One HD has failed in my RAID5 - can I replace it with a bigger drive?

[cegm71]

Hi

I currently have a RAID5 setup with 4 x 1.5TB drives. One of the drives is failing and so I'd like to replace it, ideally I'd like to just replace it with a bigger drive, a 2TB or 3TB drive perhaps, would this cause an issue with the existing setup or would I be better off trying to find another 1.5TB drive?

Thanks

 

[m0nkey_]

Yes, it's entirely possible to do this. If you continue to replace them with greater capacity drives, your pool will expand to the sum of all the new drives.

 

[cegm71]

Yes, it's entirely possible to do this. If you continue to replace them with greater capacity drives, your pool will expand to the sum of all the new drives.

Thanks, will I see any benefit from the additional storage increase from the single drive or will this be minimal?

 

[scwst]

The single drive won't increase anything. But once all drives in the vdev (in your case, all four drives) are the new size, it will automatically expand.

 

[cegm71]

The single drive won't increase anything. But once all drives in the vdev (in your case, all four drives) are the new size, it will automatically expand.

Great stuff, thanks

 

[cegm71]

Oh, one other thing, can I remove the failing drive from the vdev (or OFFLINE it) or will this affect the RAID without me immediately replacing the drive with another one?

 

[Bidule0hm]

Leave it where it is until you replace it, if you remove it now you'll run the pool without any redundancy... Unless by "failing drive" you mean it's completely toasted so you're already without redundancy.

 

[pirateghost]

I hope you mean raidz and not raid 5. You aren't using a raid controller right?