Pool Replacement Instructions

[amateurphotographer]

Hi

Could I get some guidance on replacing disks in my drivepool as the last time I did this I ended up restoring from a backup so that tells you how that went.

My home server is a Windows 10 Pro based system that effectively is a file server so just a Celeron G4500 with 8GB of RAM.  The system itself dates back to 2015 when I built it but it never gets hammered and sits in the corner quietly getting on with life.

I have recently had a drive failure in one of my pools, guess it did not like being powered off for two weeks whilst I went away on holiday as it pretty much gave up once it was powered back on.

• Pool 1 = Media Pool consisting of 2 x WD Red 6TB dating from 2015 with over 27500 hours - no duplication but fully backed up
• Pool 2 = Data Pool consisting of 2 x WD Red 6TB dating from 2018 with over 16000 hours - duplication 1 copy on each drive and fully backed up

Speaking to the network manager where I work he recommends as all my drives are out of warranty - that I cascade the Data Pool drives into the Media Pool and put new drives into service on the Data Pool.  So I have 2 x 6TB WD Gold arriving tomorrow (they were cheaper than Red Pro and not much more expensive than Red Plus drives given they have the extra 2 years warranty.

Now my logic is, probably flawed so please do correct me:

1. Add a Gold Drive to the Data Pool making the pool 3 drives
2. Click Remove on one of the Red Drives, I assume that Drivepool will simply copy the data from the removed Red Drive to the Gold Drive for me given it is set to store a copy of each file on different drives and not just delete the data off the Red Drive which is what happened last time I tried this years ago.
3. Once the above is completed the repeat the step with the 2nd Gold and 2nd Red Drive

Assuming the above is correct then I do the same with the Media Pool drive that is still working and then restore the missing data from the backup to bring the pool back up to what it should be.

My intention is to effectively retire the remaining Red Drive with 27500+ hours on it from service.  I do have external backups so may leave the drive in the machine and have it backup the Data Pool more frequently that the external drives do which is either weekly or if someone in the family has done a lot of photography then once they have downloaded their memory cards etc - figuring you can never have too many copies.

Also as you can see by the dates it is a while since I commissioned a drive.  Normally I would SMART test and then Surface Scan them using the Scanner before adding them into service, is there anything else that is recommended?

Thanks for the help

Paul

 

 

 

[Christopher (Drashna)]

For replacing disks in the pool, it depends on how much free space you have.  But ideally, you want to remove the disk from the Pool using the "remove" option in the UI.  This will safely remove the drive from the pool, and you can then disconnect the drive and connect the new drive.  

 

And yeah, if the drives are out of warranty, it may be a good idea to replace them.

And removing the drives won't necessarily move the data to the gold drives.  That depends entirely on the setup of your pool(s). 

[amateurphotographer]

Thanks for the message.

Attached is a screen capture of my data pool which is set to pool file duplication.

I have sufficient sata and power connections to connect both Golds into the server without disconnecting anything.

Does this give you enough info to say whether connecting a Gold and the hitting remove on a Red will simply transfer the data from the Red to Gold automatically.  I can make sure nothing is being written to the pool whilst this happens so the server sits isolated.

Thanks

[Christopher (Drashna)]

You should be fine, here.   If you use the "duplicate data later" option, it will skip the duplicate date, and should remove the drive pretty much immediately.   

Connect a new drive and add it to the pool, and it will reduplicate the data to the new drive. 

The old drive will still have the data on it, so worst case, you have a spare set of the files, just in case. 

[amateurphotographer]

On 8/20/2021 at 10:47 PM, Christopher (Drashna) said:

You should be fine, here.   If you use the "duplicate data later" option, it will skip the duplicate date, and should remove the drive pretty much immediately.   

Connect a new drive and add it to the pool, and it will reduplicate the data to the new drive. 

The old drive will still have the data on it, so worst case, you have a spare set of the files, just in case. 

Thanks.

The "Duplicate Data Option" did not work as you suggest above.  I clicked on Remove and selected that option. 

Drivepool removed the drive and then when it got near 90% it started to wipe the drive of all data and had completely wiped the entire drive before it finished so at the end of the process I ended up with a completely blank drive and not a drive with a copy of al the data on as suggested above.

Adding the new drive in did start the duplication process automatically from the remaining drive to the new drive.