drives that are hot swap-able


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My system chassis has 12 bays that are hot swap-able. Must instructions have the system shut down when drives have to change positions or new drives are installed, updated etc. I was wondering, if with hot swap-able drives, the system has to be powered down or is stopping the array, moving the drives or installing new ones and re-starting the array okay.  That is can I avoid a shutdown or are the drive details e.g. serial number only read at boot time?

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Unraid will not pick up a drive whose /dev/sdX type designation changes for drives assigned to the array or cache, so in that sense it does not support hot-wrapping..   The Linux kernel DOES support hot swapping so if you are making a change  with the array stopped where this does not matter (e.g. replacing a failed drive) then this will work.

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So to replace a failing drive (It still works but is reporting errors) I only need to:

 

Stop the array

DO NOT POWER DOWN

Remove the bad drive and replace it with the new larger drive (which was precleared to validate the drive)

Start the Array

 

Any special messages I need to respond to or is it just that simple?

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50 minutes ago, barrygordon said:

So to replace a failing drive (It still works but is reporting errors) I only need to:

 

Stop the array

DO NOT POWER DOWN

Remove the bad drive and replace it with the new larger drive (which was precleared to validate the drive)

Start the Array

 

Any special messages I need to respond to or is it just that simple?

After you physically swap the drive you may need to refresh the main page to allow you to select the new drive and assign it to the slot.

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1 hour ago, barrygordon said:

So to replace a failing drive (It still works but is reporting errors) I only need to:

 

Stop the array

DO NOT POWER DOWN

Remove the bad drive and replace it with the new larger drive (which was precleared to validate the drive)

Start the Array

 

Any special messages I need to respond to or is it just that simple?

That has worked for me in the past.   As was mentioned you may need to refresh the Main tab after plugging in the new drive but that is all. You will actually see the new drive appear under Unassigned Devices until you get around to assigning it to the array.

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Interesting.

 

I shut down the array.  The OS is 6.6.7.

I removed the current disk 5 (the failing disk of 2TB) from the chassis.

I installed a new precleared 4 TB disk in the slot that disk 5 was in.

I placed a brand new 4TB disk in the one unused chassis slot in preparation for running a preclear.

I assigned disk 5 as the new precleared 4TB disk.

I tried to start the array but the start command was greyed out with a message saying that my registration key did not allow for the number of disks installed.   I believe My registration key allows for unlimited disks!!

I shut down the system and removed the Spare 4 TB disk that had not yet been precleared and started the system up.

I could now start the array.  I am not sure if my pulling the spare drive allowed that or it just needed to be re-booted.

 

It got me a little nervous in that it stayed on "mounting disks" holding at disk 5 for a while. After a few minutes, it got past that and is now in the process of rebuilding disk 5.  Very good information regarding rebuild status is presented both on the web page and via notifications. Unraid has come a long way since 2010.

 

My only question is why the problem with my registration key?  The chassis has 12 hot-swappable slots. I use 11 for the array (1 parity and 10 Data) and the 12th slot is where I preclear a disk.  Is this a possible bug?  I will be using this slot when I do the conversion to XFS and upgrade my disks to 4TB from 2 TB.

 

My next major endeavor is to start replacing the 2TB disks with 4TB disks and changing over to the XFS file system at the same time. I have read the document on doing this several times and do not believe I will have a problem.  Unfortunately, I do not see a one-step process for doing the disk capacity upgrade and changing to XFS at the same time, or am I missing something?

 

By the way,  Thanks to all who have assisted me on this thread and others in the past.

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On May 10 I had to buy a new license Key and paid Lime-Tech $89.  This would indicate to me that I have a Plus license which allows up to 12 disks. The question is which disks do Lime-Tech count towards the limit.

 

The Flashdrive 

The disk inside the chassis not used for unraid and shows as unassigned

12 slots used for unraid disks, normally 11 slots are populated.

 

So if the internal disk which would allow me to do a boot of an OS other than unraid is counted then I have too many disks if all 12 Hot-swappable slots are in use (loaded with a drive).  I thought that only the disks in the array counted towards the limit.  I do not have an issue upgrading to the Pro license

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