Asking the Experts - Storage Reworking

[RallyGallery]

I am new to FreeNAS so I am asking a quick question of the experts. I have searched through this forum but not found exactly the answers I was looking for.

I have FreeNAS 11 running 2x4tb WD Red Drives in a mirror. The system is basically a media server and carries all my media. I also have an SSD that carries my jails etc.

I have now got a another new WD 4tb Red drive and was thinking to use it in the pool. However, you can't extend the pool but basically I will have to destroy the pool and start again. All my data is backed up so that's not an issue. The jails are separate so again, no problems. The system dataset is stored on the media mirror but I can change that to the SSD via the GUI so again no problem (unless anybody advises me differently). So my questions are :

- Is it worth destroying and creating a new pool with the 3 x4tb drives (the extra space would be useful to future proof the system)
- What array should I use. From the forum reading I was thinking Raidz2?

Any help or comments are greatly appreciated.

 

[m0nkey_]

With three drives, you would want a RAIDZ1 array. That should give you approximately 8TB of storage with one disk parity.

 

[Jailer]

Or buy another 4TB drive and extend your existing pool with an additional mirror and double your pool capacity while maintaining redundancy without having to destroy your pool.

Holy run on sentence......

 

[RallyGallery]

Thanks for the help and info. Just what I was looking for.

I have decided to go with buying another 4tb drive and mirroring it with the other one that is currently spare.

I assume I can do that through the web GUI, mirror them like before and then just choose the 'extend' field to my existing Media pool of the two existing 4tb drives?

 

[Stux]

Yes

 

[RallyGallery]

Just a quick further post. I have purcahsed the 4th and final drive. So now have two available 4tb RED drives ready to go (ada1 and ada4) . Have launched volume manager in GUI and selected both drives as mirror and to extend the existing Media pool (as suggested above by Jailer). I get the following error:

[MiddlewareError: b'Unable to GPT format the disk "ada4": gpart: Input/output error\n']

As a further test I created a siongle pool of ada1 and that is fine. Tried to do the same with ada4 and get :

[MiddlewareError: b'Unable to GPT format the disk "ada4": gpart: geom \'ada4\': File exists\n']

Do I have a faulty drive? ada4 is a brand new drive with nothing on it.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[RallyGallery]

A further post. I have tried moving SATA drive connectors and I think I have found the answer. I have 4 SATA ports on the motherboard. Now I have 4 hard drives (4tb WD RED) and an SSD to hold the jails. The motherboard has an expansion SATA card in it and I think it is this causing the problem. When I don't use a sata lead from the expansion card the system boots and I have my existing configuration. When I use the required 5th SATA lead from the expansion card I get CRC errors or the ones I have posted above. I think it's the expansion card that is the problem.

Any thooughts on an expansion SATA card that FreeNAS 11 likes?

 

[Linkman]

Have you tried swapping or changing the SATA cable you're using on the fifth drive?

 

[RallyGallery]

Linkman - no that's also a good shout. Will give that a go

Update - Brand new cable made no difference. I have also been reading that add on SATA cards are no liked by FreeNAS so I think I am limited to 4 drives.

I think I may copy the Jails from the SSD into the main Mirror Media pool and use that free slot to create my pool.

 

[PhilipS]

I have also been reading that add on SATA cards are no liked by FreeNas so I think I am limited to 4 drives.

I don't think that assessment is correct.

http://www.freenas.org/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/

Check the section on storage controllers for the recommended LSI based HBA cards and set them up/flash them with "IT Mode" firmware.

 

[warriorcookie]

Linkman - no that's also a good shout. Will give that a go

Update - Brand new cable made no difference. I have also been reading that add on SATA cards are no liked by FreeNas so I think I am limited to 4 drives.

I think I may copy the Jails from the SSD into the main Mirror Media pool and use that free slot to create my pool.

What's the model # for that sata card? Would be helpful to determine exactly what it is.

 

[RallyGallery]

Will take a look and post here.

 

[danb35]

I don't think that assessment is correct.

Those statements aren't really in conflict. Add-on SATA controllers are generally discouraged, though some folks have had good results with them. SAS HBAs, however, are strongly encouraged, are well-supported, mature, and work quite well.