I just found out that there is a possibility of using dual parity  yes i've been in V5 land for too long.

My current parity disk is getting older (>50.000 hours), no errors yet, but i think i'm gonna replace it later this year, as prevention.

 

Best thing to do is get 2 disks (and both a bit bigger for future expansion) and go for dual parity i guess... my array at the moment contains 10x 4TB disks.

Question, is there some procedure to follow when adding a 2nd parity disk? I can't find much info on it.

 

Or can i just add 2 new parity disk, run a parity rebuild and unraid takes care of both disks?

54 minutes ago, jowi said:

Or can i just add 2 new parity disk, run a parity rebuild and unraid takes care of both disks?

Sure, but if you want the extra safety while you do the parity build, you can do them one at a time to keep the array protected continuously.

 

Safest (but longest) would be to add new bigger disk as parity2, let parity build, do a parity check, do a long smart test, replace parity1, let parity build, do a parity check, do a long smart test. With that sequence of events I personally would be comfortable putting untested drives straight out of the box in service, as the build, check, smart test sequence would be plenty of testing and burn in, all while maintaining your current level of protection with one parity drive being kept valid during the whole procedure.

 

I recommend going as large as the budget allows, 8 or 10TB drives would be my preference. Even better, get just one new drive, add it as 2nd parity as described above, run for a few weeks, THEN source the second new drive so it's hopefully from an entirely different shipment of drives. I don't like adding drives to an array that all experienced the same shipping and handling chain.

Thanks, first adding a larger, 2nd parity disk, prepping it and let that run for a few weeks is even better, that way i can spread my costs a bit as well

 

So, if i add a new disk and assign it to the 2nd parity slot, unraid will create the parity when i start the array again?

2 minutes ago, jowi said:

So, if i add a new disk and assign it to the 2nd parity slot, unraid will create the parity when i start the array again?

yes

Ok, thanks guys!