Splitting a server into 2

[Tchucho]

Hi,

 

 Been using unRAID for a few months and loving it!

 

 My current setup is a Corsair 900D packed with hard drives and i think its time to move on to a rack system.

 Bought the rack, bought the hw, going on with the setup on the weekend but been thinking about the best way to move the hard drivers.

 I want to have on one server all of the 6TB and below (a couple of 4tb) and on the other one all of the 8TB drives.

 

 Best option would it be to shutdown current server, move the hard drivers physically to the new servers and assign them as DATA without parity so that i can arrange the data between them both and then assign a parity to each server?

 

 Thanks in advance.

[Frank1940]

First thing, I would do is to run a parity check (either checking or non-checking) and make sure there weren't any problems reading any of the disks! 

 

Now as to setting the two new servers.  You have to decide what your risk tolerance factor is.  If you don't installed parity and update parity for both servers, you will be running unprotected.  And it sounds like you have a lot of data to move and that means you have a lot of potential for something to go wrong.  

 

Personally, what I would do is to install the parity.  And turn on the 'Turbo mode'  by going to   Settings   >>>>  Disk Settings and set the      'Tunable (md_write_method):'    to use the "reconstruct write"    mode as this will about double the write speed while still maintaining parity.   

[Tchucho]

Hi @Frank1940 , thanks for the reply :-)

 

 Parity was done 2 weeks ago and all went ok.

 

 My main doubt is the best way to start the process... ehehh

 

 i have 40ish Tb but i want to ditch the 3Tb hard drives ( i have 4 all with data at the moment) and then maintain 2 separated systems.

 

Thanks again,

 

 

[Frank1940]

46 minutes ago, Tchucho said:

 

 Parity was done 2 weeks ago and all went ok.

 

That was two weeks ago.  I personally would do it JUST  before, I started moving things.  An ounce of precaution is worth a ton of cure...

 

48 minutes ago, Tchucho said:

 i have 40ish Tb but i want to ditch the 3Tb hard drives ( i have 4 all with data at the moment) and then maintain 2 separated systems.

 

 

You could do a disk-to-disk move (or copy) with mc, Krusader docker, or the Unbalance Plugin(?) to empty them.   Then remove those disks by shrinking the array.  See here for directions:

 

       http://lime-technology.com/wiki/UnRAID_6/Storage_Management#Removing_disks

 

[Tchucho]

@Frank1940 will go with your suggestion with the parity check, then i will copy as much as i can to my new setup 3x6Tb, then will go on unbalance and empty the 3 existing 6Tb drives so that i can remove them from the 1st server.

 

[Tchucho]

Finished balancing the disks!! it took some time!!

 

Already purchased a new license for the second server and i'm going to do a new config with 3 new 6Tb's disk and joining the other 4 6Tb's with Data. I'm hopping that unRAID will see the data on them... am i correct to assume this?

 

After this i'm going to pick the remaing 4x8Tb's and will do the same on another machine joining also 2 new 8Tb's disks and setup it up as a new config using the current pen/license.

 

Any one tried something similar?

[SSD]

8 minutes ago, Tchucho said:

Finished balancing the disks!! it took some time!!

 

Already purchased a new license for the second server and i'm going to do a new config with 3 new 6Tb's disk and joining the other 4 6Tb's with Data. I'm hopping that unRAID will see the data on them... am i correct to assume this?

 

Yes - if you are defining a new array, unRAID will see the data IF the disks were previously used in an unRAID array, and not reformat them. (unRAID is very particular about disk partitioning and formatting, so don't try to use some foreign disk and expect unRAID to recognize it!) However, do not EVER try to add a disk with data to a protected array. unRAID will clear it. In order to add a disk with data, you'd need to do a new config!

 

8 minutes ago, Tchucho said:

 

After this i'm going to pick the remaing 4x8Tb's and will do the same on another machine joining also 2 new 8Tb's disks and setup it up as a new config using the current pen/license.

 

Any one tried something similar?

 

If your intent was to remove data from the 3T disks with intent to not use them in unRAID anymore (not in either server), makes sense to copy their data to other disks. But I like to keep such disks populated with data as a backup. unBalance will remove the data from them.

 

Good luck. What you are doing is not difficult, but may take some wall clock time!

[Tchucho]

1 hour ago, SSD said:

 

Yes - if you are defining a new array, unRAID will see the data IF the disks were previously used in an unRAID array, and not reformat them. (unRAID is very particular about disk partitioning and formatting, so don't try to use some foreign disk and expect unRAID to recognize it!) However, do not EVER try to add a disk with data to a protected array. unRAID will clear it. In order to add a disk with data, you'd need to do a new config!

 

 

If your intent was to remove data from the 3T disks with intent to not use them in unRAID anymore (not in either server), makes sense to copy their data to other disks. But I like to keep such disks populated with data as a backup. unBalance will remove the data from them.

 

Good luck. What you are doing is not difficult, but may take some wall clock time!

@SSD Thanks for the reply

 

The intent is to remove all the 3Tb's hard drivers and to split 1 server into 2.

 

So i'll keep half drives with DATA on a new config on a new server and do the same with the other half also using a new config.

 

Movies on 8Tb's on 1 server

Shows on 6Tb's on 2 server

 

instead of one big server full with smaller drivers.

 

Since all the data was moved from 3Tb's to the corresponding 6'Tb and 8Tb's a new config on a new server should pick up all disks with DATA. At lease... in theory ehhehe

 

[Tchucho]

So.. an update on this, is that everything went well :-)

 

 Just got a little problem now regarding permissions...

 

Both servers have the Media folder and inside that there are folder that i can write and others that i cant write even if a set it as public... and i've been banging on this...

 

Any pointers?

 

Thanks in advance

[Frank1940]

Run the 'Docker Safe New Permissions' plugin. It is in the Tools menu.  As I recall, it is a part of the Fix Common Problems plugin. 

 

EDIT:  IF that fixes it, you probably have a Docker that is not set up correctly and is saving its files with the wrong owner and/or group attributes.

[Tchucho]

@Frank1940 it fixed!! i dont have any docker installed except the good NetData but maybe some of the old files/permissioes were inside some folders... but not everything is working fine!!

 

Thanks for the pointer!