How to replace a RAIDed HDD?

[Shiroi Kage]

I have a 6x4TB RAID-Z2 array which I want to expand. Instead of RAIDing 2 arrays I heard I could replace the drives one at at time with larger capacity drives instead and then will use those drives for a separate, smaller array. How do I do that? I imagine it's the same method by which a damaged HDD in a Z2 can be replaced.

Any ideas?

 

[danb35]

The manual has your answer. Link is at the top of the page.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

If you have a spare SATA port (or an eSATA port and a hard drive dock) you can use the GUI to replace the disks one at a time in a somewhat simpler and safer process than the manual describes for replacing a failed disk:

1. Shut down the system.
2. Install one new disk.
3. Start up the system.
4. Go to the Storage screen, select the pool and click the Volume Status button.
5. In the Volume Status screen, select a disk and click the Replace button.
6. Choose the new disk as the replacement.

When the new disk has resilvered the old one will be automatically offlined. You can then shut down the system and physically remove the replaced disk. One advantage of this approach is that there is no loss of redundancy during the resilver.

 

[Shiroi Kage]

Thank you both. This solves it.

On another note, I should have expected a polite version of "RTFM" when I posted this :P

 

[rogerh]

If you've got space, computing power, and SAS/SATA ports to run the new disks as an array as well as the old disks as a new array, why not set up an array with the new bigger disks and copy the data to it from the old array of smaller disks. Then you'll have the new larger array and the original disks available all in one go.

 

[Shiroi Kage]

At this very moment I have one disk that's not in an array (got hotswap bays installed into a tower) I don't have many more SATA ports to spare either. However, I do plan on maybe adding another RAID card in IT mode and another set of hotswap bays which would require a dremel or something similar to remove the guide rails on the case.