replace drive when i don't have an open drive bay

[janicefam]

so i have a pcie card to add m.2 to my server. i have a mirror setup on this for my apps drive. one of my m.2 drives is failing and needs to be replaced but i only have the 2 m.2 slots. what is the best way to replace the drive when powered down?

 

[artlessknave]

please read the forum rules.

that said. just shut it off, replace the drive and start it back up. your pool will show as degraded. go into the status and you will see the offline drive. choose the elipses, select replace, and select the new drive. it will then resilver and function as normal

alternatvately, you can enable "autoreplace", in which case as soon as the pool comes online ZFS will replace the missing drive with the drive it finds in the same hardware designation as the missing drive.

i will also add, that icy dock sells a number of adapters to go from m.2 to PCIe, with hotswap bays.

 

[joeschmuck]

what is the best way to replace the drive when powered down?

Always power down first, even if you are swapping Hot Swap hard drives if at all possible. M.2 cards are not Hot Swap, not unless you want to fry something so power down is a must.