Rebuild parity after removal of a small capacity drive

[Opawesome]

Hi all,

 

I would like to add a small capacity drive (like a USB key) to my array in order to make some tests using LUKS encryption (with the view of replacing the USB key with a "normal" hard drive if my tests are conclusive). Anyway...

 

I would like to know how will parity be rebuilt once I remove the USB drive from the array. Will the whole parity need to be rebuild or just a portion equalling the size of the USB key ?

 

I know there is a possibility to zero a drive before removing it from the array in order to preserve parity but I admit I do not trust it.

 

Many thanks in advance for your help.

 

Best,

OP

[JonathanM]

When you remove a logical drive slot, parity must be rebuilt completely from scratch.

 

However, since you say

2 hours ago, Opawesome said:

replacing the USB key with a "normal" hard drive

it would probably be better just to do the normal disk replacement procedure instead of removing and adding.

 

However, USB is notorious for dropping connections, which if you were to have one of your other hard drives fail while the USB was included could cause data loss when the other drive was rebuilt.

 

I would rethink how you go about this.

[Opawesome]

2 hours ago, jonathanm said:

I would rethink how you go about this.

Hi @jonathanm,

Thank you for your reply. I'll follow your advice then.

Should I maybe setup a VM with a trial version of Unraid to make my tests ?

Best,

OP

[JonathanM]

Since I don't know which functions of encryption you are testing, I don't know what would be easiest. A VM with a trial version is certainly an option, I'm pretty sure Spaceinvaderone has a tutorial on youtube for that.