Notifications
Clear all

Upgrading a RAID1+0

3 Posts
2 Users
0 Likes
5,668 Views
(@pixelpeeper)
Posts: 5
Member
Topic starter
 

Hi there,

I just wanted to check my thinking on this - terribly anxious about screwing things up and losing a decade of work. Excuse the noob-ness, and I apologize if this was covered elsewhere in the forums and that I missed it while searching for an answer.

I currently have a RAID 1+0 of 6 HDDs, 3 stripes in each Thunderbay 4, mirrored. Three disks were set up first (as RAID 5, in 2012), and over time, I added another enclosure (in 2015) and migrated to RAID 1+0. The disks are all Seagate (ST3000DM001). The data (about 4.5TB) is also backed up on BackBlaze.

Recently, SoftRAID Monitor flagged one of the older disks as having potential for failure.

Given the current price of disks, I thought it might be worth it to start upgrading the disks to larger ones.

I am thinking to replace the older set of 3 with a 4TB or 6TB drive (depending on $/TB ratios), and then replacing the other set when the latter starts aging. Of course, I'm doing this to spread my spending over 2 purchases. And of course, I'll be certifying and replacing each disk in turn, like the best practices FAQ suggests. When all the disks are upgraded, I'm also looking to expand the volume to fill the disks.

My questions are:

1. What should I look out for when I pick new disks? Is it even wise to change the model of the disks?

2. Does my process look right? i.e. Can I actually do what I just wrote down, and is it the best way to do it?

 
Posted : 18/01/2018 2:10 am
(@softraid-support)
Posts: 8005
Member Admin
 

you can choose any disks you want. SoftRAID does not care. You can use BackBlaze as a guide to which disks are proving more reliable, keeping in mind that their use is different than your usage. (and their purchase patterns!)

I like simple Hitachi or Toshiba drives, but these days, most all drives are reliable.

I would add to your process:
Validate your volume.
Make sure you are backed up.
Certify the new disks.
remove the "secondary" disks in your RAID 1+0.
"Add disk" all three disks to your volume
Let it rebuild.

In the future, do the same with the new drives.
After a validate, you can "set primary disk" to all the newer disks.

And of course, when all are replaced, you can resize volume to make it larger.

 
Posted : 18/01/2018 2:26 pm
(@pixelpeeper)
Posts: 5
Member
Topic starter
 

Awesome, thanks for all the tips. Off to shop for new disks!

 
Posted : 22/01/2018 11:23 am
Share:
close
open