Hi there,  I've just built my first UnRAID server using the free edition (bought the Pro one and waiting for the registration files now).  In testing this, I put a 1.5TB WD SATA drive in there as Drive 1 and copied a ton of stuff to it, mainly to 'burn in' test the computer that was running this.  All went well, so I decided to add a 2nd 1.5TB WD SATA drive and a 500MB WD IDE drive to it. 

 

After adding the extra drives, I set the 2nd 1.5TB drive as my Parity drive (prior to this, parity was unassigned) and the 500MB drive as Drive 2.  Drive 1 stayed as the 1.5 TB drive from before.

 

Drive 1 is showing up no problem.  Drive 2 is showing up no problem.  The Parity drive is also showing up with a blue indicator next to it, but I'm not sure if it is actively building parity over the other two drives.

 

What should I expect to see given the way that I have added drives to this configuration?  And once my registration is installed and I start adding tons of other drives, will the Parity be automatically refreshed, or do I have to do something to tell it to rebuild the parity drive?

 

Thanks in advance for a great bit of software, and any assistance.

 

Myles

Hi there,  I've just built my first UnRAID server using the free edition (bought the Pro one and waiting for the registration files now).  In testing this, I put a 1.5TB WD SATA drive in there as Drive 1 and copied a ton of stuff to it, mainly to 'burn in' test the computer that was running this.  All went well, so I decided to add a 2nd 1.5TB WD SATA drive and a 500MB WD IDE drive to it. 

 

After adding the extra drives, I set the 2nd 1.5TB drive as my Parity drive (prior to this, parity was unassigned) and the 500MB drive as Drive 2.  Drive 1 stayed as the 1.5 TB drive from before.

 

Drive 1 is showing up no problem.  Drive 2 is showing up no problem.  The Parity drive is also showing up with a blue indicator next to it, but I'm not sure if it is actively building parity over the other two drives.

Once you assign a parity drive and then start the array parity will then be initially calculated.  Once the calculation is complete, the parity will be updated as you write tot he data disks.  You do not need to do anything to keep it in sync.

What should I expect to see given the way that I have added drives to this configuration?  And once my registration is installed and I start adding tons of other drives, will the Parity be automatically refreshed, or do I have to do something to tell it to rebuild the parity drive?

as you add drives they will be cleared (zeroed) so parity does not need to be completely re-calculated.    You do not need to do anything to rebuild parity.

 

If you remove (un-assign) a drive from the array, and you do not intend to replace it, you will need to press the button labeled "restore" to save a new initial disk configuration and it will then completely rebuild parity based on the then assigned and working drives.

 

You should, once a month or so, press the "Check" button to perform a full parity check.  This is intended to confirm that all your hardware is working properly and the disks are all readable.    In fact, as soon as the initial parity calc is completed (the indicator will turn from blue to green) you should check it.  The "calc" writes to the disk, the "check" reads from it.  You want to be sure the read works reliably before you start trusting your data to the server.

Thanks in advance for a great bit of software, and any assistance.

Myles

Thanks for the guidance.  That did it.  I didn't realize that I  had to restore the array after changing the disk configuration.  Once I did that, the parity is now building.  I suspect that was all it was.

 

Myles