Transfer discs from one server to another

[wbm]

I have two TS419 PII 4 bay servers. Server 1 has 4 3TB drives in RAID 10. Server 2 has 4 2TB drives in RAID 5. I am upgrading Server 1 using 4 4TB drives in the existing RAID 10 array. I plan to transfer the old 4 3TB drives from Server 1 to Server 2 replacing the existing Server 2 drives. If I replace the drives (all at once) in the same order as they were in Server 1, will the system recover and maintain the data? If I replace them in not the original order what will happen? I actually want the system to re-initialise so that I can set up and configure a single new volume as RAID 0 and write new data to it. Any advice?

[MrVideo]

I have two TS419 PII 4 bay servers. Server 1 has 4 3TB drives in RAID 10. Server 2 has 4 2TB drives in RAID 5. I am upgrading Server 1 using 4 4TB drives in the existing RAID 10 array. I plan to transfer the old 4 3TB drives from Server 1 to Server 2 replacing the existing Server 2 drives. If I replace the drives (all at once) in the same order as they were in Server 1, will the system recover and maintain the data?

A problem is that you have to replace the S1 drives one at a time. That means the drives will not be "in sync" when you move them to S2. They might, or might not, come up.

If I replace them in not the original order what will happen?

Depends on the firmware version (which you didn't list). I do not know when it started working, but the NAS can figure out the order.

I actually want the system to re-initialise so that I can set up and configure a single new volume as RAID 0 and write new data to it. Any advice?

Why RAID0? That is a very unsafe mode for a 4-bay NAS. IMHO, you should be using RAID5 (like you are now in S2).

To start from scratch in S2, wipe the partition table before inserting the drive in S2. You can actually remove the partition table in S1 right before you pull the drive:

Code: Select all

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sd1 bs=512 count=1

Replace "sda" with the drive letter of the drive you are pulling (unless it really is sda).

[wbm]

Thanks for this help. I will take your advice and stick with RAID 5 for Server 2. If the discs transferred to Server 2 do come up (under RAID 10), I will simply delete the volume, create a new volume in RAID 5 and load data from my backups. Any issues with that?

[wbm]

Sorry - further question. Should I power down Server 2 before installing the discs (all in one go) from Server 1 or doesn't it matter?

[MrVideo]

Sorry - further question. Should I power down Server 2 before installing the discs (all in one go) from Server 1 or doesn't it matter?

It shouldn't matter, depending on the firmware version, but normally when transferring drives, a power cycle is done.

[OneCD]

Happy 4k posts MrVideo!