I'm in the process of upgrading about 7 drives in my 29-drive array.  I also plan on adding a 2nd parity drive to the setup.  If I install the 2nd parity drive and then run a parity check, would I then be able to swap out multiple drives simultaneously and rebuild the data?  Is there a limit on how many drives I can replace at the same time? 

 

I currently have a 24-bay Supermicro server case with a 5-in-3 Supermicro case (i.e., has five 3.5" HD slots that can fit in three normal half-height drive slots in a PC case).  My system consists of three 8-port Supermicro SATA controllers, six onboard SATA ports, and a 2-port PCI-e controller.  24 of the drives (1 parity and 23 data) are connected to the three 8-port controllers.  The other five data drives are connected to the onboard SATA ports as is a single cache drive.  I will connect the cache drive to the 2-port controller and then use the vacated 6th port on the motherboard for the 2nd parity drive.  This still allows for a 2nd cache drive that can be added to the 2-port controller.

Edited November 15, 20178 yr by captain_video

1 minute ago, captain_video said:

Is there a limit on how many drives I can replace at the same time?

 

As many as the number of parity disks.

8 minutes ago, johnnie.black said:

 

As many as the number of parity disks.

So I can only upgrade two drives at a time based on two parity disks?  I've been trying to find info on using two parity drives but it doesn't seem to be in the documentation.

Just now, captain_video said:

So I can only upgrade two drives at a time based on two parity disks?

 

Yes, it's same as the available redundancy, i.e., one parity disk protects from one failed disk, two parity disks protects from max two simultaneous failed disks.