Change Parity Disk 2 to Data drive

[Aceriz]

Hey I am hoping that someone can possibly help me out.   

 

When I set up my server originally I created it with 2 parity drives #1, and #2 each 12 TB.  and 2 data Drives each 12 TB.  and 2 Cache drives.   When I created the array in the first place, my thought was to keep the 2 parity drives until the point when I needed the extra storage drive space then convert parity drive 2 over to a storage drive (ie thought I could pre-clear it and add it back as a data drive).

 

I am looking right now to change over the second parity drive but want to do it correctly.   When I go in to the GUI on the main page while the array is off I can select in the drop down "no device" in parity drive 2, but I can not decrease the number of drives in the array.. (is there a way to change this).   And when I go to select "no device"  I get errors saying parity drive missing.  

 

I have not done anything at this point as I want to do this correctly. 

 

Thanks for help 

[itimpi]

18 minutes ago, Aceriz said:

Hey I am hoping that someone can possibly help me out.   

 

When I set up my server originally I created it with 2 parity drives #1, and #2 each 12 TB.  and 2 data Drives each 12 TB.  and 2 Cache drives.   When I created the array in the first place, my thought was to keep the 2 parity drives until the point when I needed the extra storage drive space then convert parity drive 2 over to a storage drive (ie thought I could pre-clear it and add it back as a data drive).

 

I am looking right now to change over the second parity drive but want to do it correctly.   When I go in to the GUI on the main page while the array is off I can select in the drop down "no device" in parity drive 2, but I can not decrease the number of drives in the array.. (is there a way to change this).   And when I go to select "no device"  I get errors saying parity drive missing.  

 

I have not done anything at this point as I want to do this correctly. 

 

Thanks for help 

The sequence that will work is:

• stop array
• unnassign parity2
• start Array.   This is required to get Unraid to commit the fact that parity2 has been removed
• stop the array
• assign the old parity2 as an additional data drive
• start the array.  There is no need to preclear the old parity2 drive as you should not need to stress test it.   Simply let Unraid Clear it (which is faster than using pre-Clear.)   You can use the array while the Clear is in progress.
• When the Unraid Clear operation finishes Unraid will offer the option to format the disk (which only takes a couple of minutes) to get the disk ready to start being used.

[Aceriz]

5 hours ago, itimpi said:

The sequence that will work is:

• stop array
• unnassign parity2
• start Array.   This is required to get Unraid to commit the fact that parity2 has been removed
• stop the array
• assign the old parity2 as an additional data drive
• start the array.  There is no need to preclear the old parity2 drive as you should not need to stress test it.   Simply let Unraid Clear it (which is faster than using pre-Clear.)   You can use the array while the Clear is in progress.
• When the Unraid Clear operation finishes Unraid will offer the option to format the disk (which only takes a couple of minutes) to get the disk ready to start being used.

Hey thanks that is wonderful,