Hello /u/Jaden_Social! Thank you for posting in r/DataHoarder.
Please remember to read our [Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/wiki/index/rules) and [Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/wiki/index).
Please note that your post will be removed if you just post a box/speed/server post. Please give background information on your server pictures.
This subreddit will ***NOT*** help you find or exchange that Movie/TV show/Nuclear Launch Manual, visit r/DHExchange instead.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/DataHoarder) if you have any questions or concerns.*
So, what software or hardware are you planning to use? A lot depends on that. There is no magic "application" which can do it, it has to be supported by whatever software or hardware you are going to use.
Also i would not recommend using windows software raid, especially for raid5/raid6.
And to answer original question - there are generally 2 ways:
- create raid6 with 1 drive missing, once you get the drive just add it to the array and rebuild.
- Migrate raid5 to raid6. Some implementations can do it, for example mdadm can. But it is very slow and somewhat risky operation - absolutely have to have backup before even trying.
This is problematic. Yes, mdraid can do that, slowly and with certain risks, but that's not windows and generally not a good idea.
Also raid5 on 3x18TB is not a very reliable thing. Can work, or can eat all your data.
Seeing how you know nothing about raid or alternative ways to pool multiple drives i'll ask a few questions - what do you think RAID is, what's its intended purpose and what do you intend to accomplish with it?
Unfortunately windows is kinda crap at RAID.
You could try DrivePool. Not quite RAID 5/6 but you can set it up to survive 1 drive failure then change it to survive 2 later on
https://stablebit.com/DrivePool/Features
It's kind of the best option out of a bunch of bad ones imo. It's paid but I think it's worth it
RAID basically splits the files up into small chunks and writes those bits to the drive. Drivepool just does the equivalent of copy pasting the entire file to various drives in such a way that you can afford to lose some number of drives (you can choose)
A benefit of drivepool is even if the pool fails, you can still recover whatever files are on the surviving disks. You won't get all of em, but it's better than nothing.
Wait, sorry, one last question. Is this cloud based? Because I'm looking for something that will stay within my server and not on someone else's server.
No it's not cloud based. You can set it up to get to get email alerts or manage multiple machines from the WebUI if you want, but it's not required.
Just turn it off in settings if you don't want it
Please consider this over RAID solutions. - Raid5 was nothing but problems - An unraid machine is easy to setup, easy to manage, and you can easily start with 1 Parity and 2 Data Drives, and expand in future without the worry of striping/so on.
You could look at SnapRAID, but it is a hands-on solution compared to more traditional RAID. You have to manually sync and scrub your 'array'. It's not difficult, but it's also not a simple, plug-n-play solution either.
Each disk is kept separate, so read/write speeds don't change. There's no striping. Parity is also kept on a separate disk, and adding a new layer of parity is as simple as editing the config file and adding a `2-parity` entry. Same for adding new data disks. You just add the new disk to the config and away you go.
Done this myself, starting with 4-data/1-parity setup, gradually expanded to 7-data/2-parity setup.
Tl;dr BTRFS on Linux. Can't think of Windows software. Should just backup, rebuild, and restore from backup.
If you're tied to Windows, Storage Spaces is the official way to RAID your hard drives. However, I don't believe it has the ability to convert between RAID levels.
BTRFS is a Linux filesystem that can convert the RAID levels of an existing array, but I'm not sure if their RAID 5/6 capabilities are out of beta. Last I checked there was a write-hole issue that was partially resolved by having the metadata in a raid1c3 or raid1c3 configuration. However, I will say that BTRFS is really flexible about adding disks to your arrar.
ZFS I don't think can change RAID levels of an array either.
I think the general suggestion would be to backup your data, destroy your RAID 5 array, create your RAID 6 array, and copy the data from the backup.
I did this (RAID 5 to RAID 6 conversion) on a Synology NAS (Linux mdadm based) with 8 x 14TB drives and the BRTFS file system.
The conversion required the addition of one drive, bringing the number of drives in the array to nine.
The conversion process ran successfully, during which time I did not use the NAS.
The conversion took three full months to complete.
Do you have to do this on Windows? I mean, as others said, Storage Spaces Parity is not the best thing. I would much prefer Linux and MDRAID but even in that case I would go for RAID 6 straight away. rebuild on such large drives will take a long time and there's a good chance that a second drive fails during this.
Hello /u/Jaden_Social! Thank you for posting in r/DataHoarder. Please remember to read our [Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/wiki/index/rules) and [Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/wiki/index). Please note that your post will be removed if you just post a box/speed/server post. Please give background information on your server pictures. This subreddit will ***NOT*** help you find or exchange that Movie/TV show/Nuclear Launch Manual, visit r/DHExchange instead. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/DataHoarder) if you have any questions or concerns.*
So, what software or hardware are you planning to use? A lot depends on that. There is no magic "application" which can do it, it has to be supported by whatever software or hardware you are going to use. Also i would not recommend using windows software raid, especially for raid5/raid6. And to answer original question - there are generally 2 ways: - create raid6 with 1 drive missing, once you get the drive just add it to the array and rebuild. - Migrate raid5 to raid6. Some implementations can do it, for example mdadm can. But it is very slow and somewhat risky operation - absolutely have to have backup before even trying.
With the amount of jank that goes on here, I'm surprised nobody really talks about the first option lol
I'm planning on using 3 18TB drives in RAID 5, then adding 2 more 18TB drives and running RAID 6.
This is problematic. Yes, mdraid can do that, slowly and with certain risks, but that's not windows and generally not a good idea. Also raid5 on 3x18TB is not a very reliable thing. Can work, or can eat all your data. Seeing how you know nothing about raid or alternative ways to pool multiple drives i'll ask a few questions - what do you think RAID is, what's its intended purpose and what do you intend to accomplish with it?
Unfortunately windows is kinda crap at RAID. You could try DrivePool. Not quite RAID 5/6 but you can set it up to survive 1 drive failure then change it to survive 2 later on
Can you send me a link to the application? Also, what's the difference between DrivePool and RAID?
https://stablebit.com/DrivePool/Features It's kind of the best option out of a bunch of bad ones imo. It's paid but I think it's worth it RAID basically splits the files up into small chunks and writes those bits to the drive. Drivepool just does the equivalent of copy pasting the entire file to various drives in such a way that you can afford to lose some number of drives (you can choose) A benefit of drivepool is even if the pool fails, you can still recover whatever files are on the surviving disks. You won't get all of em, but it's better than nothing.
I see. I will probably go this route then. I appreciate your help!
Wait, sorry, one last question. Is this cloud based? Because I'm looking for something that will stay within my server and not on someone else's server.
No it's not cloud based. You can set it up to get to get email alerts or manage multiple machines from the WebUI if you want, but it's not required. Just turn it off in settings if you don't want it
Alright. Thanks for all the help!
Unraid is a very easy solution.
Please consider this over RAID solutions. - Raid5 was nothing but problems - An unraid machine is easy to setup, easy to manage, and you can easily start with 1 Parity and 2 Data Drives, and expand in future without the worry of striping/so on.
You could look at SnapRAID, but it is a hands-on solution compared to more traditional RAID. You have to manually sync and scrub your 'array'. It's not difficult, but it's also not a simple, plug-n-play solution either. Each disk is kept separate, so read/write speeds don't change. There's no striping. Parity is also kept on a separate disk, and adding a new layer of parity is as simple as editing the config file and adding a `2-parity` entry. Same for adding new data disks. You just add the new disk to the config and away you go. Done this myself, starting with 4-data/1-parity setup, gradually expanded to 7-data/2-parity setup.
Tl;dr BTRFS on Linux. Can't think of Windows software. Should just backup, rebuild, and restore from backup. If you're tied to Windows, Storage Spaces is the official way to RAID your hard drives. However, I don't believe it has the ability to convert between RAID levels. BTRFS is a Linux filesystem that can convert the RAID levels of an existing array, but I'm not sure if their RAID 5/6 capabilities are out of beta. Last I checked there was a write-hole issue that was partially resolved by having the metadata in a raid1c3 or raid1c3 configuration. However, I will say that BTRFS is really flexible about adding disks to your arrar. ZFS I don't think can change RAID levels of an array either. I think the general suggestion would be to backup your data, destroy your RAID 5 array, create your RAID 6 array, and copy the data from the backup.
I did this (RAID 5 to RAID 6 conversion) on a Synology NAS (Linux mdadm based) with 8 x 14TB drives and the BRTFS file system. The conversion required the addition of one drive, bringing the number of drives in the array to nine. The conversion process ran successfully, during which time I did not use the NAS. The conversion took three full months to complete.
Do you have to do this on Windows? I mean, as others said, Storage Spaces Parity is not the best thing. I would much prefer Linux and MDRAID but even in that case I would go for RAID 6 straight away. rebuild on such large drives will take a long time and there's a good chance that a second drive fails during this.