Partitioning a larger hdd than parity drive

[LooZypher]

Hi.

 

Newbie to unRAID her.. first of, this is simply an amazing OS! nothing less!

 

My current setup is plain:

 

The sharp reader may have caught that I don't have a parity drive, but that will change in the near future, as I consider buying a 3TB drive to add to my array. But as I only require 1TB of backed up data I was wondering if it is possible to split the 3TB into 3x1TB chunks? So that my array would look something like this:

 

I am aware of the fact that the 3TB disk wouldn't be protected, but that isn't that important, not until I'll get a second 3TB drive...

 

Is that even possible, or do I use that 3TB disk as parity drive?

 

Thanks in advance

 

 

L.

[doorunrun]

AFAIK,

 

the short answer: the 3T drive will become your parity drive.

 

unRAID doesn't offer the choice to partition a drive. It will format the whole thing as Reiser file system.

 

It's relatively straight-forward to make the 3T the parity drive. I'm sure it's in the Wiki as well as quite a few threads.

[garycase]

The answer is No ... but even if you could, you wouldn't want to.

 

Think about that a second ==> if you had a 1TB "parity" drive on the 3TB disk; and 2 1TB "data" drives on the SAME physical disk, you'd have NO protection against a failed drive -- at least not against that specific drive [Your 2 other 1TB drives would be protected].

 

That's kind of like storing you backup data on a 2nd partition on the SAME drive.    Doesn't exactly do much good if the drive fails !!

 

[Influencer]

You can do this: take out the 1 TB drive that you don't need backed up, put the 3 TB  drive in its place, manually mount the 1 tb drive and copy its contents over to the new 3 TB. You'll most likely need to set a new config when you switch the two drives, not 100% on this though. Once the 1 TB is copied over you can format it and either manually mount it or use snap, a plugin, to mount the drive. Then setup a rsync cronjob to mirror the 1TB you want backed up to the second 1 TB drive.

 

This way you'll protect the data you wish to and still end up with 4 TB of usable space, same as if your plan would work.

 

Might be a step or two missing but that's the general idea. If you'd want to do this I'm sure someone can chime in with the exact steps necessary.

[garycase]

If the goal is to just add the 3TB drive, but still not have any parity protection in the array, then just add the 3TB drive.

 

You'll then have 2 1TB drives and a 3TB drive => a total of 5TB in the array (but still, of course, without parity).

 

Then, when you add a parity drive (has to be at least 3TB), all of them will have parity protection.

 

One nice thing about UnRAID is that there's no need for all drives to be the same size.  The ONLY constraint is that the parity drive has to be >= the largest data drive.

 

[Influencer]

If the goal is to just add the 3TB drive, but still not have any parity protection in the array, then just add the 3TB drive.

 

You'll then have 2 1TB drives and a 3TB drive => a total of 5TB in the array (but still, of course, without parity).

 

Then, when you add a parity drive (has to be at least 3TB), all of them will have parity protection.

 

One nice thing about UnRAID is that there's no need for all drives to be the same size.  The ONLY constraint is that the parity drive has to be >= the largest data drive.

 

I might have misinterpreted what the OP was wanting, but by this statement I think he wants 1 TB of data (or potentially 1 TB) backed up, but the rest doesn't matter.

The sharp reader may have caught that I don't have a parity drive, but that will change in the near future, as I consider buying a 3TB drive to add to my array. But as I only require 1TB of backed up data I was wondering if it is possible to split the 3TB into 3x1TB chunks?

 

If that's the case and I'm not misinterpreting it, my suggestion should do nicely until OP can get another 3TB and add parity protection.

[garycase]

I don't think there's any intention of making the 3TB a "parity" drive at this point -- he just wants an additional 1TB of space ... and was thinking perhaps he could go ahead and get some more by using the 3TB as 3 !TB "drives".    My point is simply that he can just add the drive as it is -- the additional drive doesn't need to be the same size as what he's already got.

 

 

[LooZypher]

Hi again.

 

Thank you for all your input.

 

At the time I started the thread it made sense to partition the 3TB drive into 3 1TB bits, but now it doesn't

 

To clarify; My goal is to have 1TB protected (1TB parity and 1TB Data) and a 3TB drive which won't be protected - at least for now...

 

Thank you all

 

L.

[garycase]

To clarify; My goal is to have 1TB protected (1TB parity and 1TB Data) and a 3TB drive which won't be protected - at least for now...

 

As you now know, you can't do that.  An UnRAID array is either protected or not -- you can't have part of it protected and part not.

 

There IS, however, a way to effectively do that IF you have a paid license (Plus or Pro) => you could use your two 1TB drives to create a 1TB data drive and a 1TB parity drive;  then add your 3TB drive as a cache drive.  Then you could store the files you don't feel need to be protected on the cache drive.

 

I don't, however recommend that setup => just get a 2nd 3TB drive and build a 5TB array with parity protection 

[dgaschk]

Hi again.

 

Thank you for all your input.

 

At the time I started the thread it made sense to partition the 3TB drive into 3 1TB bits, but now it doesn't

 

To clarify; My goal is to have 1TB protected (1TB parity and 1TB Data) and a 3TB drive which won't be protected - at least for now...

 

Thank you all

 

L.

 

The drive can easily mounted outside of the array and shared on the network. There 3rd party add-ons that facilitate this, including SNAP and unmenu.

[LooZypher]

Again thanks for the input... 

My plan is now to get a 3TB WD Red, and add that as a parity drive, and then later add more 3TB drives