I've got a set of 4 250 gig drives right now in my array, and have decided to purchase another 500gig drive.

Now as I understand it, the parity drive needs to be as large as the largest drive, in order for it to work.

So in my case, if I add this 500 gig drive, it becomes the parity, and all I really gain is 250 gigs...

 

Is there any way to set up the 500 gig drive so it's not part of the redundant array? So that I would have the 4 x 250gig drives as I current;y do (with one being a parity drive) and then have the 500 gig drive be just another drive that is visible and shared by the unRAID software?

I've got a set of 4 250 gig drives right now in my array, and have decided to purchase another 500gig drive.

Now as I understand it, the parity drive needs to be as large as the largest drive, in order for it to work.

So in my case, if I add this 500 gig drive, it becomes the parity, and all I really gain is 250 gigs...

 

Is there any way to set up the 500 gig drive so it's not part of the redundant array? So that I would have the 4 x 250gig drives as I current;y do (with one being a parity drive) and then have the 500 gig drive be just another drive that is visible and shared by the unRAID software?

Yes, you can do exactly as you desire, but the additional disks that are not in the "array" are also not in the user-shares combined view of the folders on the server.

 

Easiest way to do as you ask is to install "unmenu".  (described here)  UnMENU is an alternative improved management interface for an unRAID server.  Its Disk-management page allows you to mount and share disks outside of the array.  By default it mounts the extra drives as read-only, but you could change that in the unmenu configuration file to make it mount the drive as read/write.) It does not partition or format the added external disks, so you would need to do those tasks at the command line after logging in via telnet

 

Bottom line is, yes, you can have drives outside of the array.

 

use "cfdisk" at the telnet prompt to partition a new disk. (one partition. starting on sector 63 to the end of the disk) or use "preclear_disk.sh" here to partition the new disk (It knows how to set up the first partition exactly as unRAID likes to see it).

 

use mkreiserfs -q /dev/sss1 to create a reiserfs file system on the first partition.

(Where "sss" = the device corresponding to your new disk, so if it is /dev/sdd, the first partition would be /dev/sdd1.  (You will want to do this on the "correct" disk...  partitioning an existing disk (one already in the array) would be a bad thing to do.

 

If you are afraid of command line commands, just add the disk as parity, forget about the extra space you are not able to use.

 

Joe L.