Upgrading Cache Drive

[shooga]

Background: I just recently moved from v5 to v6.0.1 and also want to upgrade from an HDD cache to an SSD. I'm using an mSATA drive so that I can expand the system in the process - plus get better performance with dockers. Planning to convert the current HDD cache drive to an array drive after I'm sure that all is well with the new one.

 

I've seen the general procedure in the forums and on the wiki, but have a few questions and wanted to just confirm that my specific plan is current and correct:

[*]Power down and install the new SSD

[*]Power back up

[*]Stop all dockers and make sure they are set to NOT autostart

[*]Invoke Mover

[*]Copy cache data to folder on one of the specific array drives

[*]Stop array

[*]Reassign the cache drive to the new SSD

[*]Start the array

[*]Format the new SSD cache drive

[*]Copy the cache data back to SSD from the array drive

[*]Restart the array

[*]Start all dockers and reset them to autostart

 

Ok. How'd I do?

 

 

Questions:

[*]Does it matter if I stop the dockers individually or just disable docker in the system settings?

[*]Should I do as shown above? Or should I use the Unassigned Devices plugin to copy the data directly from the old cache to the new one (once it's installed and formatted)? I'm trying to really minimize my plugins. Is there a way to do this without plugins?

[*]What's the best way to copy the data? mc vs cp vs rsync? Will they all preserve ownership and permissions? The biggest issue I've had with plugins and docker has been with permissions, so I'd like to get this right.

[*]I've never added a non-precleared drive (I know not to pre-clear an SSD). How long will the formatting take (it's a 500GB SSD)? Could I format it before adding it as the cache?

 

 

Thanks in advance for your responses!

[Ashe]

1. Disable docker, it's cleaner and easier and enable after the move.

2. I used the unassigned devices plugin. A direct disk to disk copy will quicker than disk to array -> array to disk. You can always remove the plugin after.

3. I used MC, fairly simple for me and didn't need to research the rsync commands although I'm sure rysnc has benefits such as verifying the copied data. Permissions were preserved when I copied the data across, switched docker back on and all worked ok.

4. Formatting a new 2TB cache drive (spinner) took a few minutes. Not moved to SSDs yet so not sure if they are different but I assume not.