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Fastest Route to Expand?

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(@sjmagy)
Posts: 17
Member
Topic starter
 

Hi,
I'm looking at upgrading from four 5TB drives (RAID 10) in a ThunderBay 4 to six 14TB drives in a ThunderBay 6 (also as RAID 10).

Wondering whether it would be faster to go the "replace & rebuild each drive individually and then expand / resize", OR just set up the new behemoth and let the OS manually copy over the files? Or would it take about the same amount of time?

Data is mostly videos, photos, document backups, install files, etc. ~9 TB of data in total on that RAID, individual file sizes ranging from a few MB to 2+ GB.

 
Posted : 15/09/2019 1:24 pm
(@softraid-support)
Posts: 8006
Member Admin
 

It will be much faster to nuke.

This is because each 14TB drive needs to be rebuilt.

In addition, wont you have both enclosures, at least for a little while?

then you have time also to certify the 14TB drives (1 week!), which I recommend.

I recommend you use the terminal to do the certify, it will save some headache, as there is a bug that can cause the SoftRAID App to need to quit when open for long periods.

the command in terminal would be:

softraidtool disk disk3 disk4 disk5 disk6 disk7 disk8 disk9 certify 3
(depending on the disk numbers for each disk, you will see that in the disks column in SoftRAID)

The 3 is for 3 passes

There is no feedback until it is done. And, yes it will take 6 days or so. Not required, but recommended to avoid / minimize future disk failures.

 
Posted : 15/09/2019 10:52 pm
(@sjmagy)
Posts: 17
Member
Topic starter
 

Thank you for the reply & advanced suggestion RE: terminal.

To be clear, the "disk#" entries in the list for the terminal command are:

1) what Softraid's interface shows as the "disk identifier" for each drive when you click the disclosure triangle for it in the left-hand list (and not the "ID #" that displays after the text "SATA bus #" in the individual tiles)

and

2) separated in the command by just a space

Correct? (Just want to make sure forum formatting didn't misrepresent it.)

So it if my 6 new drives have "disk identifier" of disk12 through disk17, the terminal command would be:

softraid disk disk12 disk13 disk14 disk15 disk16 disk17 certify 3

 
Posted : 23/09/2019 2:33 pm
(@sjmagy)
Posts: 17
Member
Topic starter
 

Additional question, after reading of troubles with someone using a Dock with the ThunderBay 6 -- I'm still on a 2013 "trash can" Mac Pro, which only has Thunderbolt 2. I was going to use the Apple adapter for ThunderBolt 2 to 3, to connect to the ThunderBay 6 (I'm waiting to upgrade my computer until Apple releases pro-hardware that doesn't suck).

Is there a significant chance the Thunderbolt 2-to-3 adapter would be problematic for the disk certification process to complete on 6 14TB drives (similar to difficulties encountered by user rsths12 in their September 14 post https://srforums.wpengine.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=1161 )??

 
Posted : 23/09/2019 2:59 pm
(@softraid-support)
Posts: 8006
Member Admin
 

I don't think the new Mac Pro will "suck". ;-)

There should be no problem with an Apple 3/2 adapter. Drives will certify just fine.

 
Posted : 24/09/2019 3:08 pm
(@softraid-support)
Posts: 8006
Member Admin
 

So it if my 6 new drives have "disk identifier" of disk12 through disk17, the terminal command would be:

softraid disk disk12 disk13 disk14 disk15 disk16 disk17 certify 3

Exactly correct!

 
Posted : 24/09/2019 3:09 pm
(@sjmagy)
Posts: 17
Member
Topic starter
 

Great, thank you!!

 
Posted : 25/09/2019 12:43 pm
(@sjmagy)
Posts: 17
Member
Topic starter
 

Hi. Uh, the terminal command doesn't work as stated. I entered:

sudo softraidtool disk disk0 disk5 disk6 disk7 disk8 disk9 disk10 disk11 disk12 certify 3

(since the help page says sudo is required) and after entering my password I get:
SoftRAIDTool error: unrecognized command - "disk5"

I searched the forums and found that the apparent answer is, open 9 Terminal tabs and run separate commands in each, 1 per disk.

Just wanted to report that here in case someone else comes along and actually reads this thread.

 
Posted : 02/10/2019 12:52 am
(@softraid-support)
Posts: 8006
Member Admin
 

Thanks for the feedback, I will look into this. I am sure I have certified disks with one command. I am travelling though this week.

 
Posted : 02/10/2019 7:47 am
(@softraid-support)
Posts: 8006
Member Admin
 

User is correct. You need to open a new terminal window for each disk. My mistake.

 
Posted : 02/10/2019 11:51 am
(@sjmagy)
Posts: 17
Member
Topic starter
 

Hi. I have some questions:

1) If the terminal window has returned to the prompt ("ComputerName:~ username$"), I assume that the certification has completed. Yes?

2) How do I know if they passed certification? There is nothing in the Terminal window to indicate success OR failure.

3) I haven't restarted my computer yet, but why, after this terminal-based certification process has (apparently?) completed, does each disk show in the Softraid application with a yellow question mark over its icon instead of the blue Softraid icon like it had before I started the terminal-based certification? It's like they are no longer "Initialized" (which I did before launching certification)? Is this normal?

4) Can I re-Initialize & create volumes now and they will be fine / retain data (hours of use, etc)?

Thank you.

 
Posted : 07/10/2019 11:10 am
(@softraid-support)
Posts: 8006
Member Admin
 

First, good news. 5.8 we believe fixes this Application quit issue, and it should be released in the next day or so.

1. Yes
2. the command line is sparse. We are going to improve it. You get a notification if it failed, not if it passes.
3. There is no partition map on the disks, they are effectively "new". So they have a ? and no icon. Initialize them to start using them.
4. Yes, they are ready to use now. As long as they are connected to a bus that supports SMART, the power on hours will be accurate.

 
Posted : 08/10/2019 2:03 pm
(@Anonymous)
Posts: 0
 

Thanks for your amazing feedback.

 
Posted : 21/06/2021 2:49 am
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