Hey! Newbie here. Got my first unRAID server running since about 1 day. Two brand new 10TB disks, one parity, one data.

 

The machine also has, since before, an LVM volume (two 4TB disks in RAID1), which is full of data that I want to copy onto the unRAID array (and later insert the old 4TB drives into the array). However, it seems unRAID cannot see LVM volumes.

 

Since one of the selling points for unRAID is that even with a failed array, any unaffected data drives still have readable data, it stands to reason that I could reboot into a different OS (Linux, yes), mount the 10TB data drive, and copy the 4TB data onto it.

 

So far I'm sure it would work, but what would happen to the array once back in unRAID? Would I just need to rebuild the parity disk?

 

Is this an acceptable solution to my dilemma, or do I need to copy the data off of the LVM volume onto something that unRAID can read, and only touch the data drives from unRAID?

 

Thanks for any insight!

 

It would definitely invalidate parity. Not sure but I don't think there would be any other consequences as long as you don't touch the partition tables.

 

In any case, do you have backups? You must always have at least one more copy of anything important and irreplaceable, regardless of RAID or Unraid.

Thanks! Sounds like it would be worth a try, while there is still very little to lose. Worst case, I just have to re-setup the arrray, I guess.

 

And yeah, I do have a backup!  

On second thoughts.. that must mean a full parity calculation again. The system cannot possibly know what parts changed without reading it, so that would be another 10TB parity calculation. I might not actually save any time at all, compared to copying the 4TB of data, via a USB disk, to the unRAID array. That seems to be the smarter thing to do...

 

Anyway, thanks for the feedback!

 

 

9 minutes ago, teatime said:

that must mean a full parity calculation again

Of course.