I'm just starting with Unraid and am wondering if the following process can be followed to upgrade the parity drive (i.e. swap the parity disk with a larger disk).?

 

Based on the searches I've done I see that the basic steps are to power down, remove parity disk, install new disk and power back up and let parity rebuild. 

 

The question I have is can I make use of the second parity to maintain a safe(r) state? 

 

i.e.: power down, install new disk and set it as parity 2 and let it rebuild. Once done power down and remove parity 1 and reassign that to grow the array.

 

Essentially my question comes down to: once I go to 2 parity disks can I go back to single parity?

 

Obviously this would only be in a single parity environment.

 

Thanks

You can always remove a parity drive without a problem other than reducing the level of protection.

 

Your suggested method would work.

i have a similar question to this i am trying to upgrade my parity drive from 8 tb to 10 tb and i do the steps i stop the array unassign the the 10 and assign the 10tb the parity rebuilds and when i try to add a 10 tb to the raid it says i cant remove a drive and also add one

and also everytime i stop the array or reboot the parity needs to be rebuilt

8 hours ago, zonik said:

the raid it says i cant remove a drive and also add one

That would suggest you have another invalid/emulated disk besides parity, or you're trying to add a new disk a the same time, the error can be unhelpful and not describe the correct issue, please post the diagnostics: Tools -> Diagnostics

samwise-diagnostics-20190424-0826.zip

this is hopefully helpful because i cant really understand it

8 minutes ago, zonik said:

samwise-diagnostics-20190424-0826.zip 147.52 kB · 0 downloads

this is hopefully helpful because i cant really understand it

There's a problem with the flash drive, filesystem is read-only:

 

Apr 23 19:37:01 Samwise emhttpd: error: put_disk_settings, 3431: Read-only file system (30): fopen: /boot/config/disk.cfg

Check filesystem of the flash drive on another PC/laptop.

i dont remember changing it to read only

how would i cahnge it back to writeable

 

10 minutes ago, zonik said:

i dont remember changing it to read only

You wouldn't, either there's filesystem corruption or a problem with the flash drive itself.

 

10 minutes ago, zonik said:

how would i cahnge it back to writeable

 

12 minutes ago, johnnie.black said:

Check filesystem of the flash drive on another PC/laptop

If that doesn't fix it it's likely a failing flash drive, try re-formatting it.

ok i will do that thank you very much, i will keep ypu posted on how it goes

turns out you were absolutely spot on i transfered my unraid setup to another usb stick and then it started working like a charm thanks for the assist

Edited April 26, 20197 yr by zonik

I just upgraded my parity drive from 6tb to 10tb unsing a different path.

 

I added the 10tb drive to the array, assigned it to parity 2 and let parity build on the new drive.

 

I then stopped the array and took the old 6tb drive and re-assigned it as a data drive.

 

After restarting the array I now have no Parity 1 but have a Parity 2.

 

I then stopped the array and tried to assign the drive in Parity 2 to Parity 1 but got an "Invalid Device Assignment" message.

 

What did I do wrong?  This is the first time that I have upgraded storage and added an additional drive to my array so this is unfamiliar territory for me.  

 

Starting to think I should have removed the 6tb drive, added the 10tb drive as parity 1 and started the parity build.

 

 

Edited April 26, 20197 yr by a12vman

Parity1 uses a different algorithm to parity2 so moving the drive will involve rebuilding parity.   You could always leave the drive assigned as parity2 and leave parity1 Unassigned - Unraid will not say you cannot do this.

 

if you want to move the drive to parity1  then the procedure is:

• stop the array
• unassign parity2
• startbthe Array with no parity assigned (this is required to make Unraid ‘forget’ that the drive is currently assigned as pairty2).
• stop the array
• assign the drive as parity1
• start the array to build the new parity in the parity1 Slot.