Expanding the array and moving/swapping drives

[Seige]

Hi,

 

I intend to expand my server and make some changes to the array. I am fairly sure on how to proceed, but I would greatly appreciate some feedback if I am missing something.

 

At the moment if have the following setup

 

 

 ASRock - E3C226D2I with 6x SATA3

 

1x Parity 4tb

4x Data 4tb

1x SSD cache 250gb

 

I have purchased a used H310 and will install it in the server. With that I would like to make the following changes

 

replace the parity with a 10 tb drive,

move one of the 4 data drives to a SATA port of the H310,

install a second SSD 250gb and connect it to the internal SATA to create a cache pool,

use the old parity drive as storage and expand the storage with additional drives

 

My procedure:

 

1. Do a parity check on the existing setup, then replace the parity with the 10tb drive and rebuild the parity, while keeping the old drive until the rebuild is complete.

 

2. Disconnect all the drives (after proper labeling etc) and flash the H310 controller to IT mode, following the instructions provided in this forum.

 

3. Reconnect all drives and move one of the storage drives to the H310.

 

4. Connect the second SSD to internal SATA

 

5. Assign/reassign the drives so that the original order is restored

 

 

Is this correct? Also is it ok to connect a drive to a different SATA port as long as it is assigned to the correct drive number in the array?

 

Thanks for your help!

 

Cheers,

Sebastian

 

 

 

[itimpi]

Step 5) should be unnecessary unless as unRAID recognises drives by their serial number and not by where they are connected.   Also if you DO want to reassign drives for any reason the you would have to precede it with a ‘New Config’ step to get unRAID to forget current assignments.

[Seige]

On 5/10/2018 at 8:59 AM, itimpi said:

Step 5) should be unnecessary unless as unRAID recognises drives by their serial number and not by where they are connected.   Also if you DO want to reassign drives for any reason the you would have to precede it with a ‘New Config’ step to get unRAID to forget current assignments.

 

Many thanks for your response! You are right with regards to step 5. I meant it in a sense of double checking, that the drive order is maintained, but phrased it poorly. ?

 

I have finished up installing the H310 and connecting all the drives. Currently clearing the old parity and then I should be ready to go. So far a very smooth process, minus flashing the raid card (had to be done in EFI after failing in 3 different machines)

Edited May 19, 2018 by Seige