Changing disk with Jails (from sata to usb), adding another disk for data

[Jedrek]

I am now using a TrueNas 12 with 6 HDDs, while one of these drives is currently only for Jails (in a separate pool).
Is it possible to transfer data from this drive (Jails) to an external drive connected via USB to the motherboard, only to free one sata port for adding an additional identical drive as the 5 that are connected to the data pool?
I would also like to transfer the data from this disk, which is now jails, to another disk with a smaller capacity (because there is little data) and then connect it via USB as a Jails disk.
Is what I wrote doable?

 

[Jedrek]

Will none of the forum members help me? I would not like to make any changes "blind" without your help.

 

[NugentS]

You know I was going to write an answer but then I thought bugger it

At the top of the forum, in red, is a tab called "Forum Rules" its even in red for convenience - try reading them. You only have to read the first (admittedly lengthy) post.

Any answer I wrote would contain a significant number of assumptions, and would therefore potentially be wrong and possibly hazardous to your data. There is a reason we ask for information, not least so we aren't guessing and making assumptions

 

[Jedrek]

@NugentS

Hello. This, however, did not need to be written. You should've screwed it up because your answer didn't help me, and I'm not going to experiment with my data.

 

[HoneyBadger]

your answer didn't help me

His answer isn't an answer, but rather a question:

"Can you tell us more about your configuration?"

My assumption, based on reading only your initial post, is that you're hoping to move all of your data from this single internal drive to an external USB drive (doable, even better it's doable live without any reconfiguration) but then there is an ambiguous statement here of:

only to free one sata port for adding an additional identical drive as the 5 that are connected to the data pool?

If the hope here is to add an identical drive to the other 5, and then include it into what I assume (again, lack of information) is a RAIDZ/Z2 pool, this step is not possible. You can't change the configuration of a vdev (eg: expanding for more size, or converting a RAIDZ1 to a RAIDZ2 for more safety) so advising you to go through all of the preceding steps to shuffle your data is moot.

Will none of the forum members help me? I would not like to make any changes "blind" without your help.

Bear in mind that the vast majority of forum users are not paid workers but rather fellow enthusiasts, spending their time here. The more information you can provide, the more likely you are to receive a useful answer.

 

[Jedrek]

@HoneyBadger
As I wrote in my first post, I have a motherboard that has 6 SATA ports. I have 5 identical sata disks, 4 TB each, plugged into these ports, and a different disk is plugged into the sixth port, which serves as a JAIL disk
Since I have a sixth disk, identical to the 5 mentioned above, not connected, I wanted to use it to enlarge the pool, and move the JAIL disk outside as a USB / SATA disk.
Due to the data sensitivity of the JAIL drive, I cannot do this without first stating that the entire process will be successful.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Unfortunately this doesn't explain what the ZFS pool configuration of your five disks is. You stated that you currently have two pools (the main pool of 5 disks and a separate single-disk pool for jails) but it's very unlikely that your main 5-disk pool is possible to be expanded. RAIDZ pools cannot be expanded in a disk-at-a-time scenario, and the odd number means it likely isn't a mirrored pool.

zpool status -v from a shell session or a screenshot of the pool layout/drive status from the webUI will tell you what the disk arrangement is.

Since I have a sixth disk, identical to the 5 mentioned above, not connected, I wanted to use it to enlarge the pool, and move the JAIL disk outside as a USB / SATA disk.

Unless your main pool is a 5-drive stripe (which is very bad for the safety of your data) you cannot enlarge the pool. You would have to back up all data from the main pool, destroy it, and recreate with the newer size.

 

[Jedrek]

root@TrueNas:~ # zpool status -v
pool: Archiwum
state: ONLINE
scan: scrub repaired 0B in 09:10:47 with 0 errors on Sun Mar 27 10:11:01 2022
config:

NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
Archiwum ONLINE 0 0 0
raidz1-0 ONLINE 0 0 0
gptid/dc4e8310-ad08-11e7-b198-1c1b0d00acfa ONLINE 0 0 0
gptid/e131af04-ad08-11e7-b198-1c1b0d00acfa ONLINE 0 0 0
gptid/e5f854f2-ad08-11e7-b198-1c1b0d00acfa ONLINE 0 0 0
gptid/ea85b5b7-ad08-11e7-b198-1c1b0d00acfa ONLINE 0 0 0
gptid/d395573d-4c80-11ec-9923-1c1b0d00acfa ONLINE 0 0 0

errors: No known data errors

pool: Extra_space
state: ONLINE
scan: scrub repaired 0B in 00:15:10 with 0 errors on Sun Mar 27 00:15:11 2022
config:

NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
Extra_space ONLINE 0 0 0
gptid/571e20fd-4161-11e7-adf2-1c1b0d00acfa ONLINE 0 0 0

errors: No known data errors

pool: boot-pool
state: ONLINE
scan: scrub repaired 0B in 00:00:29 with 0 errors on Thu Mar 31 03:45:29 2022
config:

 

[HoneyBadger]

Output there shows that the "Archiwum" pool is a 5-drive RAIDZ1 and therefore you can't "add one more disk" or otherwise "extend" it to a 6-drive Z1 or Z2. In order to change this pool config, you would have to copy all data off, erase the disks, and build it again.

You can still convert the single drive in the Extra_space pool to a mirror (of the internal + USB) but USB devices as long-term pool members are generally discouraged.

 

[Jedrek]

Thank you very much for the factual explanation. I now know what action to take.