Right now, I have a 10 TB usable setup made up of six 2TB disks.  I'm upgrading to a set of four 6TB disks.  However, my current array is almost full with less than 2 TB free, so that limits my ability to shuffle data around to upgrade drives.  The fail-safe way of doing my upgrade is to back up all of my data, and create a brand new, empty array.  And I can do that if I have to.  But I have another idea, I just don't know if it's possible.  I'm also limited in expansion because my current case is completely full and has no room to mount any disks, nor do I have any more options for SATA ports.  I can fit six 3.5" disks, and I have an expansion SATA/eSATA card where my cache drive is plugged in.  I also have a USB drive dock hooked up via the eSATA port.  I've been using this drive dock to work on preclearing my new disks.  (I have two of the new disks precleared at the moment, so I still have some time before I can move forward.  I need a third disk precleared before I can fit the contents of my current array on a new array.)

 

For the purposes of discussion:

 

2TB_Parity = Current 2TB parity disk

2TB_D1-5 = Current 2TB data disks

6TB_Parity =  New 6TB parity disk

6TB_D1-3 = New 6TB data disks

 

Here's what I'd like to do:

 

Copy 2TB_D1, 2, and 3's contents to 6TB_D1 (connected via drive dock)

Unmount/remove 6TB_D1

Copy 2TB_D4 and 5 to 6TB_D2 (connected via drive dock)

Remove all 2TB disks and create new array with 6TB_Parity, 6TB_D1, and 6TB_D2

Let parity build on 6TB_Parity

Preclear 6TB_D3 and add to new array

 

If all of the new disks are already formatted to XFS under unRAID, is this possible?

 

If not, then I'm thinking that option 2 is:

 

Replace 2TB_Parity with 6TB_Parity

Let 6TB_Parity rebuild

Add 6TB_D1 to array via drive dock

Copy 2TB_D1, 2, and 3 to 6TB_D1

Remove 2TB_D1, 2, and 3, and let parity rebuild

Install 6TB_D1, 2, and 3 in server

Copy 2TB_D4 and D5 to 6TB_D2

Remove 2TB_D4 and D5, and let parity rebuild again

Preclear 6TB_D3 and add to array

 

Third option is to do a full backup, and then just remove all 2 TB disks and start fresh.

Once all your new drives are precleared, you can just replace one drive at a time and the data will be rebuilt and expanded with each drive replacement.  You don't have to do the copy outside of the array.  You can do either, but the replacement would probably be quicker and easier.

 

Option 3 to simply create a new array based on the 6TB disks, and then plug the 2TB drives in as drives external to the array (either using slots freed up or using a drive dock) and copy their data to the array might be the easiest.  This takes advantage of the fact that with unRAID each drive is a discrete file system and thus the 2TB disks can be used independently of the array.  As you have backups you can avoid assigning the parity drive until the copying has finished to speed up the copy process.

Option 3 to simply create a new array based on the 6TB disks, and then plug the 2TB drives in as drives external to the array (either using slots freed up or using a drive dock) and copy their data to the array might be the easiest.  This takes advantage of the fact that with unRAID each drive is a discrete file system and thus the 2TB disks can be used independently of the array.  As you have backups you can avoid assigning the parity drive until the copying has finished to speed up the copy process.

 

That's so amazingly simple, I think that's what I'll do.  Thanks mate.