New user with question.

[GDL]

Hi all. 

 

I've been advised to look at this as part of a home server refresh.

Currently I have:

4x3TB

2x6TB

4x2TB

 

All with data on and these are backed up via a HP P212 to a LTO4 tape autoloader by Backup Exec.

 

While I have not got the capacity to add another drive, I do have the ability to 'free up' a drive by shifting data around so could I.

 

Free up a disk. 

Create a pool.

Copy data to that pool to free up another. 

extend the pool. 

Repeat until all drives are within the pool?

 

Is this possible?

I don't need to protect data over multiple disks due to the LTO but the single disks are becoming hard to manage so ideally with this I can replace the smaller disks with larger ones as I grow data. 

 

Cheers.

[Spider99]

You do not have to free any drives

 

You can add drives to the pool with data on and your data is maintained (dp creates a hidden directory per drive)

 

when you then look at the DP gui - your drives (when added) will show no data but an amount of "other data" equivalent to the data you have on the drive.

 

The quick and dirty method to move the data to the pool is to navigate in windows explorer to the root of a drive - select the folders you want in the pool - and move these inside the DP hidden folder - which will have part of its name including "poolpart"

 

As you are moving on the same drive a "smart move" only updates the locations of the files - so even large amounts of data only takes a few seconds.

 

Repeat for all drives.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

All with data on and these are backed up via a HP P212 to a LTO4 tape autoloader by Backup Exec.

 

I kind of zoned out after that.

 

Jealous!

 

 

 

Hi all. 

 

I've been advised to look at this as part of a home server refresh.

Currently I have:

4x3TB

2x6TB

4x2TB

 

All with data on and these are backed up via a HP P212 to a LTO4 tape autoloader by Backup Exec.

 

While I have not got the capacity to add another drive, I do have the ability to 'free up' a drive by shifting data around so could I.

 

Free up a disk. 

Create a pool.

Copy data to that pool to free up another. 

extend the pool. 

Repeat until all drives are within the pool?

 

Is this possible?

I don't need to protect data over multiple disks due to the LTO but the single disks are becoming hard to manage so ideally with this I can replace the smaller disks with larger ones as I grow data. 

 

Cheers.

 

Nah, don't need to do all that.  

 

All you need to do is this:

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q4142489

 

This is basically just adding the drives to the pool, moving the data into the newly created "PoolPart" folders and remeasuring. 

 

Once you've done that, the pool will have all of the data, and "just work'. No need to move data around like you've mentioned.  

And this is much quicker. 

 

 

 

 

@spider99: The link overs this, as well.  It would be best to use that link whenever possible.

[GDL]

I kind of zoned out after that.

 

Jealous!

 

 

I've lost data in the past... I won't again. 

 

Many thanks for the answers gents, I've still got some research to do but you have answered my queries so many thanks. 

[Christopher (Drashna)]

 

I've lost data in the past... I won't again. 

 

Many thanks for the answers gents, I've still got some research to do but you have answered my queries so many thanks. 

 

I totally understand that.  I had 12 of the those bad ST3000DM001 drives go bad in a six month period, and I lost data. 

I use duplication for the entire pool, regardless of the quality of the data.  Just so I don't have to deal with that.

 

But I do need a backup plan.  I don't really have one, which is downright horrible.

 

But those LTO drives are crazy expensive. (like a quarter of my entire setup, or at least what I paid for it.... that is).

SO if you ever see one of these for cheap, please PM or email me! 

 

 

 

And if you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask.  Either on the forum or in a ticket.

[Umfriend]

Funny that, back in my C-64 days, tapes were all the rage and the cheapest storage available!

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Funny that, back in my C-64 days, tapes were all the rage and the cheapest storage available!

 

Yeah, that's because a 4MB drive was like $1000.   

And very, very new.  Magnetic tapes were pretty common already.  The difference between then and now, is density, I think.

 

I mean LTO7 gets about 6TB (or 15TB if compressed), and can write at 300MB/s (or up to 750MB/s with compression and a good cache)

 

So for data density, it's the best. The drawback is access. It's all sequential access, so it sucks for data access.   

[Umfriend]

"Never underestimate the bandwidth of a truckload of tapes" - but the latency....oh.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Yup, exactly.  It's a matter of priorities.  

[GDL]

Yup, and in my case it was going in the metal scrap bin at work so it was by far the cheapest backup option.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

/jealous! 

 

Yeah, I'd love to get my hand on a tape drive.  I really do need a backup of my data, and ... every solution is expensive.