September 3, 200916 yr Hello, I want to upgrade my Parity disk from 1GB to 1.5GB and use the old 1GB Parity disk as a Data disk. I was curious as to the best way to do this? Yesterday I ran preclear_disk.sh twice on the new Parity Disk ... it seems alright ... and performed a monthly Parity Check So next I would 1. Stop Array 2. Change Parity Disk on Devices Page 3. Start Array (under Start click "I'm sure I want to do this" then click Start) 4a. Wait 12 hours for Parity to build 4b. run preclear_disk.sh on the old 1GB Parity disk while Parity is rebuilding When parity building and preclear_disk.sh are complete 5. Stop Array 6. Add old Parity disk as new Data disk on Devices Page 7. Start Array (under Start click "I'm sure I want to do this" then click Start) after array has started 8. Format new disk or would there be a faster way? Thanks for your time, Bobby
September 3, 200916 yr Hello, I want to upgrade my Parity disk from 1GB to 1.5GB and use the old 1GB Parity disk as a Data disk. I was curious as to the best way to do this? Yesterday I ran preclear_disk.sh twice on the new Parity Disk ... it seems alright ... and performed a monthly Parity Check So next I would 1. Stop Array 2. Change Parity Disk on Devices Page 3. Start Array (under Start click "I'm sure I want to do this" then click Start) 4a. Wait 12 hours for Parity to build 4b. run preclear_disk.sh on the old 1GB Parity disk while Parity is rebuilding When parity building and preclear_disk.sh are complete 5. Stop Array 6. Add old Parity disk as new Data disk on Devices Page 7. Start Array (under Start click "I'm sure I want to do this" then click Start) after array has started 8. Format new disk or would there be a faster way? Thanks for your time, Bobby That is the fastest way I know...
September 3, 200916 yr The way you laid it our seems fine. I would NOT clear the old parity disk until parity has been calculated and checked with the new parity disk in place. That way you are protected just in case a drive fails while the are building the new parity.
September 3, 200916 yr The way you laid it our seems fine. I would NOT clear the old parity disk until parity has been calculated and checked with the new parity disk in place. That way you are protected just in case a drive fails while the are building the new parity. Good advice.
September 3, 200916 yr Should run extremely fast! Now if you were going from a 1T parity to a 1.5T parity, that would take a while.
September 3, 200916 yr Should run extremely fast! Now if you were going from a 1T parity to a 1.5T parity, that would take a while. You know... I missed that... ;D you are right... it would just be a matter of minutes, and very understandable why they were upgrading... It would be *very* easy to find an old 1.5Gb drive... but *very* hard to find an SATA one... I guess you could set the HPA to make a larger drive seem to be only 1.5Gb... but it would be a waste. ;)
September 3, 200916 yr The way you laid it our seems fine. I would NOT clear the old parity disk until parity has been calculated and checked with the new parity disk in place. That way you are protected just in case a drive fails while the are building the new parity. I agree here. I would wait on pre-clearing the old parity drive. In fact of you run the parity build and pre-clear the system will slow down everything. I thought there was a way to migrate the current parity and expand it in one step thereby speeding up the whole process.
September 3, 200916 yr The way you laid it our seems fine. I would NOT clear the old parity disk until parity has been calculated and checked with the new parity disk in place. That way you are protected just in case a drive fails while the are building the new parity. I agree here. I would wait on pre-clearing the old parity drive. In fact of you run the parity build and pre-clear the system will slow down everything. I thought there was a way to migrate the current parity and expand it in one step thereby speeding up the whole process. There is if you are REPLACING a data drive... but not if you are replacing the parity drive and then ADDING a data drive. However, I don't know about the "speeding up" part. I did it once as an exercise... and it took MANY MANY MANY hours, during which the array was mostly off-line (I think). I do not think it saved any time... or if it did, very little.
September 3, 200916 yr Author and Yes I missed that many times too ... 1 TB WD Black Dual Proc to 1.5TB WD Green ... Currently running at 40MB/s Parity-Sync So when the 1.5 TB WD Dual Procs come out/down in price I guess I'll be doing this again ... or I could install Windows on a drive and then configure the Drive Xpert feature and put my two 750GB Hitachi Death Stars in a 1.5 TB striped raid for parity ... Doh .... It's really fast parity ... but I think I'll wait for the WD Dual procs ... and oh, yeah ... 1.5 GB at 40MB/s would be ... 37.5 seconds
September 4, 200916 yr Just a thought, with reference to my other post here. If am expanding my parity drive from 1TB to 1.5TB, I can actually do the following: 1. Preclear 1.5TB 2. Copy the 1TB parity to the first 1TB of the 1.5TB drive. 3. Assign new 1.5TB parity drive 4. unRaid complains so we use Trust my parity method 5. Start array and parity check runs Since there is no parity info beyond the 1TB mark, the parity check should be fine. By doing it this way, can avoid stressing all the data disks in re-generating parity. It is also faster as copying the parity drive alone is definitely faster than doing parity-sync. Still have downtime as you need to stop the array to copy the parity disk but shorter. Anything wrong in my assumptions?
September 4, 200916 yr Just a thought, with reference to my other post here. If am expanding my parity drive from 1TB to 1.5TB, I can actually do the following: 1. Preclear 1.5TB 2. Copy the 1TB parity to the first 1TB of the 1.5TB drive. 3. Assign new 1.5TB parity drive 4. unRaid complains so we use Trust my parity method 5. Start array and parity check runs Since there is no parity info beyond the 1TB mark, the parity check should be fine. By doing it this way, can avoid stressing all the data disks in re-generating parity. It is also faster as copying the parity drive alone is definitely faster than doing parity-sync. Still have downtime as you need to stop the array to copy the parity disk but shorter. Anything wrong in my assumptions? It sounds like it will work. Joe L.
May 2, 201016 yr Author looks like I will be trying this method today ... 2TB parity drive finally going in (thanks stoner and others) For WD20 EARS drives, installing the jumper (on pins 7- is the current recommendation for performance considerations, correct? I hope I have my devices in the right order OK parity /dev/sdh 00S_WD-WCAVY0485821 OK /dev/md1 /mnt/disk1 /dev/sdl 0_WD-WMATV1437865 OK /dev/md2 /mnt/disk2 /dev/sdg 00D_WD-WCAU46202483 OK /dev/md3 /mnt/disk3 /dev/sdd ST31000340AS_9QJ234YQ OK /dev/md4 /mnt/disk4 /dev/sdc 00P_WD-WMAVU0509932 OK /dev/md5 /mnt/disk5 /dev/sdn 00M_WD-WMAV50099070 OK /dev/md6 /mnt/disk6 /dev/sdk Hitachi_HDS72107_GTE200P8GH5SME OK /dev/md7 /mnt/disk7 /dev/sdm Hitachi_HDS72107_GTE200P8GH5GAE OK /dev/md8 /mnt/disk8 /dev/sde 00L_WD-WCAU45242079 OK /dev/md9 /mnt/disk9 /dev/sdf ST31000340AS_9QJ2352V OK /dev/md10 /mnt/disk10 /dev/sdb 00P_WD-WMAVU0130272 OK /dev/md11 /mnt/disk11 /dev/sda 00Z_WD-WMAVU1378141 UNRAID Drive Device Model/Serial Mounted File System Size Used %Used Free /dev/sdi1 usb-OCZ_RALLY2_AA04012700083347-0:0 /boot vfat Cache Drive Device Model/Serial Mounted File System Temp Size Used %Used Free /dev/sdj1 scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AAKS-_WD-WCAS82925105 /mnt/cache reiserfs Drive Partitions - Not In Protected Array Device Model/Serial Mounted File System Temp Size Used %Used Free /dev/sdj scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AAKS-_WD-WCAS82925105 /dev/sdo scsi-SATA_WDC_WD20EARS-00_WD-WCAYY0032646 /dev/sdo1 scsi-SATA_WDC_WD20EARS-00_WD-WCAYY0032646 (warning) dd if=/dev/sdh of=/dev/sdo bs=2048k (this dd command only good for one time on my unRaid in it's currently state - I really hope) starting the copy now ... in about 7 hours and 20 minutes I should know the damage ;-) Just a thought, with reference to my other post here. If am expanding my parity drive from 1TB to 1.5TB, I can actually do the following: 1. Preclear 1.5TB 2. Copy the 1TB parity to the first 1TB of the 1.5TB drive. 3. Assign new 1.5TB parity drive 4. unRaid complains so we use Trust my parity method 5. Start array and parity check runs Since there is no parity info beyond the 1TB mark, the parity check should be fine. By doing it this way, can avoid stressing all the data disks in re-generating parity. It is also faster as copying the parity drive alone is definitely faster than doing parity-sync. Still have downtime as you need to stop the array to copy the parity disk but shorter. Anything wrong in my assumptions? It sounds like it will work. Joe L.
May 2, 201016 yr Hello, I want to upgrade my Parity disk from 1GB to 1.5GB and use the old 1GB Parity disk as a Data disk. I was curious as to the best way to do this? Yesterday I ran preclear_disk.sh twice on the new Parity Disk ... it seems alright ... and performed a monthly Parity Check So next I would 1. Stop Array 2. Change Parity Disk on Devices Page 3. Start Array (under Start click "I'm sure I want to do this" then click Start) 4a. Wait 12 hours for Parity to build 4b. run preclear_disk.sh on the old 1GB Parity disk while Parity is rebuilding When parity building and preclear_disk.sh are complete 5. Stop Array 6. Add old Parity disk as new Data disk on Devices Page 7. Start Array (under Start click "I'm sure I want to do this" then click Start) after array has started 8. Format new disk or would there be a faster way? Thanks for your time, Bobby I have a slight variation on this that I'd recommend for a future reader of this thread. 1. Stop Array 2. Save a copy of your config folder on your flash disk 3. Change Parity Disk on Devices Page 4. Add Old Parity Disk as a data disk on Devices Page 5. Press the "Restore" button to reset the array configuration 6. Start Array 7. Wait 12 hours for Parity to build 8. Run a parity check (make sure parity build was good) 9. Format new disk (old parity disk) By adding the parity disk to the array in step 4, it's values will be included in the new parity build. Only after the parity build is complete and checked, should you format this disk. With this method there is no reason to preclear the old parity disk. If you have a drive failure during the parity build or during the parity check, the old parity disk will not have been touched in any way. You would be able to power down, restore the backup config folder (move USB to your workstation to do this), reboot the server, and proceed with normal instructions to rebuild the failed disk. (This assumes that you've refrained from writing any data to the array since beginning this process.) I believe this is the quickest and safest way to upsize the parity disk.
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