On Wed, 9 Feb 2022 07:02:45 -0600 Roger Heflin <rogerheflin@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Wed, Feb 9, 2022 at 3:12 AM Red Wil <redwil@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > Hello, > > > > It started as the subject said: > > - goal was to replace all 10 disks in a R6 > > - context and perceived constraints > > - soft raid (no imsm and or ddl containers) > > - multiple disk partition. partitions across 10 disks formed R6 > > - downtime not an issue > > - minimize the number of commands > > - minimize disks stress > > - reduce the time spent with this process > > - difficult to add 10 spares at once in the rig > > - after a reshape/grow from 6 to 10 disks offset of data in raid > > members was all over the place from cca 10ksect to 200ksect > > > > Approaches/solutions and critique > > 1- add one by one a 'spare' and 'replace' raid member > > critique: > > - seem to me long and tedious process > > - cannot/will not run in parallel > > 2- add all the spares at once and perform 'replace' on members > > critique > > - just tedious - lots of cli commands which can be prone to > > mistakes. next ones assume I have all the 'spares' in the rig > > 3- create new arrays on spares, fresh fs and copy data. > > 4- dd/ddrescue copy each drive to a new one. Advantage can be done > > one by one or in parallel. less commands in the terminal. > > > > In the end I decided I will use route (3). > > - flexibility on creation > > - copy only what I need > > - old array is a sort of backup > > > > When I did mine I did a combination of 3 and 2. I bought new disks > that were 2x the size of the devices in the original array, and > partitioned those new disks with partition the correct size for the > old array. I used 2 of new disks to remove 2 disks that were not > behaving, and I used another new disk to replace a 3rd original device > that was behaving just fine. I used the 3rd device I replaced to add > to the 3 new disk partitions and created a 4 disk raid6 (3 new + 1 > old/replaced device) and rearranged a subset of files from the > original array to its own mount point on the new array. Obviously, as usual in 'nix' world there are multiple solutions for the same problem especially if you have a small number of drives. My real question was regarding (4) if a exact copy bit-wise replica of an entire disk/spindle would have any technical or safety concerns. Thanks Red
