Hi All,

 

A friend and I built my server about 4 years ago and he had all the knowledge and I just helped out, so my I am little (very) green with how things are working.

 

I have a few questions and the order in which I should do what needs to be done.

 

Firstly my setup is (Unraid 6.3.1) 1 x 120GB SSD Cache Drive, 4 x 4TB Storage Drives, 1 x 4TB Parity Drive, so all 6 Sata ports on my motherboard are in use. Currently sitting at about 15TB used, so I have been wanting/needing to upgrade the storage and Parity Drives anyway.

 

One of the Storage drives has the red cross and doesn't spin up, so I have purchased 2 x 12TB drives (1 to increase the parity drive and 1 to replace the storage drive).

 

I have opened the case and found that I have another 4TB Drive not pluged in (as I forgot I previously added a drive without realising the I didn't have anymore ports), so I unsure of the status of this other drive.

 

I have had a read and see that I could do a 'Parity Swap' to put the larger drive in.

 

What I would like to achieve is:

1) Increase my Parity Drive to the new 12TB Drive

2) Remove and replace the damaged 4TB drive with the other new 12TB drive.

3) Increase the number of sata ports with a PCI Express (is this possible to do and is there any negative impacts on doing so?) any recommendations?

4) If increasing the sata ports is possible, to change the existing 4TB Parity Drive to a storage drive.

5) Upgrade to latest Unraid. I'm guessing the best time to do this would be after the damaged drive has been replace and the parity rebuilt?

 

Thank you in a advance, I appreciate any help.

 

Clint

Update...

 

After more reading, I'm convinced the start of my path is to remove the dead 4TB Data Drive first and install the 12TB Drive and apply the 'Swap Parity' method.

 

I have started the process using the instructions I read here: https://wiki.unraid.net/The_parity_swap_procedure

 

I will post my progress once the rebuilding is complete.

Update....

 

The Parity Swap Procedure worked, which took around 18 hours.

 

Now it is rebuilding the Array, which should be done in about 10 hours.

Is there any issues with upgrading the Unraid to the latest version whilst the Array is rebuilding?

2 hours ago, DeeLaa77 said:

Is there any issues with upgrading the Unraid to the latest version whilst the Array is rebuilding?

Probably not, since the upgrade process just stages the new version for next boot, but why risk it? I don't see what you are gaining by doing it before the rebuild is complete.

fair enough, also need to ensure I back up the flash drive before hand.

Parity Check finished:

 

Duration: 2 days, 17 hours, 34 minutes, 11 seconds. Average speed: 50.8 MB/sec

I will start a new post asking about my next issue.

Not sure how to mark it as solved.