Removing cache pool

[dnLL]

Hi,

 

I'm replacing the 2 drives that are currently configured in RAID1 on my cache pool. There was around ~60GB on my cache pool, so I changed the cache settings for my shares from "Prefer" or "Only" to "Yes" where applicable and started the mover. It's currently moving everything out of the cache.

 

Can I just make a new config after this without the 2 cache drives and done?

[JorgeB]

Are you replacing or removing? To remove just unassign them and start the array, to replace you could have done it one at a time, without moving any data and maintaining the pool online.

[dnLL]

3 minutes ago, johnnie.black said:

Are you replacing or removing? To remove just unassign them and start the array, to replace you could have done it one at a time, without moving any data and maintaining the pool online.

I'm eventually replacing. Basically I'm changing my whole server, the plan is just to take the HDDs and put them in the new server with the same flash drive and hope all goes well. Because the new mobo supports 2x M.2 NVME SSDs I also ordered new SSDs and will get rid of the old SATA ones. So I can't replace it on the current server since it doesn't support M.2 drives... and after I switch every disk to the new server I want it up and running as soon as possible with a minimum downtime since I'm running a couple of websites and other stuff that require maximum uptime so I thought my easiest option would be to empty the cache, remove it from the pool, check that everything is still fine, then put all my HDDs in the new server, boot up and check if everything is still fine, and then add a new cache with the 2 new SSDs.

[dnLL]

For some reason, the mover didn't move everything, some 10GB of data (mostly appdata and VM disks that weren't currently in use) wouldn't be moved, so I used Unbalance, moved the rest, stopped the array, made a new config without the cache drives and started it. Parity is currently syncing so it's kinda slow but the VMs are all working (including the ones that I moved with Unbalance) so it seems fine. I had a backup just in case. 

 

So Sunday morning... I will turn off the server, take all 4 HDDs and the USB flash stick and put them in the new server, start the array as is and check that everything is fine, then I will pre-clear the 2 new SSDs and 2 other new HDDs that I'm adding to the array, stop the array again once it's done so that I can add all 4 disks (2 to the cache pool, 1 as data and 1 as a second parity drive). That should ensure a minimum offline time. Hopefully.