Replace Array?

[suRe]

Hello everyone,

currently i am using 3x2TB Drives for my array, with one of them being a parity drive. I now want to replace ALL drives with 8 TB Drives. Is it possible to remove all 3 2TB drives at once, replace them with the 8 TB Drives and copy the "old" Data with Krusader/unBALANCE? If yes, is there anything i need to be aware of?

I don't want to rebuild the Array with replacing the drives "one by one" since one drive started to show errors (they all are very old) and a rebuild might be problematic.

[JonathanM]

Since your array is currently problematic, I wouldn't break it until you have copies of your data. I'll make some assumptions here based on what you said and lay out how I would proceed.

1. Obtain 3 8TB drives.

2. Attach one to your local PC. Don't touch the server yet. Format the drive for your local PC, and copy all the array data over the network, verify the copy. This is your failsafe. Don't touch it until the rest of the procedures go well.

3. Attach one to your server, use Unassigned Devices plugin to format it as XFS, and copy all the array drive data to it using rsync. Verify the copy.

 

Now that you have 2 copies of your data, I would feel safe breaking down the current array.

 

4. Set a new config, don't keep any assignments. DON'T physically remove any drives yet. Assign the drive that was in UD as Data 1. Start the array, see if things appear unchanged to the network clients. If you did everything right, there should be no difference over the network, all shares should still be there, etc.

 

5. Remove all the old drives, add the remaining 8TB as parity, let it build, then do a non-correcting check. If you get zero errors, you are done for now. Your 3rd 8TB drive is still untouched with a full backup of all your files, let it be a backup while you work with the server for a while. When you run out of space, then you can make the decision to wipe it out and add it to the array for more space, or just purchase another 8TB at that point so you keep a full backup.

 

If you already have a full backup of your important data, some of this is unnecessary, but you didn't say you had a backup, so I assumed you didn't.

[suRe]

Hey jonathanm,

thank you for your help. I actually have a rather recent Backup so i'm just gonna skip this one

Currently i pre-clear all the disks but that takes some time. Hopefully all works out fine.

[JonathanM]

2 minutes ago, suRe said:

I actually have a rather recent Backup

In that case, steps 3,4,5 would be the quickest way to migrate.

[suRe]

One thing i forgot to ask. I now want to use Disk Encryption with the new drives.

I thought i would encrypt each drive in Unassigned Devices, then go by step (3),4,5. But when UD asks me for the passphrase, it says "Enter the password to use for this disk. Leave blank to use the array password/passphrase". That kinda got me off the track. Does this mean i could encrypt an array at once?

Edited April 9, 2020 by suRe