Upgraded to v6 - now want to add bigger drives


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One thing I can't shake is that the "bad" disk seems to be OK after powering down and back up again... Something like of the errors were just cause by the disk dissapearing to the system like if it had lost power. I guess Incould always leave it outside the array and try it on a different data/power port too? (After doing the above and having a stable array first of course..)

 

Sometimes disks fail like that, just recently had a 3TB WD Green with a perfect SMART that dropped offline once every couple of weeks, confirmed by using the disk on a different server and having same issue.

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So then next step is:

 

- Create new config with all currently installed disks except the bad one and let it recreate parity

- Do parity check

- Copy back the contents of what I backed up yesterday into the appropriate shares now

- Done

 

Right?

 

Yes, that's exactly correct.

 

r.e. the disk => When you have a disk that's having sporadic issues like that, I do NOT recommend using it in an active system.    It's fine to use it as a backup disk => i.e. attach it to a system via a USB bridge or eSATA dock and copy files to it you want to save; then just remove the disk and store it in a suitable container [anti-static bag or a case designed for disks].    Preferably in a safe place -- I keep mine in a fireproof, waterproof, data-rated safe.

 

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So then next step is:

 

- Create new config with all currently installed disks except the bad one and let it recreate parity

- Do parity check

- Copy back the contents of what I backed up yesterday into the appropriate shares now

- Done

 

Right?

 

Yes, that's exactly correct.

 

r.e. the disk => When you have a disk that's having sporadic issues like that, I do NOT recommend using it in an active system.    It's fine to use it as a backup disk => i.e. attach it to a system via a USB bridge or eSATA dock and copy files to it you want to save; then just remove the disk and store it in a suitable container [anti-static bag or a case designed for disks].    Preferably in a safe place -- I keep mine in a fireproof, waterproof, data-rated safe.

 

Oh yes, definitely would not use it in the array again, but what I mean is I'm left wondering if it's the disk itself with issues or maybe the power to it (or of course it may be a power isie but on the disn board itself).

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So then next step is:

 

- Create new config with all currently installed disks except the bad one and let it recreate parity

- Do parity check

- Copy back the contents of what I backed up yesterday into the appropriate shares now

- Done

 

Right?

 

Yes, that's exactly correct.

 

r.e. the disk => When you have a disk that's having sporadic issues like that, I do NOT recommend using it in an active system.    It's fine to use it as a backup disk => i.e. attach it to a system via a USB bridge or eSATA dock and copy files to it you want to save; then just remove the disk and store it in a suitable container [anti-static bag or a case designed for disks].    Preferably in a safe place -- I keep mine in a fireproof, waterproof, data-rated safe.

 

Got it.

 

Will not use it :P

 

In the steps above forgot to allow formatting the 2 drives, I guess after the parity build AND check.

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Ok, first part done... new arraym, only those "good" drives...

 

Parity Sync done ok with no issues, and now running the parity check.

 

I did notice what you mentioned about speed....  As the bad drive was on one of the ports of the PCI card, now that there are only 2 the speed I had with just 2 disks on it went up from the previous 35 to about 53-54, consistent (roughly) with the 133MB to share on that slot.... (well if regular max throughput is aroung 80% of max, we're right there..).

 

 

Since you say from some time now unRAID tracks buy disk and not port, etc... Would it be ok if I wanted to change some of these to another port? Like moving the recently added data 3TB drive to a motherboard port instead of the card one? (3TB parity already is, having it swapped from the beginning with the "old" parity drive).

 

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Since you say from some time now unRAID tracks buy disk and not port, etc... Would it be ok if I wanted to change some of these to another port? Like moving the recently added data 3TB drive to a motherboard port instead of the card one? (3TB parity already is, having it swapped from the beginning with the "old" parity drive).

Yes - just stop the system, replug the drive to where you want it, and on powering up again unRAID will find it in its new position.  As a general rule of thumb you want your fastest drives on motherboard ports as they are typically the fastest ports as well.
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As itimpi noted, you can do this by simply shutting down; changing the port you've got the drive connected to; and then rebooting.

 

And if you have a 3TB drive connected to the PCI card, you definitely want to make that change !!  The 3TB drives are most likely 1TB/platter drives (I'm assuming these are WD Reds or Greens) capable of transfer rates well over what the PCI card can provide ... so you'll see a nice bump in the speed that you get when only the 3TB drives are involved in a parity check/rebuild.

 

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Since you say from some time now unRAID tracks buy disk and not port, etc... Would it be ok if I wanted to change some of these to another port? Like moving the recently added data 3TB drive to a motherboard port instead of the card one? (3TB parity already is, having it swapped from the beginning with the "old" parity drive).

Yes - just stop the system, replug the drive to where you want it, and on powering up again unRAID will find it in its new position.  As a general rule of thumb you want your fastest drives on motherboard ports as they are typically the fastest ports as well.

 

Thanks!

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As itimpi noted, you can do this by simply shutting down; changing the port you've got the drive connected to; and then rebooting.

 

And if you have a 3TB drive connected to the PCI card, you definitely want to make that change !!  The 3TB drives are most likely 1TB/platter drives (I'm assuming these are WD Reds or Greens) capable of transfer rates well over what the PCI card can provide ... so you'll see a nice bump in the speed that you get when only the 3TB drives are involved in a parity check/rebuild.

 

Thanks! Yes. Rit now the 3TB used for parity is on a motherboard port, but the other one is commecte to the PCI card, so will do that switch.

 

It's actually neither, these are seagate ST3000DM001, 7200 rpm ones.

 

If I had to choose betweem just adding a PCI Express card, or swapping for a motherboard with more sata ports, will the motherboard always be faster?

 

One last one re: the above. After the parity check finishes and I select to format the 2 drives, need I do anything else?

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The ST3000DM001's are 1TB/platter ... so with that density AND 7200rpm speed they're even faster than WD Reds => they should hit ~ 200MB/s on the outer cylinders (the fastest part of the drive).

 

You should definitely notice a very nice bump in speeds on parity checks if you get the 2nd drive off that PCI card [when the check gets past the point where other drives are involved ... in your case after 1TB].

 

If you add a PCIe card that has enough bandwidth for the max speed of the attached drives, there's no advantage to a motherboard port.    For example, if you add a PCIe x1 card, and only attach one drive to it, there won't be any bottleneck even with your 1TB/platter 7200 rpm drives.    If your system has a PCIe v2 bus (and the card is also a v2 card), then that's true even with 2 attached drives.    If you have a PCIe x4 slot available, and use an x4 card, then you could easily attach 4 drives to it.

 

Your last comment is correct => after the parity check finishes all you have to do is format the 2 drives and you're done  :)

 

 

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The ST3000DM001's are 1TB/platter ... so with that density AND 7200rpm speed they're even faster than WD Reds => they should hit ~ 200MB/s on the outer cylinders (the fastest part of the drive).

 

You should definitely notice a very nice bump in speeds on parity checks if you get the 2nd drive off that PCI card [when the check gets past the point where other drives are involved ... in your case after 1TB].

 

If you add a PCIe card that has enough bandwidth for the max speed of the attached drives, there's no advantage to a motherboard port.    For example, if you add a PCIe x1 card, and only attach one drive to it, there won't be any bottleneck even with your 1TB/platter 7200 rpm drives.    If your system has a PCIe v2 bus (and the card is also a v2 card), then that's true even with 2 attached drives.    If you have a PCIe x4 slot available, and use an x4 card, then you could easily attach 4 drives to it.

 

Your last comment is correct => after the parity check finishes all you have to do is format the 2 drives and you're done  :)

 

Thanks!

 

Right now it-s only using the 3TB ones, so jumped up to 92MB/sec, limited by the card then for sure.

 

Will look into the expansions, because I'm pretty sure it has that single PCIe x1 slot and just that (besides the graphics one which I'm pretty sure cannot be used for that).

 

So maybe a new mobo will be better off since for better cards I will need one anyway.  Not sure what the best mobo with highest sata ports would be, never seen more than 8.

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Quick question on something odd I noticed...

 

I was checking up on how the parity check is going, and while no errors were found, I see that the other disks that were already past their point (passed the 1TB mark in the check already) wew spun up, and there have been some writes... (see screenshot)

 

Is it normal, or is this maybe the fault of some device in my network (like a WD Live TV) maybe writing anything to it's media base...?

 

Any way to check?

Final_Parity_Check.JPG.5b7765af44dbd0fade36cdc6c7276b48.JPG

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Well..

 

Another oddity I found...

 

Formtted the other 2 drives, system did it as xfs the new default, and I see that the 3TB shows correctly(?) "3TB" but the 1TB, contrary to the others shows 1000GB instead...

 

Is this right/new behavior? Why on this drive and not the others?

Normal... Known issue
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Well..

 

Another oddity I found...

 

Formtted the other 2 drives, system did it as xfs the new default, and I see that the 3TB shows correctly(?) "3TB" but the 1TB, contrary to the others shows 1000GB instead...

 

Is this right/new behavior? Why on this drive and not the others?

Normal... Known issue

 

Thanks!  Won't worry then...

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