Hey All,
Newbie selfhoster here trying to figure out next best steps for my UnRAID install. Essentially, I got a little overzealous in my setup and didn't quite provision things optimally, so I'm hoping to avoid having to start completely from scratch.
My drives: 2x8tb HDD, 2x14tb HDD, 1x1tb Nvme SSD, 1x2tb Nvme SSD
Array: all 4 HDDs, 1 parity, all formatted in ZFS
ZFS Pools: 1tb is standard UnRAID cache drive, 2tb is a slog (not certain if I'm using this term right; it's used as temp storage for downloads before data gets moved to the array)
My issue: didn't realize that the array in UnRAID doesn't allow for actual zpool/raid configuration, so writes to the array are pretty slow. I want to speed it up.
What I want to do: move the 2x8tb HDDs off the array, wipe them, reconfigure them into a new pool in raid0 (insert equivalent z-term for ZFS here). Leave the 2x14tb HDDs in the array, keeping the 1 that's there as parity.
My existing data: currently in the array, solely on the 14tb HDD not being used for parity. Nothing incredibly important, just media files and about 200gbs worth, but I'd like to keep that in tact.
My question(s): Because I have no data on the existing 2x8tb HDDs that are in the array, can I safely move them off the array and wipe them without concern for my data that currently exists on the array?
Will I have to rebuild the parity drive?
Should I preclear the drives I am looking to wipe?
Any other potential concerns I'm overlooking?
Sorry for going full noob on you all. I've been reading docs for what feels like a better part of a week, watching the guides, and I guess I'm just slow on the pickup and looking for some layman guidance. Also, sorry if this isn't the right place to ask. I've got a secondary backup solution available, so I'm not worried about ZFS and it's relatively new intro to UnRAID.
Resize array: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nV5snitWrBk
Yes you will likely have to rebuild parity. If its write once read many kind of media (for the array) zfs is a lot of overhead and learning. Z snapshots and data sets are possible with a zfs plugin. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pLFaDnTVpuM
Cache drive in unraid is used as temp storage before being put in the array. You don’t need a slog.
Unraid is not turenas or proxmox. Tis a different beast you sound like your trying to plan a system that would belong in truenas.
Man, thanks so much for these.
Thankfully, most of my shares are datasets on the array, so I can snapshot, but I'm still only lightly familiar with how that works.
I gave truenas a shot originally, but I had a helluva time getting docker images working there. I'm mostly just trying to host my media server right now on this box and found UnRAID much more friendly for that.