Disk Shelf - Assigning Drives

[IKWeb]

Hello All 

 

I am planning on installing a disk shelf (once all the hardware turns up) 

What I wanted to do was setup the disk shelf as its own Array if that makes sense, so if I have any connection issues between the disk shelf and the UNRAID server itself it wont bring down the local storage that is in the UNRAID server itself. (Does that make sense) 

But I am not sure how to do this - or even if it’s possible? 

I have seen in the new version of UNRAID you can create a pool, would this be the same as a new Array? Or am I getting my terms mixed up? 

Heck is it even possiable to have the 2 sets of drives work independently to each other? 

 

TIA 

[JorgeB]

18 minutes ago, IKWeb said:

But I am not sure how to do this - or even if it’s possible? 

If you mean multiple arrays, no it's not possible, not yet at least.

[IKWeb]

22 hours ago, johnnie.black said:

If you mean multiple arrays, no it's not possible, not yet at least.

Thanks @johnnie.black - Can I ask (if you know the answer that is 🙂) In the terms of UNRAID - What is the diff between an Array - and a Pool? As I see in the new version you can create Pool's? 

Thank you 

[JorgeB]

3 minutes ago, IKWeb said:

What is the diff between an Array - and a Pool?

Main difference it that on the array you have individual data drives each with its own filesystem protected by one or two parity disks, each pool is one btrfs filesystem that can be or not redundant, you can use any of the available btrfs profiles, depending on the number of devices.

[IKWeb]

4 hours ago, johnnie.black said:

Main difference it that on the array you have individual data drives each with its own filesystem protected by one or two parity disks, each pool is one btrfs filesystem that can be or not redundant, you can use any of the available btrfs profiles, depending on the number of devices.

So reading those profiles, you have to have all your disks ready to go, as it uses standard RAID by the look of it, you cant add disks off diffrent sizes later down the line. 

As my shelf is 24 bays I would need to have all 24 filled, with the same size disk and then setup the profile of say  RAID 5 for example? 

Edited July 7, 2020 by IKWeb

[JorgeB]

8 hours ago, IKWeb said:

as it uses standard RAID by the look of it

btrfs is not really standard RAID.

 

8 hours ago, IKWeb said:

you cant add disks off diffrent sizes later down the line. 

You can add (and remove) disks at any time, you can even uses different size disks.

 

But note that btrfs raid5/6 is not yest considered safe for production use, it can be used, I have several raid5 pools, but I only recommend them for anyone with stable hardware and good backups.