first time user question

[nekromantik]

Hi all

I just bought a new Dell T20 server which includes 126GB SSD already installed.

I want to add my 2TB SATA drive from my Synology NAS and install unraid.

Can I just install unraid on a USB stick and add my 3TB drive and set up parity drive later?

Or will my drive get formatted if I use it first time?

Thanks

[JonathanM]

Your phrasing confused me, but bottom line, if you want to use a disk in the unraid array, it needs to be blank, or not have anything on it you want. It will be repartitioned to match what unraid needs and formatted.

[nekromantik]

Sorry but yes thats what I wanted to know thanks.

 

Any easier way to save the data that I want to keep other then buying a 2nd drive installing it and then transferring from another source like PC or NAS?

[JonathanM]

1 minute ago, nekromantik said:

Any easier way to save the data that I want to keep other then buying a 2nd drive installing it and then transferring from another source like PC or NAS?

 

Restore from you backup? If you want to keep your data, it should be backed up. Regardless of what you are storing / using it on.

[nekromantik]

Is it possible to disable parity drive and just have 2 data drives?

[JonathanM]

Adding a parity drive is optional. You can have a running unraid server with just 1 data drive if you choose.

[nekromantik]

thanks all

got my new dell t20 coming tomorrow but will need to wait until next week to set it up as I dont have a spare drive to install in it.

[SSD]

2 hours ago, nekromantik said:

Is it possible to disable parity drive and just have 2 data drives?

 

You could set up an array with just a single data disk and no parity. (i.e., using the disk you had planned for parity)

 

You could then mount the disk containing your data as an unassigned device using the UD plugin.

 

You could then copy the data from the UD to the array disk.

 

You could then unmount the UD and stop the array. Make the UD your parity, and then start the array. Parity would then build. And you would have avoided buying another disk.

 

If the UD disk is smaller than the array disk, you'd have to do an additional step of formatting the UD, and copying the data from the array disk to the UD. And then doing a new config with the larger disk as parity, and the smaller one as disk1. Start the array and parity builds.

[nekromantik]

thanks understood.

I think for now I will just buy another 2TB disk as I need one anyway and use that in the array and mount like you suggested the old drive and then add that back into array.

Later date I can purchase a parity drive.

I got a 128gb SSD so can use that as cache also.

 

My only question is, my current data disk is WD green so quite slow. If I add a WD Blue to that will my array operate at slower speed drive when writing?

[Frank1940]

Many folks set up their system so that all data writes go to the cache drive first.  With a SSD, this would be close to your network speed.  At a later time (usually at night), this data is then copied to the array.  In this case, you are not really concerned about the write speed.

 

I will point out that the write operation with unRAID is relativity slow operation because of the way that the new parity data is calculated and subsequently stored.  This operation requires a read from the parity drive and two writes-- one to parity and the other to the data drive.   So no, the WD green will not slow down the write operation unless it is either the data drive or the parity drive.  However, the speed of that drive will impact the parity check operation as that operation runs at the speed of the slowest drive currently involved in the parity check.  As the slower drives finish, the operation speeds up.  (NOTE: Slower drives are usually smaller...)