Hey all!

 

I'm currently running out of SATA ports on my motherboard and I am weighing out my options. I am looking into a couple options.

1: Buying a PCI SATA adapter and a bigger case to hold more drives. ($)

2: Using my old machine to do another unRAID build and shove it full of drives ($)

3: Keeping my current unRAID setup and adding an external NAS for more drives. ($$$)

 

Im looking for the most efficient way to do this. Cost isn't the biggest factor, but the cheaper the better. I wouldn't want to sacrifice performance for price though. I figure that the cost of the first two would be about the same, maybe even more because I would have to buy the larger case. The second option may be a little difficult having to monitor two separate arrays. Lastly the third option, may be expensive, and I cannot see any benefits besides maybe size.

 

Let me know what you guys think!!

 

Thanks,

 

Tay

Replace your current drives with larger drives.

Replace your current drives with larger drives.

+1, exactly. You can even sell good used drives for a pretty fair percentage, and recoup money that way, or keep them as backups if you don't already have good backups.

As the others have already said replace your current drives with higher capacity drives.  You may have other reasons to build a new system, but if capacity is the only issue the easiest short term solution is to replace the drives.

Hey all!

 

I'm currently running out of SATA ports on my motherboard and I am weighing out my options. I am looking into a couple options.

1: Buying a PCI SATA adapter and a bigger case to hold more drives. ($)

2: Using my old machine to do another unRAID build and shove it full of drives ($)

3: Keeping my current unRAID setup and adding an external NAS for more drives. ($$$)

 

Im looking for the most efficient way to do this. Cost isn't the biggest factor, but the cheaper the better. I wouldn't want to sacrifice performance for price though. I figure that the cost of the first two would be about the same, maybe even more because I would have to buy the larger case. The second option may be a little difficult having to monitor two separate arrays. Lastly the third option, may be expensive, and I cannot see any benefits besides maybe size.

 

Let me know what you guys think!!

 

Thanks,

 

Tay

 

Ehm... What everybody says..

 

According to your signature you now have:

 

HDD: 2x2TB 1x3TB 1x4TB

 

That means you have 11TB of storage (possibly less if there is parity in these numbers). It als omeans you have 4 drives in your current system.

 

What I would do:

 

- Buy 2 8TB drives

- Preclear one drive

- Replace your current parity drive with that 8TB

- Use the old parity drive as data drive, that gives you 4TB of new storage right away

- Preclear second drive

- Replace one of the 2TB drives for the 8TB, that gives you 6TB of new storage

 

With those actions you approx. double your storage capacity, should keep you going for a while.

 

If you want to go for the max you could buy two more 8TB's and max out this config for a total of 32TB, that is three times your current size.. Also.. Harddisk sizes continuously increase, so this will not be the end scenario..

Hey all!

 

I'm currently running out of SATA ports on my motherboard and I am weighing out my options. I am looking into a couple options.

1: Buying a PCI SATA adapter and a bigger case to hold more drives. ($)

2: Using my old machine to do another unRAID build and shove it full of drives ($)

3: Keeping my current unRAID setup and adding an external NAS for more drives. ($$$)

 

Im looking for the most efficient way to do this. Cost isn't the biggest factor, but the cheaper the better. I wouldn't want to sacrifice performance for price though. I figure that the cost of the first two would be about the same, maybe even more because I would have to buy the larger case. The second option may be a little difficult having to monitor two separate arrays. Lastly the third option, may be expensive, and I cannot see any benefits besides maybe size.

 

Let me know what you guys think!!

 

Thanks,

 

Tay

 

Ehm... What everybody says..

 

According to your signature you now have:

 

HDD: 2x2TB 1x3TB 1x4TB

 

That means you have 11TB of storage (possibly less if there is parity in these numbers). It als omeans you have 4 drives in your current system.

 

What I would do:

 

- Buy 2 8TB drives

- Preclear one drive

- Replace your current parity drive with that 8TB

- Use the old parity drive as data drive, that gives you 4TB of new storage right away

- Preclear second drive

- Replace one of the 2TB drives for the 8TB, that gives you 6TB of new storage

 

With those actions you approx. double your storage capacity, should keep you going for a while.

 

If you want to go for the max you could buy two more 8TB's and max out this config for a total of 32TB, that is three times your current size.. Also.. Harddisk sizes continuously increase, so this will not be the end scenario..

 

With my current setup I do have 7TB of usable storage. That sounds like a great idea, I didn't know that I could upgrade the parity drive so thats a pretty awesome option. Is there a guide somewhere on doing this?

 

 

With my current setup I do have 7TB of usable storage. That sounds like a great idea, I didn't know that I could upgrade the parity drive so thats a pretty awesome option. Is there a guide somewhere on doing this?

Upgrading or replacing parity is pretty much the same as upgrading or replacing a data drive.

 

Stop array.

 

Assign new disk to the slot.

 

Start array to rebuild.

 

Hey all!

 

I'm currently running out of SATA ports on my motherboard and I am weighing out my options. I am looking into a couple options.

1: Buying a PCI SATA adapter and a bigger case to hold more drives. ($)

2: Using my old machine to do another unRAID build and shove it full of drives ($)

3: Keeping my current unRAID setup and adding an external NAS for more drives. ($$$)

 

Im looking for the most efficient way to do this. Cost isn't the biggest factor, but the cheaper the better. I wouldn't want to sacrifice performance for price though. I figure that the cost of the first two would be about the same, maybe even more because I would have to buy the larger case. The second option may be a little difficult having to monitor two separate arrays. Lastly the third option, may be expensive, and I cannot see any benefits besides maybe size.

 

Let me know what you guys think!!

 

Thanks,

 

Tay

 

Ehm... What everybody says..

 

According to your signature you now have:

 

HDD: 2x2TB 1x3TB 1x4TB

 

That means you have 11TB of storage (possibly less if there is parity in these numbers). It als omeans you have 4 drives in your current system.

 

What I would do:

 

- Buy 2 8TB drives

- Preclear one drive

- Replace your current parity drive with that 8TB

- Use the old parity drive as data drive, that gives you 4TB of new storage right away

- Preclear second drive

- Replace one of the 2TB drives for the 8TB, that gives you 6TB of new storage

 

With those actions you approx. double your storage capacity, should keep you going for a while.

 

If you want to go for the max you could buy two more 8TB's and max out this config for a total of 32TB, that is three times your current size.. Also.. Harddisk sizes continuously increase, so this will not be the end scenario..

 

With my current setup I do have 7TB of usable storage. That sounds like a great idea, I didn't know that I could upgrade the parity drive so thats a pretty awesome option. Is there a guide somewhere on doing this?

 

1) Stop array

2) Bring down system

3) Remove current parity drive and put in new drive

4) Start up system

5) System will tell you that the parity drive is missing. Set the new 8TB to the parity slot (you can select it from the GUI)

6) System will now rebuild parity.

 

Note: During parity rebuild you do not have parity protection, so SHOULD you have a drive failure during the rebuild, you can loose data.. This is one of the reasons dual parity was created...

 

If you want to avoid the risk:

 

1) Stop array

2) Bring down system

3) Put in two new 8TB drives

4) Start system

5) Preclear both drives

6) Stop array

7) Assign one of the 8TB's to the second parity slot

Wait for parity on the second disk to be ready

9) Stop array

10) Bring down system

11) Remove a data drive (your smallest one)

12) Start system

13) System will warn you that a data drive is missing, assign the second 8TB to the missing slot (in GUI)

14) Wait for parity to rebuild

 

 

this however is the best solution from a price to reliability to speed option, however for best performance (more testing is needed) you want to use an ssd as your parity drive

You forgot the smiley

this however is the best solution from a price to reliability to speed option, however for best performance (more testing is needed) you want to use an ssd as your parity drive

You forgot the smiley

 

That is clearly not a serious suggestion -- not sure if he meant "cache" or was just joking (and thus "forgot the smiley").  While an 8TB SSD would indeed make a nice parity drive, it would cost in the neighborhood of $2500 or more to do that -- probably more than the vast majority of folks are willing to pay these days for a single drive.    [it's hard to believe I once paid $4500 for a 26MB hard drive -- and yet I wouldn't even dream of paying $2500 for an 8TB SSD today]

 

Hey all!

 

I'm currently running out of SATA ports on my motherboard and I am weighing out my options. I am looking into a couple options.

1: Buying a PCI SATA adapter and a bigger case to hold more drives. ($)

2: Using my old machine to do another unRAID build and shove it full of drives ($)

3: Keeping my current unRAID setup and adding an external NAS for more drives. ($$$)

 

Im looking for the most efficient way to do this. Cost isn't the biggest factor, but the cheaper the better. I wouldn't want to sacrifice performance for price though. I figure that the cost of the first two would be about the same, maybe even more because I would have to buy the larger case. The second option may be a little difficult having to monitor two separate arrays. Lastly the third option, may be expensive, and I cannot see any benefits besides maybe size.

 

Let me know what you guys think!!

 

Thanks,

 

Tay

 

Ehm... What everybody says..

 

According to your signature you now have:

 

HDD: 2x2TB 1x3TB 1x4TB

 

That means you have 11TB of storage (possibly less if there is parity in these numbers). It als omeans you have 4 drives in your current system.

 

What I would do:

 

- Buy 2 8TB drives

- Preclear one drive

- Replace your current parity drive with that 8TB

- Use the old parity drive as data drive, that gives you 4TB of new storage right away

- Preclear second drive

- Replace one of the 2TB drives for the 8TB, that gives you 6TB of new storage

 

With those actions you approx. double your storage capacity, should keep you going for a while.

 

If you want to go for the max you could buy two more 8TB's and max out this config for a total of 32TB, that is three times your current size.. Also.. Harddisk sizes continuously increase, so this will not be the end scenario..

 

With my current setup I do have 7TB of usable storage. That sounds like a great idea, I didn't know that I could upgrade the parity drive so thats a pretty awesome option. Is there a guide somewhere on doing this?

 

1) Stop array

2) Bring down system

3) Remove current parity drive and put in new drive

4) Start up system

5) System will tell you that the parity drive is missing. Set the new 8TB to the parity slot (you can select it from the GUI)

6) System will now rebuild parity.

 

Note: During parity rebuild you do not have parity protection, so SHOULD you have a drive failure during the rebuild, you can loose data.. This is one of the reasons dual parity was created...

 

If you want to avoid the risk:

 

1) Stop array

2) Bring down system

3) Put in two new 8TB drives

4) Start system

5) Preclear both drives

6) Stop array

7) Assign one of the 8TB's to the second parity slot

Wait for parity on the second disk to be ready

9) Stop array

10) Bring down system

11) Remove a data drive (your smallest one)

12) Start system

13) System will warn you that a data drive is missing, assign the second 8TB to the missing slot (in GUI)

14) Wait for parity to rebuild

 

 

this however is the best solution from a price to reliability to speed option, however for best performance (more testing is needed) you want to use an ssd as your parity drive

 

An SSD as parity drive is err... (sorry) nonsense... The writing speed of the array is limited to the writing speed of every disk used in a write, so the ssd will just wait for your data drive..

 

 

A cache drive SSD is helpfull with dockers and temporary storage though..

 

Erm.. You dont have parity drives with a raid setup.. So I do not get that reference..

 

The cache drive can be an SSD for the simple reason that a smaller drive is large enough.. There is no benefit in having the cache drive be as large as an array drive..

 

Are you actually familiar with unraid ?  If not that is not an issue, we all started with it at some point, but it might be wise to be carefull in beiing very certain about some stuff if you're not really.. Just a tip.. (not for me, but for other new users who are looking for solid info)

you actually do use parity drives in raid 5 and 6 and they are usually the main limiting factor on writes.

? The parity data in RAID5/6 is usually striped across all disks, not limited to one like unraid.

 

Erm.. You dont have parity drives with a raid setup.. So I do not get that reference..

 

The cache drive can be an SSD for the simple reason that a smaller drive is large enough.. There is no benefit in having the cache drive be as large as an array drive..

 

Are you actually familiar with unraid ?  If not that is not an issue, we all started with it at some point, but it might be wise to be carefull in beiing very certain about some stuff if you're not really.. Just a tip.. (not for me, but for other new users who are looking for solid info)

 

sorry, I'm pretty inexperienced with unraid but what I probably should have said was don't use a cache drive on a share where you store vdisks that are larger than the cache drive and you actually do use parity drives in raid 5 and 6 and they are usually the main limiting factor on writes.

 

In RAID5 the parity is stripped accross all the disks in the array. So a file you write is written simultanteoulsy to all drives in the array. In effect the filesystem is split over a multitude of disks, where data to recover from a failed disk (parity info) is also written against all drives.

 

In unraid all disks have their own filesytem and parity is maintained on a seperate disk. (or, if you want to protect against dual drive failure) on two seperate disks. .

 

Wrt to the comment on vdisks and array and cache drive size: a vdisk you would not store in the array (and use a cache drive for), you would probably have it sit on the cache drive also for reasons of speed (or, if speed is not a thing, you would have it on the array constantly). The VDISK would never move back to the cache drive (that mechanism is only used when ADDING files, not when changing them).

 

 

Hey all!

 

I'm currently running out of SATA ports on my motherboard and I am weighing out my options. I am looking into a couple options.

1: Buying a PCI SATA adapter and a bigger case to hold more drives. ($)

2: Using my old machine to do another unRAID build and shove it full of drives ($)

3: Keeping my current unRAID setup and adding an external NAS for more drives. ($$$)

 

Im looking for the most efficient way to do this. Cost isn't the biggest factor, but the cheaper the better. I wouldn't want to sacrifice performance for price though. I figure that the cost of the first two would be about the same, maybe even more because I would have to buy the larger case. The second option may be a little difficult having to monitor two separate arrays. Lastly the third option, may be expensive, and I cannot see any benefits besides maybe size.

 

Let me know what you guys think!!

 

Thanks,

 

Tay

 

Ehm... What everybody says..

 

According to your signature you now have:

 

HDD: 2x2TB 1x3TB 1x4TB

 

That means you have 11TB of storage (possibly less if there is parity in these numbers). It als omeans you have 4 drives in your current system.

 

What I would do:

 

- Buy 2 8TB drives

- Preclear one drive

- Replace your current parity drive with that 8TB

- Use the old parity drive as data drive, that gives you 4TB of new storage right away

- Preclear second drive

- Replace one of the 2TB drives for the 8TB, that gives you 6TB of new storage

 

With those actions you approx. double your storage capacity, should keep you going for a while.

 

If you want to go for the max you could buy two more 8TB's and max out this config for a total of 32TB, that is three times your current size.. Also.. Harddisk sizes continuously increase, so this will not be the end scenario..

 

With my current setup I do have 7TB of usable storage. That sounds like a great idea, I didn't know that I could upgrade the parity drive so thats a pretty awesome option. Is there a guide somewhere on doing this?

 

1) Stop array

2) Bring down system

3) Remove current parity drive and put in new drive

4) Start up system

5) System will tell you that the parity drive is missing. Set the new 8TB to the parity slot (you can select it from the GUI)

6) System will now rebuild parity.

 

Note: During parity rebuild you do not have parity protection, so SHOULD you have a drive failure during the rebuild, you can loose data.. This is one of the reasons dual parity was created...

 

If you want to avoid the risk:

 

1) Stop array

2) Bring down system

3) Put in two new 8TB drives

4) Start system

5) Preclear both drives

6) Stop array

7) Assign one of the 8TB's to the second parity slot

Wait for parity on the second disk to be ready

9) Stop array

10) Bring down system

11) Remove a data drive (your smallest one)

12) Start system

13) System will warn you that a data drive is missing, assign the second 8TB to the missing slot (in GUI)

14) Wait for parity to rebuild

 

Thanks all for your replies!

 

This is sounding like the best option to me. I would like the option of having dual parity, but I imagine that I would have to have both the same size. I am now thinking to follow the steps here but:

 

Preclear both drives.

Set one 8TB to parity 2 and wait for it to build.

Remove the 1st parity drive and set the second 8TB and wait for it to build.

Clear the original parity disk and have another 4TB Storage in my array until I can afford 2 more 8TB drives.

 

Does this sound like a good way of going about things?

 

sorry, I'm pretty inexperienced with unraid ...

Your advice has been pretty far off the mark in this thread, so much so that I was sure you were joking at first. Maybe read more and write less

(idealy) build a freenas server and link it directly with a 10 gigabit link to just the unraid server.

 

This sounds expensive lol...

(idealy) build a freenas server and link it directly with a 10 gigabit link to just the unraid server.

 

This sounds expensive lol...

I assumed this was part of the "jokes" he was making.

 

Erm.. You dont have parity drives with a raid setup.. So I do not get that reference..

 

The cache drive can be an SSD for the simple reason that a smaller drive is large enough.. There is no benefit in having the cache drive be as large as an array drive..

 

Are you actually familiar with unraid ?  If not that is not an issue, we all started with it at some point, but it might be wise to be carefull in beiing very certain about some stuff if you're not really.. Just a tip.. (not for me, but for other new users who are looking for solid info)

 

sorry, I'm pretty inexperienced with unraid but what I probably should have said was don't use a cache drive on a share where you store vdisks that are larger than the cache drive and you actually do use parity drives in raid 5 and 6 and they are usually the main limiting factor on writes.

 

In RAID5 the parity is stripped accross all the disks in the array. So a file you write is written simultanteoulsy to all drives in the array. In effect the filesystem is split over a multitude of disks, where data to recover from a failed disk (parity info) is also written against all drives.

 

In unraid all disks have their own filesytem and parity is maintained on a seperate disk. (or, if you want to protect against dual drive failure) on two seperate disks. .

 

Wrt to the comment on vdisks and array and cache drive size: a vdisk you would not store in the array (and use a cache drive for), you would probably have it sit on the cache drive also for reasons of speed (or, if speed is not a thing, you would have it on the array constantly). The VDISK would never move back to the cache drive (that mechanism is only used when ADDING files, not when changing them).

 

edit: it turns out I was wrong and rushed to an incorrect conclusion and misread the diagram https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels#RAID_5 striping the parity wouldn't work.

I might not know my unraid, but I know my raid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels#RAID_5 striping the parity wouldn't work.

You misunderstand the information at that link.

I might not know my unraid, but I know my raid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels#RAID_5 striping the parity wouldn't work.

Reread the parts about distributed parity (striped across all disks) and dedicated parity (contained on one disk).

 

Unraid most closely resembles RAID4 without the data striping part.

Not sure if anybody saw my response on the first page, but I was wondering if this world work?

 

Thanks all for your replies!

 

This is sounding like the best option to me. I would like the option of having dual parity, but I imagine that I would have to have both the same size. I am now thinking to follow the steps here but:

 

Preclear both drives.

Set one 8TB to parity 2 and wait for it to build.

Remove the 1st parity drive and set the second 8TB and wait for it to build.

Clear the original parity disk and have another 4TB Storage in my array until I can afford 2 more 8TB drives.

 

Does this sound like a good way of going about things?

Modify message

 

Not sure if anybody saw my response on the first page, but I was wondering if this world work?

 

Thanks all for your replies!

 

This is sounding like the best option to me. I would like the option of having dual parity, but I imagine that I would have to have both the same size. I am now thinking to follow the steps here but:

 

Preclear both drives.

Set one 8TB to parity 2 and wait for it to build.

Remove the 1st parity drive and set the second 8TB and wait for it to build.

Clear the original parity disk and have another 4TB Storage in my array until I can afford 2 more 8TB drives.

 

Does this sound like a good way of going about things?

Modify message

Sorry we let your thread get off-track.

 

Yes, that sounds like a good approach.

This is sounding like the best option to me. I would like the option of having dual parity, but I imagine that I would have to have both the same size.

not sure it affects your plans, but thought it was worth mentioning that when using Dual Parity it is NOT necessary for them to be the same size.    The only rule is that any parity disk must be at least as large as the largest data drive.

IO Crest SI-PEX40062 4 Port SATA III PCIe 2.0 X2 Controller Card (35.00 bucks on Amazon)

HGST Ultrastar 7K4000 HUS724030ALE641 (0F17731) 3TB 64MB Cache 7200RPM SATA III 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Enterprise Internal Hard Drive (Certified Refurbished)  (65.00 bucks on Amazon)

So for $100 you can add 3TB or more to your setup