Hello,

 

I have an Unraid server with 5 internal SATA drives and 4 additional drives in an external drive enclosure (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00V5ONPAW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1) plugged in via USB 3.0.

 

I am planning on buying a PCIE-to-eSATA card with port multiplier (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07595M2MK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A1C54F8LN6PEOV&psc=1) and moving the enclosure to that card, as well as adding an additional 4-bay external enclosure to it, so that I will have a total of 13 drives (5 internal, +4 in one enclosure, +4 in another enclosure), both utilizing eSATA port multiplier.

 

Questions:

1. Will the existing drives that are currently recognized as "JMICRON_GENERIC" (see attached screenshot) be recognized when they are moved over from USB to eSATA?

2. If not, what is the best way to accomplish my end goal without "starting from scratch"? If I have to stick with 1 enclosure on USB and the 2nd enclosure on eSATA, I can live with that, but it wouldn't be ideal.

 

Obviously I would like to accomplish this without losing any data.  This particular server is backed up to another Unraid server, so it wouldn't be a total catastrophe if something bad happened, BUT the amount of data I would have to restore would take days just to copy it back, so I would like to avoid that if at all possible.

 

Thanks for any assistance you may provide!

 

-iohan

 

10 hours ago, iohanr said:

1. Will the existing drives that are currently recognized as "JMICRON_GENERIC" (see attached screenshot) be recognized when they are moved over from USB to eSATA?

No.

 

10 hours ago, iohanr said:

2. If not, what is the best way to accomplish my end goal without "starting from scratch"? If I have to stick with 1 enclosure on USB and the 2nd enclosure on eSATA, I can live with that, but it wouldn't be ideal.

A new config might work, it might not, since some USB enclosures don't use the full disk partition, and if that's the case Unraid won't mount those disks outside it.

Thanks for the response.  Since I have never done this before, I just want to verify the steps and use of the tool "New Config" in this scenario above.

 

1. Stop array and power off server

2. Install new PCIE-eSATA card

3. Unplug existing USB3.0 enclosure (1st enclosure) and plug into eSATA using new cable

4. Plug in 2nd enclosure using eSATA

5. Power on server

6. BIOS should detect 8 drives from the PCI-eSATA card (2 enclosures using eSATA port multiplier), in addition to the 5 internal SATA drives

7. Once Unraid is running (but array not started) upgrade the license to Pro (since I now have 13 drives)

8. Use the New Config tool

9. In the New Config tool, should I select "Preserve current assignments == none"  or should I choose "Preserve current assignments == Parity slots" since the parity drive slot has not changed? (It's one of the internal SATA drives)

10. Cross my fingers and hope it works

11. If it doesn't work, would I need to "start from scratch" at this point?

 

Appreciate the help!

 

13 minutes ago, iohanr said:

 

3. Unplug existing USB3.0 enclosure (1st enclosure) and plug into eSATA using new cable

Is this a combination USB3/eSATA enclosure?  Or are you replacing the USB3 enclosure with a new eSATA enclosure? 

On the new config keep all existing assignments, the disks that where connected by USB won't be preserved and will need to be re-assigned.

Don't connect any new disks for now, check parity is already valid and start array, if the previous USB disks appear as "unmountable - invalid partition layout" you should be able to rebuild one by one to let Unraid re-create the partitions, you can check this by unassigning one of them and checking that the emulate disk mounts correctly.

6 minutes ago, Frank1940 said:

Is this a combination USB3/eSATA enclosure?  Or are you replacing the USB3 enclosure with a new eSATA enclosure? 

This is a combination USB3/eSATA enclosure. I am merely unplugging from USB3 and plugging into new eSATA PCIE card.

5 minutes ago, johnnie.black said:

On the new config keep all existing assignments, the disks that where connected by USB won't be preserved and will need to be re-assigned.

Don't connect any new disks for now, check parity is already valid and start array, if the previous USB disks appear as "unmountable - invalid partition layout" you should be able to rebuild one by one to let Unraid re-create the partitions, you can check this by unassigning one of them and checking that the emulate disk mounts correctly.

So, skip #4 in my steps listed above, and just basically install new PCIE-eSATA card and change the cable on the combined USB3/eSATA enclosure from USB to eSATA.

 

Then in step #9, choose "Preserve current assignments == ALL" 

 

and then Start the array.

 

If the previous disks in the USB enclosure (4 of them) are able to mount, them I am golden and can repeat this process to add the 2nd enclosure?

If they do not mount, then I can follow your instruction of unassigning the unmountable disks one at a time and attempt to rebuild (which I guess to rebuild 4 disks will take several days == at which point I am not sure if it's less time to do that than to just start from scratch and restore my data from backup instead).

 

 

7 minutes ago, iohanr said:

and then Start the array.

After assigning the USB disks, since the identification string will change (or it should), their assignments won't be preserved, and don't forget to check "parity is already valid" before starting the array.

Quick Update:

 

Well, I received the PCIE-eSATA card today and I put it in the server.  Looks like the existing enclosure (Icy Dock USB/eSATA) that I was planning on using it with is not being recognized.  After mucking around with it for a bit, I just plugged it back in to USB3 and it was back to normal. Fortunately, my other enclosure (ProBox USB/eSATA) is recognized so I was able to add the additional 4 disks (per step #4 above).  For now I am going to stick with this until I can get another ProBox enclosure to replace the Icy Dock. Then I can do the USB to eSATA move.

 

The disks in the new enclosure are currently pre-clearing.  Once they are done, is it as simple as just stopping the array and adding them to new slots or do I need to use the New Config tool still?

12 minutes ago, iohanr said:

Once they are done, is it as simple as just stopping the array and adding them to new slots

Yes, this  should work.