Hi Guys

 

how do i remove my second pairty drive from the array?

 

i want to run with one parity drive not two. i am running out of space but cant afford to buy 2 pairty drives plus on for storage. 

Stop array, unassign it, start array.

Just how necessary is 2 parity drives?  I am using 2 but is that just overboard?

 

How many data disks do you have in the array? 

including 2 parity drives 8

 

So the answer to my question is 6?

Lots of people using single parity with way more than 6 data disks.

 

If you are careful with connections and diligent monitoring disk health (Notifications) then you should be fine with single.

Do you test new disks before putting them in your array? I often don't but I only allow one new disk in my array occasionally, and I have good backups.

I use the preclear disks plugin to test drives before I put them in.  Is there more than that I should do?

 

What do you mean by be careful with connections?

 

34 minutes ago, Djinn said:

What do you mean by be careful with connections?

Based on what we see on the forum, bad connections are much more common than bad disks. Bad connections can and often do cause a disk to be out-of-sync and require rebuilding.

 

Sometimes people will replace a disk for whatever reason. During replacement they will disturb connections on other disks. All disks must be reliably read to reliably rebuild a disk.

 

Lots of threads on the forum just like that. Probably the best argument for dual parity is people making mistakes like this.

 

35 minutes ago, Djinn said:

I use the preclear disks plugin to test drives before I put them in.  Is there more than that I should do?

Often, electronics will either fail early, or will be fine until obsolete. "Infant mortality" is why people do multiple preclears. Unraid only requires a clear disk when adding it to a new slot in an array that already has valid parity. In that case if a disk isn't clear Unraid will clear it, so preclear is really just for testing.

 

Preclear is probably as good a test as any. No amount of testing will ever guarantee something won't go wrong later.

3 hours ago, trurl said:

diligent monitoring disk health (Notifications)

Since you didn't ask about that part, I have to ask.

 

Do you have Notifications configured to alert you immediately by email or other agent as soon as a problem is detected?

No not by email but I am at the dashboard for unraid all the time and I see them there

Can it be set up to notify via sms?

You can see the available Notification Agents in Settings - Notification Settings - Notification Agents. I think all of these have phone apps to receive them.

2 hours ago, trurl said:

Based on what we see on the forum, bad connections are much more common than bad disks. Bad connections can and often do cause a disk to be out-of-sync and require rebuilding.

 

Sometimes people will replace a disk for whatever reason. During replacement they will disturb connections on other disks. All disks must be reliably read to reliably rebuild a disk.

 

Lots of threads on the forum just like that. Probably the best argument for dual parity is people making mistakes like this.

 

AH gotcha.  All my Drives are connected to 9211 LSI HBAs with forward cables.  I only use the onboard sata for the DVD drive i have in the server.