Adding a new storage drive to a Pool

[dup.morne]

Hi All,

I have installed FreeNAS 11.2-U5 and created a Pool with 1x 3TB drive (File Share). My disk space is "running low and I would like to add an additional 1x 3TB without loosing my data. Will I use the "Extend" option to add the new disk and increase the storage? My 3TB drive is setup as "stripe".

Thank you

 

[hervon]

Nice tutorial:
https://www.ixsystems.com/community...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

Forum rules:
https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/forum-rules.45124/

 

[Heracles]

Hey Dup.morne,

Yes you --can-- do it. Should you is another question. Once configured this way, know that you will loose everything the day any of your drive will fail. It would be much better and safer to design some redundancy in your vDev. If you really do not want to do it, still you would be better to do differently.

Instead of putting both drives in the same pool, create yourself another pool with that second drive. With 2 pools, the day one drive will fail, you will loose only that pool instead of everything.

In all cases, be ready to loose your data...

 

[dup.morne]

Hey Dup.morne,

Yes you --can-- do it. Should you is another question. Once configured this way, know that you will loose everything the day any of your drive will fail. It would be much better and safer to design some redundancy in your vDev. If you really do not want to do it, still you would be better to do differently.

Instead of putting both drives in the same pool, create yourself another pool with that second drive. With 2 pools, the day one drive will fail, you will loose only that pool instead of everything.

In all cases, be ready to loose your data...

Hi Heracles,

Thank you very much for the feedback. I will then go for the second option. Just to confirm, adding a second Pool will result in loosing my data on the first Pool, correct? If so why? Is it because the way the system is designed? Sorry for all the questions.....I am new to this FreeNAS version.

 

[Heracles]

Hey Dup,

adding a second Pool will result in loosing my data on the first Pool, correct?

Not at all. FreeNAS can operate multiple pool at once without any difficulty.

So as of now, you have a single pool, made of a single vDev itself containing a single drive (your actual drive).
You will create yourself a second pool, also made of a single vDev and also containing a single drive (your 2nd drive).

Once done, FreeNAS will load both of your pool and the content of one will not affect the other.

Because they will be 2 pools, their space will not add directly. If you have 2 gig of free space on each, you can not save a single 3 gig file. But thanks to the fact that they are 2 pools, should you loose one from a hard drive failure, the second one will survive.

2 pools is not as shaky as a single pool of 2 single drive vDevs, but still remember that this is not solid at all and redundancy should be considered.

 

[dup.morne]

Hey Dup,



Not at all. FreeNAS can operate multiple pool at once without any difficulty.

So as of now, you have a single pool, made of a single vDev itself containing a single drive (your actual drive).
You will create yourself a second pool, also made of a single vDev and also containing a single drive (your 2nd drive).

Once done, FreeNAS will load both of your pool and the content of one will not affect the other.

Because they will be 2 pools, their space will not add directly. If you have 2 gig of free space on each, you can not save a single 3 gig file. But thanks to the fact that they are 2 pools, should you loose one from a hard drive failure, the second one will survive.

2 pools is not as shaky as a single pool of 2 single drive vDevs, but still remember that this is not solid at all and redundancy should be considered.

Hi Heracles

Thank you very much for the nice detail explanation. I will continue creating a new Pool and add my second 4TB drive.

 

[tfran1990]

ideally before you have too much data to move, i would re create your pool configuration. like mentioned above, you are going to lose data on hard disk fail.

If you can move\copy your 3TB from your first drive somewhere for a short period or time, then re create a raidZ2 configuration. This is always easier to do the less data you have.

 

[dup.morne]

ideally before you have too much data to move, i would re create your pool configuration. like mentioned above, you are going to lose data on hard disk fail.

If you can move\copy your 3TB from your first drive somewhere for a short period or time, then re create a raidZ2 configuration. This is always easier to do the less data you have.

Hi tfran1990

Thank you very much for the feedback and recommendation. Much appreciated.

 

[PhilipS]

Hopefully you are hearing the big warning signs that have been given you. You obviously care about your data since you want to add space without losing your data. Some questions to think about: Do you have a backup of your data somewhere? When your disk fails, are you okay losing your data then?

raidz2 will require at least four disks to make much sense. If you desire redundancy, the easiest path to this may be with mirrored drives of sufficient capacity. You have a little less than 3TB of data. Replacing the 3TB drive with a mirror of 6TB (or better 8TB) drives would get you redundancy and the extra space you are looking for.

You still should have a backup somewhere too.

 

[dup.morne]

Hopefully you are hearing the big warning signs that have been given you. You obviously care about your data since you want to add space without losing your data. Some questions to think about: Do you have a backup of your data somewhere? When your disk fails, are you okay losing your data then?

raidz2 will require at least four disks to make much sense. If you desire redundancy, the easiest path to this may be with mirrored drives of sufficient capacity. You have a little less than 3TB of data. Replacing the 3TB drive with a mirror of 6TB (or better 8TB) drives would get you redundancy and the extra space you are looking for.

You still should have a backup somewhere too.

Hi PhilipS

Thank you for the feedback and recommendations. I do agree with the redundancy. Yes, I am busy with a "321 Rule" regarding the backups, i.e. 3x copies of backup files on the 1) Server, 2) FreeNAS and 3) S3 Bucket (Offsite).... I am busy streamlining the process.