I wanted to increase my total allowed number of drives in my box, and in doing so, would need to add a controller.  My understanding is that when you add drives to a controller, all data is erased.  Would it be possible to use drives from my current array and add them to the controller, if they are empty, according to my main array config page?  Anything I need to consider ?  Or is this not possible? Thanks.

Follow up - What I really want to know is if I move drives that are currently attached via onboard, to a controller card, will I lose data?  The card allows for JBOD, however when I tried to set it up, the last step was confirming whether I wanted to erase all data on the drives.  Obviously, no.  I read somewhere here that it is possible to move drives to cards, etc  - as long as you know its position in the raid array.  Just wanted to double check before I did anything dumb.

 

 

Follow up - What I really want to know is if I move drives that are currently attached via onboard, to a controller card, will I lose data?  The card allows for JBOD, however when I tried to set it up, the last step was confirming whether I wanted to erase all data on the drives.  Obviously, no.  I read somewhere here that it is possible to move drives to cards, etc  - as long as you know its position in the raid array.  Just wanted to double check before I did anything dumb.

The only way to remove a drive from an array is to

Stop the array

Un-assign the drive being removed

Use the button labeled as "Restore" to set a new disk configuration.  This will immediately invalidate parity and when you then press the "Start" button the unRAID array will begin a brand new parity calc without the removed drive.  You will lose parity protection until the new parity calc is complete.

 

If you move drives from one controller to another, and use the devices assignment page to re-assign them to their respective slots in the array, you should not lose any data.  This is ONLY possible if you do not add or remove other disks at the same time.  Only perform ONE disk operation at a time unless you know what you are specifically doing.    There is a bug in the 4.5.3 release where until data drives are mounted they show as un-formatted on the web-display.  If a drive that has data shows as un-formated DO NOT PRESS THE FORMAT BUTTON.  Pressing it has already caused at least one unRAID user to lose their data.

 

Instead, stop the array and re-start it and odds are the drive will mount properly and will not show as un-formatted.

 

Joe L.

Thank you. 

 

So, just to be clear - If I have 2 drives that are currently EMPTY, but part of an array of 8 drives, and they are currently connected directly to the motherboard - if I wanted to move those drives and attach them to a controller, the process would be essentially the same as removing a drive and adding a new one - one at a time.  Is that correct? 

Thank you. 

 

So, just to be clear - If I have 2 drives that are currently EMPTY, but part of an array of 8 drives, and they are currently connected directly to the motherboard - if I wanted to move those drives and attach them to a controller, the process would be essentially the same as removing a drive and adding a new one - one at a time.  Is that correct? 

The contents of a drive make absolutely no difference once they are assigned to an array slot with parity enabled and the drive started.  You could have a completely empty and un-formatted drive that you are moving and the procedure is identical to one full of files if they are both assigned on the devices page.

 

Take a screen shot of the devices page so you'll know which drives are assigned to which logical slots.

Stop the array

Power down

Move the disks to the alternate controller and/or controller ports.

Power up the array.  Odds are it will not start on its own.

Go to the devices page and assign the drives to their correct slots in the array based on your first screen shot.

Go back to the main page, press "Start" to start the array.

 

Joe L.

yes, I understand that.  I was only inquiring because when I connect my drive to the new controller, before I finalize the JBOD setting, it warns me that all data on the drive will be erased and if I want to continue. 

yes, I understand that.  I was only inquiring because when I connect my drive to the new controller, before I finalize the JBOD setting, it warns me that all data on the drive will be erased and if I want to continue. 

If you are referring to the BIOS on your RAID card, then I have no idea if it will erase your data.

 

Where exactly are you seeing this "warning?"  Typically hardware RAID cards do not take lightly changing from one mode to another.  This is not an unRAID issue if you are dealing with the BIOS on the RAID card.

Yes, thats why my question was sort of 2-pronged.  Presuming the controller needs to erase the disk before adding it to its arrangement, I wanted to know if that would affect my unraid array, which I now know the answer to be YES. 

 

The warning is from the Bios of the 3ware 9690sa controller and yes, it is not an unraid issue.

 

Thank you for your help though - I got my answer, which is basically to first remove the drive from my unraid array, then subsequently add it with my controller after parity has been recalcd, at which time I can then add the "new" drive to the array. 

I got my answer, which is basically to first remove the drive from my unraid array, then subsequently add it with my controller after parity has been recalcd, at which time I can then add the "new" drive to the array. 

 

As long as you are still talking about your empty drives, then that is correct.  If you do that to a full drive, you will lose all the data on that drive.

 

Say you wanted to move a drive full of data from your onboard slots onto the controller, and the controller HAD to erase the drive.  Here's what you could do:

 

0) Run a parity check, this ensures that your parity data is healthy and can be read.  This is crucial for later steps.

1) Once the parity check is complete, stop the array, and power down.

2) Physically remove the full drive from the array (unplug the SATA cable, the power cable, or both...this simulates a drive failure)

3) Power on.  You should see a warning about a disk missing on the web management page.

4) Ensure that you can access the data on the missing disk through your user/disk shares (the data will be simulated using all of your other data drives + the parity drive)

5) Stop the array, power down

6) Connect the SATA cable for the full/missing drive to the controller.  Connect the power cable as well.

7) Power on and boot into your controller's BIOS (do not boot into unRAID)

Use the controller's BIOS to erase the drive, or whatever it needs to do.

9) Reboot and let the server boot into unRAID

10) Once unRAID starts, you should see a warning about 'upgrading disk' on the web management page.

11) Go to the devices page and assign the 'new' disk to a drive slot.

12) Start the array.  The data rebuild should start automatically.

13) Once the data rebuild is complete, run another parity check.

 

After step 13, your server should be back to normal with parity protection in place.  Note that you will not have parity protection on your server between steps 2 and 12, so make sure you trust your disks before doing this.

 

Make sure not to press the 'restore' button during any of this.  Doing so at any point could lead to data loss.

 

Are you sure you are setting a JBOD mode and not a RAID mode? I could see a RAID mode deleting the data but the JBOD mode should not.

 

See if there is a way to "disable" the card bios completely and turn it into a JBOD controller, even though I don't think that is possible. I take it you're using the "Single Disk" and not the JBOD setting. I could see the "Single Disk" setting deleting the contents but the JBOD should not.

 

However, I'm not even sure unRAID will see the disks from that card and I'n not sure you can do JBOD with it.

 

Peter