Gig drive as your "cache" drive.  It would probably work well in that capacity.

 

Joe L.

1 - Run a full parity check on the array.  Only begin once you know all of your disks are happy.  (THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP)

 

2 - Run some type of burn in test on the 2 new drives to make sure they are good.  Joe L.'s preclear process will do this a little bit, but it is best to READ the drive completely, WRITE the drive completely, and then READ the drive completely again.  Check out this post for some ideas of how to do this on a temporary or test array.  (This can happen at the same time or before you do your full parity check).

 

3 - Copy the 18G of stuff somewhere else - some to disk1, some to your home workstation, some to Aunt Bessie's laptop - whereever.  Seriously, 18G is not much space.  If you have run the burn-in procedure on a temporary or test array in step 2, you can even copy the data from the 80G to one of the 500G as part across the net before you take the drives out.

 

4 - Remove the 80G drive, add the 2 500G drives, press "Restore", and then start the arrray. (When you press restore your array protection is gone.  But with your situation you have to press it once anyway  Since you ran a full parity check in step 1, you should be fine..  Pre-clearing won't help as it has to rebuild parity anyways.

 

5 - After the parity build completes, IMMEDIATELY run a parity check.  unRAID's Web page gives you a false sense of security after the build.  It says it has been checked but it hasn't.  A full parity check should always follow a parity build to verify the integrity of the array.

 

Sorry but I am a newbie with a tiny bit of knowledge (so I am dangerous ) and a little confused.

 

Since all he is doing is replacing one drive and adding another, can't he just:

 

1) Run parity check to make sure everything is happy.

 

2) unassign the 80gb drive and shut down the server.

 

3) Install the new drives.

 

4) Boot up and assign the new 500gb to the 80gb drives spot and assign the 2nd 500gb drive to a blank spot.

 

5) Let it format the new drives and then it should automatically rebuild the data that was on the 80gb drive to the 500, right???

 

Trust me I am strictly asking a question and am not trying to tell Biggy2872 a procedure he should follow. This is what I did and it worked fine but would like to know for future reference if this is a bad way to do it.

 

Just want to make sure I have my facts straight 

 

 

 

Sorry but I am a newbie with a tiny bit of knowledge (so I am dangerous ) and a little confused.

 

Since all he is doing is replacing one drive and adding another, can't he just:

 

1) Run parity check to make sure everything is happy.

 

2) unassign the 80gb drive and shut down the server.

 

3) Install the new drives.

 

4) Boot up and assign the new 500gb to the 80gb drives spot and assign the 2nd 500gb drive to a blank spot.

 

5) Let it format the new drives and then it should automatically rebuild the data that was on the 80gb drive to the 500, right???

 

Trust me I am strictly asking a question and am not trying to tell Biggy2872 a procedure he should follow. This is what I did and it worked fine but would like to know for future reference if this is a bad way to do it.

 

Just want to make sure I have my facts straight 

 

I think you are good through step 3, but you cannot add the 1st 500G to replace the 80G at the same time you add the 2nd 500G to a blank spot.  (I could be wrong, it's not like I do this type of thing that frequently).

 

But if I am right, you'd have to rebuild in one pass, and then add the 2nd drive, have it clear that drive, and then add it to the array.

 

If you used Joe L.'s clear disk process, that would work okay on the second disk making it quick.

 

The process I laid out is a tad quicker overall I think.

Ok, task complete... success.. thank you all for your help.. the process i took is as follows:

 

- I did a parity check before i started to ensure the data (0 sync errors)

- I added disk3 (had some downtime but it was ok, wasn't plannign on using the server at that time anyways)

- I used mv /mnt/disk2/* /mnt/disk3/. in telnet to move the material(18GB) to disk3

- I did a another parity check (0 sync errors)

- I installed new hard drive to disk 2... unraid told me it was going to rebuild the data, mount the drive then expand the array.

- After data rebuild, parity check again (0 sync errors)

- moved data back to disk 2 via telnet as before

 

All done and relatively painless.. Thank you again for your help, esp. Joe L and bjp999

 

Cheers,

Matt

Sorry but I am a newbie with a tiny bit of knowledge (so I am dangerous ) and a little confused.

 

Since all he is doing is replacing one drive and adding another, can't he just:

 

1) Run parity check to make sure everything is happy.

 

2) unassign the 80gb drive and shut down the server.

 

3) Install the new drives.

 

4) Boot up and assign the new 500gb to the 80gb drives spot and assign the 2nd 500gb drive to a blank spot.

 

5) Let it format the new drives and then it should automatically rebuild the data that was on the 80gb drive to the 500, right???

 

Trust me I am strictly asking a question and am not trying to tell Biggy2872 a procedure he should follow. This is what I did and it worked fine but would like to know for future reference if this is a bad way to do it.

 

Just want to make sure I have my facts straight 

 

I think you are good through step 3, but you cannot add the 1st 500G to replace the 80G at the same time you add the 2nd 500G to a blank spot.  (I could be wrong, it's not like I do this type of thing that frequently).

 

But if I am right, you'd have to rebuild in one pass, and then add the 2nd drive, have it clear that drive, and then add it to the array.

 

If you used Joe L.'s clear disk process, that would work okay on the second disk making it quick.

 

The process I laid out is a tad quicker overall I think.

 

Ok thanks.

I did this recently but don't remember 100% of when I did what. Either way it should not take that long to do it in 2 steps and sounds safer.

 

Thanks again.

I would be to replace the 80gig with the 500gig and allow Unraid to rebuild it. There is a way to tell Unraid to "trust" the parity drive so if the disk1 data drive died during the rebuild you could get it back by re-installing the 80gig drive and putting the array back to it's initial state before you began (assuming you don't panic and do a wrong step). It's not a web management control but you can force Unraid to trust the parity.

 

I would then just install the new disk3 and add it to the array. It will be cleared and added keeping parity intact during the whole procedure. You can also pre-clear it as Joe suggests if you want to save array down time.

 

I don't like the recommendation of using the Restore button because it leaves you open to losing the data on disk1 if disk1 fails during the parity build.

 

Peter

 

I don't like the recommendation of using the Restore button because it leaves you open to losing the data on disk1 if disk1 fails during the parity build.

 

Peter

 

The button labeled "Restore" does not use parity at all.  Instead, it immediately invalidates the existing parity and then uses the currently assigned and working drives to start the process of completely rebuilding parity.  You would NEVER use it when you want to replace a drive with a bigger one and expect the old contents to be reconstructed on the new.

 

If you were to remove the 80 Gig drive after copying its contents elsewhere, and then pressed the button labeled "restore" you will lose data if any other disk were to fail during the parity calculation interval.  This could be 6, 8, or 12+ hours on a slower (or larger) array.  You would not be able to "trust" the parity drive once much of it is re-calculated.  (About the only "safe" data would be that on the disconnected 80 Gig drive, assuming it is not dropped, zapped by static electricity, or otherwise damaged in handling)

 

Joe L.