Best way to Backup/clone ZFS for upgrade?

[OsiViper]

Whats the best way to clone a ZFS?
Right now I have 6x 2TB drives set up as RaidZ1. I am going to be getting 6 more 2TB drives from a different batch and I want to upgrade it to a RaidZ2.

So it would go from 6x 2TB in Z1 to 12x 2TB in Z2

 

[Inxsible]

You cannot change an existing RAID configuration. You will have to destroy the pool and re-create a RAIDZ2 pool.

You can simply

1. Destroy the existing pool.
2. Create a new RAIDZ2 pool
3. Re-populate the data from your backup

 

[Ericloewe]

If you have the two pools up in parallel, just use zfs send / recv to transfer everything over while keeping basically all metadata.

 

[rs225]

I would consider going 10x 2TB Z2 and keep the extra two drives as single backup drives for your most important datasets. The data logistics will be up to you, but if nothing better turns up, zfs send/recv is the standard way to move datasets between pools.

The other possibility is that you don't do that, and just create a 2nd raidz2 pool with the new disks. And then go buy a backup disk for the most important datasets.

 

[OsiViper]

If you have the two pools up in parallel, just use zfs send / recv to transfer everything over while keeping basically all metadata.

Yea, I don't want to end up with two separate raids. Just want to get everything off of the initial 6x2TB Z1 and then create a 12x2TB Z2.

I would consider going 10x 2TB Z2 and keep the extra two drives as single backup drives for your most important datasets. The data logistics will be up to you, but if nothing better turns up, zfs send/recv is the standard way to move datasets between pools.

The other possibility is that you don't do that, and just create a 2nd raidz2 pool with the new disks. And then go buy a backup disk for the most important datasets.

I still have another DAS with 12 empty slots that I can use later on for backups.