Unraid: Upgrade Parity Disk

Intro

Adding a new larger disk to act as the parity drive, so that I can upgrade disks equal to or lesser in the future. Then moving the old parity drive to the data array to increase overall storage capacity. This process makes the assumption that there are empty bays available on the NAS and that the array is in a healthy state. I’m running an 8-bay NAS with 4 empty slots.

unraid documentation

Starting NAS Bay/Array Configuration:

Total Data Storage size: ~9TB

• WD Red 3TB – Parity
• WD Red 3TB – Data
• WD Red 3TB – Data
• WD Red 3TB – Data
• Empty
• Empty
• Empty
• Empty

Ending NAS Bay/Array Configuration:

Total Data Storage size: ~12TB

• WD Red 3TB – Data
• WD Red 3TB – Data
• WD Red 3TB – Data
• WD Red 3TB – Data
• WD Red 10TB – Parity
• Empty
• Empty
• Empty

---

Procedure

Also known as: “Single, Dual, Single swap”. Minimal downtime and safest to not lose data parity protection.

1. Power down the NAS
2. Install the new disk.
3. Power up the NAS.
4. Run full Self-Test on the newly installed drive (could take 15+ hours)
5. Simultaneously with above, run a Parity Check to ensure it’s in a healthy state (could take 6+ hours)
6. Stop the array
7. Add new drive as second parity.
8. Start the array and let parity build. (20+ hours)
9. Stop array and remove the original smaller parity disk
10. Start the array.
11. Stop the array and add the old unassigned parity disk to the data area.
12. Start the array.
13. Disk clear will start on new data disk (6+ hours)

Total Time: 48 hours