On 7/21/2022 at 5:54 AM, SeanOne said:

 

But cache pool only can use the btrfs which performance is so poooor.

 

13 minutes ago, dada051 said:

I use a cache pool with raid 1 btrfs. Performance are the one I expect for a 2.5Gbps ethernet and SATA SSD. 

Certainly better than you could get from another parity array 

On 5/20/2020 at 4:03 PM, ebartz said:

+1 for multiple arrays

 

+1 for multiple arrays

my main array almost maxed out, so i'd like to add sm 45 bay expansion [to my current sm 36 bay] in the future, and run additional arrays off the external hba card port

+1 for multiple arrays. i am also running out of space and would like to replace my 6TB disks with 16TB. with two arrays, this would be super easy.

2 hours ago, Raki72 said:

replace my 6TB disks with 16TB. with two arrays, this would be super easy.

super easy with one array

12 hours ago, trurl said:

super easy with one array

Maybe you can elaborate this?

 

The only way I know is to replace disk-by-disk the smaller one with the bigger one, for all drives of the existing array. Butwhen upgrading 21 HDDs from 6 to 16 TB, the new capacity would increase by 190 TB... way too much in terms of new capacity and also price.

I am searching for a way to replace the 21x 6TB drives with 10x 16TB drives (2x parity plus 8x 16TB). This would increase the overall capacity to 128TB, compared to the current 114TB, and I could add more drives later on.

 

Is there a way to achive this without having a second array?

 

I want to use my 2x1TB + 2x2TB 5400rpm disks on my unraid system, without loosing performance on the 6x3TB 7200rpm array. So a second array is a great solution for that. And I can choose 1 parity drive for 5200rpm array and 2 parity drives for my 7200rpm array. For the people who wants ZFS, they can already use ZFS plugin on Unraid, but we cannot use 2 arrays now.

1 hour ago, Raki72 said:

I am searching for a way to replace the 21x 6TB drives with 10x 16TB drives (2x parity plus 8x 16TB). This would increase the overall capacity to 128TB, compared to the current 114TB, and I could add more drives later on.

But why though? Part of the beauty of the unRAID array is that you dont need matching drives. You could upgrade your parity disks and 1 data disk (one disk at a time to maintain array integrity during the upgrade) and have and extra 10TB in the array. Then when you start to run low on space, or when one of the older drives starts to act up you can swap out another. 

3 hours ago, Raki72 said:

Maybe you can elaborate this?

 

The only way I know is to replace disk-by-disk the smaller one with the bigger one, for all drives of the existing array. Butwhen upgrading 21 HDDs from 6 to 16 TB, the new capacity would increase by 190 TB... way too much in terms of new capacity and also price.

I am searching for a way to replace the 21x 6TB drives with 10x 16TB drives (2x parity plus 8x 16TB). This would increase the overall capacity to 128TB, compared to the current 114TB, and I could add more drives later on.

 

Is there a way to achive this without having a second array?

 

 

How many drive bays do you have to achieve this?  Enough for all your old and new disks at the same time?  There's multiple options depending on your tolerance for maintaining parity - someone may want to chime in on the finer points:

 

Option 1:

 

- Replace your parity disks one-by-one

- In Unraid "Shares" config, exclude all your old disks from your shares except the first disk slot you are about to replace. 

(The shares will still show any files present on the old disks, but this will prevent new files being written to them.)

- Replace your disks one-by-one - unexclude the disk slots from your shares when they have been replaced with a 16TB disk.

- As you replace the disks with larger ones, use "unBALANCE" plugin to merge data from multiple smaller disks to the new disks.

- When you've finished, your array should have 2 x 16TB parity disks, all your data on 16TB disks, and a bunch of empty 6TB disks.

- Take a screenshot of your current array and slot assignments (noting which 16TB disks are parity and which are data)

- Move any files on cache pool if used (Settings | Scheduler | Move Now)

- Use "Tools | New config" to reconfigure the array to only include the new 16TB parity/data disks.  You should be able to "copy" your current disk assignments, and then just remove the 6TB disks before accepting the new array configuration.  Read and understand the warnings presented at this point (you shouldn't need to format any disks).  If you lose the array config for some reason, refer to screenshot and create an array with 16TB parity/data disks in their correct slots.

 

Note that you will need to regenerate parity at this point, so you will have a day or so without parity protection

 

If you have enough drive bays you can even do something similar to above, except a bit easier:

 

- Replace your parity disks one-by-one

- Then add *all* the new disks to the current array

- Exclude all your old disks from your shares

- Move the data from old disks to new disks using unBALANCE

- "Tools | New config" to re-configure the array to only include the new disks/parity drives.  

 

Option 2: Unraid isn't RAID5 - file data isn't sliced and distributed among disks - Unraid arrays are just a bunch of xfs formatted disks (optionally with parity).  You can just copy or move everything from your current array to the new disks formatted as XFS.  Once you have copied or moved all your data to the new disks, use "Tools | New config" to "create" a new array that includes only your new data disks and those you want to assign to parity.  This will take a long time, so may be hard to manage if you need to keep the array "live" for new writes.

Edited October 12, 20223 yr by jortan

57 minutes ago, primeval_god said:

But why though? Part of the beauty of the unRAID array is that you dont need matching drives. You could upgrade your parity disks and 1 data disk (one disk at a time to maintain array integrity during the upgrade) and have and extra 10TB in the array. Then when you start to run low on space, or when one of the older drives starts to act up you can swap out another. 

 

+1

 

I have 4TB, 5TB, 8TB and 12TB disks, a combintation of 2.5" and 3.5", all in a single array.  You can use disk slot inclusions/exclusions within your shares to ensure that performance-sensitive shares are only written to your fastest disks.

 

(I also use ZFS disk mirrors for performance - ie. VMs)

Edited October 12, 20223 yr by jortan

On 10/12/2022 at 4:18 PM, jortan said:

 

Option 1:

 

- Replace your parity disks one-by-one

- In Unraid "Shares" config, exclude all your old disks from your shares except the first disk slot you are about to replace. 

 

 

 

Not sure, how to do this.  How can you exclude disks from shares?

3 hours ago, Raki72 said:

How can you exclude disks from shares?

Click on one of your User Shares to get to its settings

 

https://wiki.unraid.net/Manual/Shares#Included_and_Excluded_disk.28s.29

I'd like 2 arrays because there's data that absolutely needs protection and resides on a couple of 18 TB drives, and data that I can do without if necessary (mostly 3-6 TB drives). Those smaller drives are older, they may not last forever (surely they won't). Now I do not feel comfortable having something like 14 drives with 1 parity drive, especially if some of the disks may very well die at a similar time. Even if I had two 18 TB drives for parity (which does cost a bit), I do not feel too comfortable.

 

Two arrays would let me split those up. Maybe the smaller drives will also be parity protected by one of the smaller drives, but it's fewer drives, which should reduce the risk a bit...

+1

 

I'd like to have a Spinning Rust Array and an SSD Array.

On 10/21/2022 at 3:54 PM, Raki72 said:

 

Not sure, how to do this.  How can you exclude disks from shares?

I'd highly recommend the below video from Spaceinvaderone. I followed that set of operations and was able to remove a handful (about 6) of 2,3, and 4 TB disks and condense them down to 1 or 2 16TB disks. The one think you'll want to keep in mind is when you go to remove a disk if it's not on the tail of your array you could have a number gap where for example you may have something in slots 1-5 and 9-15 and nothing in between. This only matters if you're trying to maintain parity throughout. If not you can follow the first part where you just move your data and can arrange the disks however you'd like.

 

 

 

+1 multiple arrays

 

thank you

Another +1 for multiple arrays. I purchased a Pro license since it came highly recommended, and now that I'm giving Unraid a shot I've found that it's 100% not viable for me, since I'm going to end up with a multiple arrays consisting of 6TB, 1TB, and 8TB drives (each array being its own share).

 

Kind of disappointed in myself for wasting over $100 before making sure it was a fit, but I guess I'll have it if Unraid ever adds support for this feature.

4 hours ago, flibberdipper said:

Unraid ever adds support for this feature.

It's already been mentioned as a future feature, though not set dayte for now, possibly after zfs.

6 hours ago, flibberdipper said:

and now that I'm giving Unraid a shot I've found that it's 100% not viable for me, since I'm going to end up with a multiple arrays consisting of 6TB, 1TB, and 8TB drives (each array being its own share).

You do not make it clear why you need multiple arrays rather than having the mix of drives in the main array with each share being constrained to the drives you want to use for that share?

 

Not saying you do not have a valid reason but worth checking that you do not have a misunderstanding of how Unraid works.

9 hours ago, flibberdipper said:

each array being its own share

Each user share has settings to control which disks it uses. Not clear you need separate arrays for what you want to do.

+1 for multiple arrays. i need one for my data hdds and my vm ssds.

5 minutes ago, HeNotSatisfied said:

need one for my data hdds and my vm ssds

You can already create a separate pool for your VM ssds. Some good arguments against putting SSDs in a parity array anyway.

On 11/20/2022 at 6:44 PM, kadajawi said:

I'd like 2 arrays because there's data that absolutely needs protection and resides on a couple of 18 TB drives, and data that I can do without if necessary (mostly 3-6 TB drives). Those smaller drives are older, they may not last forever (surely they won't). Now I do not feel comfortable having something like 14 drives with 1 parity drive, especially if some of the disks may very well die at a similar time. Even if I had two 18 TB drives for parity (which does cost a bit), I do not feel too comfortable.

 

Two arrays would let me split those up. Maybe the smaller drives will also be parity protected by one of the smaller drives, but it's fewer drives, which should reduce the risk a bit...

 

This is a similar use case as to why I would LOVE multi array. I've maxed out my internal 3.5" storage and want to expand to some JBOD solution via SAS. With my setup I would prefer to keep the 8 current 3.5" disks in my main chassis, two being parity and dedicate this storage to my personal/critical data... Then I would want to create a second array with a single (or dual) parity for disks in the DAS/JBOD that would be less critical data. My concern with doing this on a single array is if the JBOD either disconnects or has a power issue it could take my whole array down or throw it out of parity.

 

It would also be nice to expand Unraid past 30 disks by creating multiple arrays. This would be ideal for stacking JBOD enclosures and keeping everything under Unraid.

 

There seems to be a lot of confusion with newer Unraid users in how you can manage cache pools and individual user share settings to tweak where you want your data to be stored in a typical array+cache pool setup. I agree a lot of people's problems could be solved using these settings, but there are definitely some great use cases for multi-arrays.

+1 for multiple arrays, I left FreeNAS for Unraid years ago but its the only thing calling me back.

Right now I'm needing to merge 2 Unraid servers into one, this is primary to reduce costs.

The larger server can handle the workload of the smaller system and reduce electricity costs once smaller is decommissioned.

However, the data on the smaller system is more critical and thus has 2 parity drives but smaller drives.

 

The larger system relies on new drives so multi rapid failures are unlikely and has backups to another system.

If I bring the data into the larger system I decrease parity protection, if I increase the parity protection I loose another large drive.

We need multiple array possibilities so we are afforded flexibility in maximising drive capacity and parity to user needs.

Edited January 22, 20233 yr by ados

This has already been confirmed by LimeTech as a future enhancement, but not for v6.12