Physically moving one pool to join another

[Craig Puckett]

Hi people,

 

I'm a long time user of Stablebit Drivepool and I have a question that I can't seem to find an answer for.

 

My current setup is this:

 

Primary server:

Windows Home Server 2011

(4) 4TB HDDs (pooled into one drive space, 16TB total)

 

Backup server (mirror copy of the primary's storage)

Windows Server 2008 R2

(4) 4TB HDDs (pooled into one drive space, 16TB total)

 

 

So, what I'm thinking about is doing away with the backup server and moving those HDDs over to the primary server. BUT...I still want to keep the two pools separate.

 

So, my question is...if I move those backup HDDs over to the primary...will Stablebit Drivepool automatically recognize the pool they were in on from the backup server...thus having two Drivepools, a primary and a backup.

 

Or...am I going to have to bit the bullet and format the backup HDDs, then move them over and create a new Drivepool from scratch?

 

Thanks,

Craig

[Christopher (Drashna)]

So, my question is...if I move those backup HDDs over to the primary...will Stablebit Drivepool automatically recognize the pool they were in on from the backup server...thus having two Drivepools, a primary and a backup.

 

This is a complicated answer actually. Unfortunately.

 

Since you're using WHS2011... it depends on how long. Older versions of DrivePool don't properly identify the different pools, so if you connect the drives into the other system, it may merge the pools. (I experienced this first hand recently, actually).

 

However, if the pools are "newer", they should include the proper identifiers. In this case, as soon as you connect the additional disks, it will see the disks and create a secondary pool, without any problems.

 

 

 

If the first happens, ... or if you just want to "prep' the disks just in case this happens, the process is rather simple and there is absolutely no formatting required.

• In this case, deactivate and uninstall StableBit DrivePool from the system you're going to decommission. 
• Once you've done that, enable "show hidden files" on the system. 
• Find the "PoolPart.xxxxx" folder on one of the drives.  Move the content of this folder into the root of the disk (eg, out of the PoolPart.xxxxx folder). 
• Repeat this for all of the drives in the pool.
• Shut down the system, and remove the drives.
• Put the drives into the new system (shutting down the system first, if necessary).
• Add the disks to a new pool.
• "Seed" the pool (this should like similar, as it's essentially the opposite of what you've done:

  http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q4142489

[Craig Puckett]

Thank you, Christopher, for that GREAT explanation!

 

Just so you know more detail on the situation, yes...I'm running the latest version of DrivePool on both servers (v. 2.1.1.561). So...as you stated, with running the latest version, there shouldn't be any problems, as I understand it.

 

Thank you again for your prompt reply!

 

Craig

[Christopher (Drashna)]

You're very welcome!

 

And even if you're using the newer version, the "merge" may happen regardless. It depends on when the pool was initially created.  I was on 2.2.0.623, but it still merged my pools because both pools were created with the 1.2 version, which didn't support multiple pools. 

 

Regards