I'm currently running unRAID 5.0.5 with six 2TB WD Green drives (1 parity, 5 data).  I have a 4TB WD Red drive that I'd like to swap in to replace the parity drive, but I also want to completely remove a drive from the array, leaving me with 1 parity drive and 4 data drives.

 

Does anyone see a problem with me removing one data drive and replacing my parity drive at the same time?  I figure that removing the drive is going to force me to rebuild parity anyways.  I realize that my array will be unprotected during the rebuild.

 

Steps I've already done:

1. backed up all vital data from the entire array

2. moved all data off the drive I want to remove from the array

3. completed a parity check with zero errors

4. precleared my new 4TB WD Red drive

 

My next steps:

1. backup my config (I also took a screenshot of my drive assignments and disabled auto start of the array)

2. stop the array

3. un-assign the one data drive and my parity drive

4. shutdown the server

5. physically remove the data drive and old parity drive, and add new parity drive

6. power up the server

7. reset the array config (can someone help me with the steps for doing this on v5? Do I still use the initconfig command?)

8. assign new parity drive (and reassign remaining data drives)

9. start the array and rebuild parity

 

Am I missing any steps?

 

EDIT: I found instructions on the Wiki for removing a drive

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/FAQ#How_do_I_remove_a_hard_disk_that_I_do_not_plan_on_replacing.3F

Well, I went ahead with this plan and it appears to have worked just fine.  Parity is currently being built on the new WD 4TB Red drive.

 

Although I didn't originally list it in my first post, I did take a screenshot of my drive assignments, which came in handy after I reset the array config and had to reassign the 4 data drives that I'm keeping in the array.