Pooled drives internal to external HDD case?

[wolfpac]

I've been using Drivepool, love it, don't love drives dying but happy that Drivepool and Scanner work hand in hand to avoid disaster.

 

Anyway, I'm looking to move the pool in my WHS2k11 'server' case to a dedicated 8 or 10 bay external hard drive case (something like an Orico 10 bay or Hotway 8 bay case, eSATA and USB connection back to the 'server').

 

Apologies if this is the 1000th time this has been asked, can I "safely" just physically remove all of the drives from inside the case and then install them in the stand alone HDD case?

 

Magically Drivepool on the WHS box knows where the drives are when I plug in the drives into the case, then connect it to the WHS box and everything continues on happily?

[Christopher (Drashna)]

I don't think anyone likes drives dying!  

But yeah, it's nice when our software can help make that easier!

 

And yes, you should be fine to do this.  I would recommend using eSATA (or SAS, if you have the money), as USB has issues with long term connectivity that could affect your data. 

 

And as long as the external enclosure passes the disks through to the OS, so that our software can see them, there is absolutely no issues with moving them around. 

[wolfpac]

Yeah HUGE relief, so glad I bought the combo of Drivepool and Scanner! Well worth the 'cost of admission'!

 

Ah ok then, there's 2 enclosures I've been looking at, one is USB3.0 only, the other is USB3.0 and eSATA. The eSATA one seems to have issues with not seeing all the drives on certain chipsets so I'll have to make sure the PCIe card I get is capable.

 

But that's good to know, as long as WHS can see it, Drivepool can see the pool, everything continues working.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Ah ok then, there's 2 enclosures I've been looking at, one is USB3.0 only, the other is USB3.0 and eSATA. The eSATA one seems to have issues with not seeing all the drives on certain chipsets so I'll have to make sure the PCIe card I get is capable.

 

Yeah, not all eSATA controllers are equal.  if the card is using a marvell chipset, you're good. If it's using ASM1601 chipset, then you need to install the specific drivers for it. And if you're using Silicon Images, replace it. 

 

This is because the controller must be "Port Multiplier" aware, or must have an eSATA port for each drive (very unusual).   That's the downside of using eSATA, and why USB is much easier. 

 

 

 

But that's good to know, as long as WHS can see it, Drivepool can see the pool, everything continues working.

 

Yup, exactly. And it makes things easier.