October 7, 201312 yr quick question (i think). I have a 20 drive array. there are 3 drives within the array that i want to remove (i suspect that there may be problems). the 3 drives are 'empty' because i've copied all the data off to other drives. I also want to upgrade my parity drive from a 3tb to a 4tb I think the way to accomplish this is to stop the array. Unassign the 3 drives AND also change the assignment of the parity drive to the new empty 4tb drive. this will mean that there will be four drives unassigned- the 3 suspect drives, and the old parity drive once i've done the above, will the array start to build parity onto the new 4tb parity drive and of course exclude the removed drives from the parity calc. should i do all this from the main page where drives are assigned? or should i use the 'new config' tab. not sure what's best any advice?
October 7, 201312 yr I don't think unraid will allow you to make those changes without using the new config. I suspect it will simply say "too many wrong/missing disks" and not allow you to start the array until you set a new config.
October 7, 201312 yr Author Can anyone tell me what the new config tab is like? I'm afraid to even click it till I know more! Will it let me pick the drives I want in the array? Should I take a screen shot of the old array assignment and just re enter that but leave out the drives i don't want? Do the old drives new to be in the exact same slots or does it matter since it's a new config?
October 7, 201312 yr Honestly I would not attempt both of these things at the same time, remove drives from array and assign new parity drive. I would remove the parity drive, replace it with the 4tb drive, redo parity and to make sure the 4tb drive is good. Keep the old drive handy just in case. Once you've done that then I would remove the empty drives and do a new config. Once you do a new config that's it. If something happened to that 4tb drive you can easily put it back in and redo parity. Either way you do it you'll have to redo parity, I would like to know my parity is good before I start removing already configured drives even though once you do a new config you'll have to redo parity once more.
October 7, 201312 yr Author i was trying to simplify the description of my problem but i think i've left some important info out the 3 drives i want to remove all have pending sector reallocations. accordingly, i don't currently have reliable parity since its been created using these drives that have errors. i really want them out right away so that i can rebuild parity soon. so i think my options are to either remove the three drives and then create parity on the old 3tb drive OR save a step by removing the 3 drives, and creating parity on the new 4tb drive. the first option i think is a bit silly because as soon as i create parity on the old 3tb drive, i'm just going to remove it anyway
October 7, 201312 yr Since you don't have good parity anyway, simply install the 4TB drive, then do the following: (a) Do a "New Config" ... and assign all of your data drives (but NOT the parity drive yet) (b) Start the array to confirm everything shows okay (no "Unformatted" drives). This shouldn't be an issue, but it's best to start the array without parity just to confirm it. © Stop the array; assign the 4TB drive as parity; then Start the array again and let it do a parity sync. When that finishes, do a parity check to confirm all is okay. Done :-)
October 7, 201312 yr Author Ok sounds great. So when I do new config I can setup my existing drives but omit the three problem drives, omit the old parity drive, and omit the new parity drive Then start array, check for error messages, then add new parity drive, and build parity?
October 7, 201312 yr Ok sounds great. So when I do new config I can setup my existing drives but omit the three problem drives, omit the old parity drive, and omit the new parity drive Then start array, check for error messages, then add new parity drive, and build parity? Yes, that's exactly what you want to do.
October 7, 201312 yr ... You can actually add the new parity drive at the same time you add the data drives, but I prefer to always do just the data drives first, so a parity sync doesn't get started if there are any other issues.
October 7, 201312 yr Author Ok thanks will do as you suggested. Since I'm doing a new config, do the data drives have to be in the exact same spots as they are now? Or does it matter? Assuming everything works, I then want to run preclear cycles on my problem drives as well as preclear on my old parity (so that I can add it to my array as a data drive). Is it a problem to have four preclears running while I'm also building parity?
October 7, 201312 yr quick question (i think). I have a 20 drive array. there are 3 drives within the array that i want to remove (i suspect that there may be problems). the 3 drives are 'empty' because i've copied all the data off to other drives. No one has asked this question, so I will. You suspect problems, what kind of problems do you suspect? Do you have smart reports on each of the drives you can post? - Sideband Samurai
October 7, 201312 yr Ok thanks will do as you suggested. Since I'm doing a new config, do the data drives have to be in the exact same spots as they are now? Or does it matter? Assuming everything works, I then want to run preclear cycles on my problem drives as well as preclear on my old parity (so that I can add it to my array as a data drive). Is it a problem to have four preclears running while I'm also building parity? No, the data drives can be in any order. You can run pre-clears while it's doing a parity check -- although how many you can do at once depends on how much memory you have available. I'd probably do 2-at-a-time just to be safe (they'll fail if they run out of RAM)
October 7, 201312 yr Author Here's the link to the thread with my problem....the discussion was that i have 3 drives with pending reallocation sectors... which i think means rebuilding parity could be problematic. http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=29644.0 i have been moving all the data off these 3 drives, and onto other drives in the array quick question (i think). I have a 20 drive array. there are 3 drives within the array that i want to remove (i suspect that there may be problems). the 3 drives are 'empty' because i've copied all the data off to other drives. No one has asked this question, so I will. You suspect problems, what kind of problems do you suspect? Do you have smart reports on each of the drives you can post? - Sideband Samurai
October 8, 201312 yr Author Another quick q- will all my shares apps packages etc still be intact after the new config?
October 8, 201312 yr No. Edit: On second thought, I'm not certain. The packages may not be altered -- it depends on whether or not the New Config resets the GO script. It may very well not. Save a copy of your flash drive BEFORE you do the New Config -- you should be able to simply copy back anything that's modified EXCEPT the disk.cfg file ... and then everything will be restored.
October 8, 201312 yr Author Wait sorry all new shares have to be created? And reinstall Sab etc? I though I'm adding drives where this stuff resides?
October 8, 201312 yr Author ok did as you suggested, currently rebuilding parity! all my packages etc seem to be working! didn't have to reinstall anything, mapped shares working fine, etc now to get a couple preclears running!
October 8, 201312 yr Author hrrm... so for some reason, can't seem to start a preclear! unmenu indicates that screen is installed, and will be reinstalled on reboot i followed the commands, logon to putty, cd /boot, type screen. intro screen comes up, and then at very bottom says hit space or return to end, then i go back to a prompt i then type ./preclear_disk.sh -A -M 4 /dev/sdc then get message bash: ./preclear_disk.sh: No such file or directory haven't done a preclear in a while, maybe i'm missing something stupid?
October 8, 201312 yr Author ok oops... sorry, as you can see i can not do much trouble shooting on my own! so i went to an old backup of my flash drive, and saw that there was a preclear script in the boot level, however i no longer have this in my current flash. seems odd that unmenu says its installed however it seems not to be. so copied the script over from my backup, to the root of the flash, and all is not working. sorry to waste other's time! i got thrown off by unmenu repeatedly saying it was installed! maybe that's a sign of another problem?
October 8, 201312 yr unmenu has nothing to do with preclear, other than being authored by the same guy.
October 8, 201312 yr As jonathanm noted, preclear and unmenu are two different things => the only commonality is the author. UnMenu has the ability to MONITOR pre-clears ... but does not install the pre-clear script -- you have to do that yourself.
October 8, 201312 yr Author Hmm I guess so but in the unmenu package manager, there is a selection to download and install screen. Did all that so I assumed it was installed? Because unmenu reports the package installed? Sorry to be so thick! In any case I did manually install the script I just think it's misleading that unmenus package manager reports it as installed
October 8, 201312 yr Screen is a separate program than the preclear script. The instructions say to use screen so if you close the telnet window the preclear can still run in the background
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.