Can't re-import volume

[v33]

Hi FreeNAS Team.

I'm kind of in a panic hoping I didn't just lose all my data. I was trying to add another hard drive from another computer to my freenas set and went to wipe it in the "view disks" section before I added it. There was something odd about wiping this new drive because it required me to dismount the drive before it before wiping it. I proceeded and approved it to dismount the drive before it and the process began. I stopped the wipe early and went to re-mount my other drive because it had data on it however the auto import function and import volume does not show it as an option. And I know if I use the volume manager to mount it that will erase all it's data.

My version of FreeNAS right now is 8.3.0. p1, upgraded from 8.3.0. Is there someone that would know what's wrong and what I can do to either retrieve my data from this drive or import it to access it through a share. It would be great help. Thanks!!!

 

[cyberjock]

My first guess would be if you can't use auto-mount you are probably screwed. Can you post your old zpool info in more detail? How many drive you had, was it ZFS and if so what RAID type, etc. You are VERY scant on details.

Edit: Something else.. do NOT try to do anything with those drives yet. People get scared and do stupid things. Some people have come in here asking for help(and it was pretty clear they could be saved) but then because they couldn't wait for a reply they did something stupid and made recovery impossible. Don't be that person :P

 

[v33]

My first guess would be if you can't use auto-mount you are probably screwed. Can you post your old zpool info in more detail? How many drive you had, was it ZFS and if so what RAID type, etc. You are VERY scant on details.

Edit: Something else.. do NOT try to do anything with those drives yet. People get scared and do stupid things. Some people have come in here asking for help(and it was pretty clear they could be saved) but then because they couldn't wait for a reply they did something stupid and made recovery impossible. Don't be that person :P

I haven't done anything that would threaten the data on my my drive. Before this happened I had:
2 3TB Seagate Barracuda Hard Drives
Both were set to ZFS, no raid on any of them
I was just trying to add this 3rd 3tb drive from another computer and things went south after I was trying to wipe this 3rd drive from FreeNAS

 

[cyberjock]

If you had ZFS you had to have a RAID of some type(unless they were 2 separate mount points and separate zpools). RAID0,1, Z1, Z2, something. If you had anything except a RAID1 since you have only 2 drives you are pretty much SOL. Considering you don't even know what RAID you have you are in a very bad position. One of the biggest decisions a FreeNAS server owner can make is the type of RAID used on their zpool.

I'd consider your data gone for good at this point. Honestly, I'm really not sure how you did your "homework" and built your setup without asking yourself what RAID type to use.

If you had 2 zpools then you're probably in real trouble because you haven't mentioned that you had 2 zpools.

For the configuration I think you had(RAID0 across 2 drives on 1 vdev), within about 5 seconds of the wipe starting there was no return.

 

[v33]

If you had ZFS you had to have a RAID of some type(unless they were 2 separate mount points and separate zpools). RAID0,1, Z1, Z2, something. If you had anything except a RAID1 since you have only 2 drives you are pretty much SOL. Considering you don't even know what RAID you have you are in a very bad position. One of the biggest decisions a FreeNAS server owner can make is the type of RAID used on their zpool.

I'd consider your data gone for good at this point. Honestly, I'm really not sure how you did your "homework" and built your setup without asking yourself what RAID type to use.

If you had 2 zpools then you're probably in real trouble because you haven't mentioned that you had 2 zpools.

For the configuration I think you had(RAID0 across 2 drives on 1 vdev), within about 5 seconds of the wipe starting there was no return.

Ok here's the part I don't get, When I originally added the disks, I did them one by one. For the 1st drive I chose ZFS, made sure that was set, then I moved to the 2nd drive. I made that ZFS as well. I didn't do a ZFS mirror or stripe at all so they would each just be independent of each other. The part I'm lost on is why the second I unmounted this 2nd drive I all of a sudden have issues importing it again. I didn't intend on wiping the 2nd drive but for some reason when I tried to wipe this new 3rd drive FreeNAS wanted me to unmount the 2nd drive to proceed. It just doesn't make any sense. T

The other odd thing is even though I ran a wipe on this new 3rd drive for a bit FreenAS is still letting me import it as if nothing happened to it. "Auto Import Volume" shows the 3rd drive juts fine but this 2nd one with files on it is just a problem. When I look at the 2nd drive through the "Import Volume" function it shows it as two for some reason, ada1p1 3.0TB and ada1p2 2.1TB. There any reason why it would show up as 2 drives instead of 1?

 

[Stephens]

While you're waiting for answers, please read the "guide" linked to in cyberjock's signature.

From the command shell, show the guys who'll try to help you the output of "zpool status". Otherwise, it's all guessing.

 

[cyberjock]

Read the below.. the bold is my comments...

Ok here's the part I don't get, When I originally added the disks, I did them one by one. For the 1st drive I chose ZFS, made sure that was set, then I moved to the 2nd drive. <Stop right here and read my comments below> I made that ZFS as well. I didn't do a ZFS mirror or stripe at all so they would each just be independent of each other. The part I'm lost on is why the second I unmounted this 2nd drive I all of a sudden have issues importing it again. <Stop here and go back to my comments below> I didn't intend on wiping the 2nd drive but for some reason when I tried to wipe this new 3rd drive FreeNAS wanted me to unmount the 2nd drive to proceed. It just doesn't make any sense. T

The other odd thing is even though I ran a wipe on this new 3rd drive for a bit FreenAS is still letting me import it as if nothing happened to it. "Auto Import Volume" shows the 3rd drive juts fine but this 2nd one with files on it is just a problem. When I look at the 2nd drive through the "Import Volume" function it shows it as two for some reason, ada1p1 3.0TB and ada1p2 2.1TB. There any reason why it would show up as 2 drives instead of 1?

They don't have to be independent. If I make a zpool of 1 drive called tank and then select a second disk and make a zpool called tank ZFS will automatically merge the 2 into 1 zpool and assume you wanted to add it to the preexisting zpool named tank. In effect I just made a 2 vdev zpool, or a form of RAID0. Details are key here, and unfortunately I'm not getting much. Could be just the forum setting, english as a second language, etc.

Ok, now go back and continue reading your quote.

If you choose to unmount the zpool and check a little box that says something like "make this disk clean" then poof, your data is gone. You would no longer be able to reimport the pool if you checked that box.

I don't think a zpool status is going to be useful because he has exported his zpool and can't reimport it. But please post a zpool status output here just in case. What was the name of your old zpool(s)? Do you have any zpools available right now? If so, what are their name(s)?

There's alot of weird information being given, some kinda-sorta conflicting and the details I'm getting don't give me a good vibe. At some point it may come down to the fact that you don't know what you had, you don't know what went wrong and there isn't enough information to figure out what you did wrong for 100% certainty.

To me, and this will sound mean, the fact that you don't know you ZFS pool type(s) is kind of telling me this isn't going to go well at all. As I said before, one of the biggest decisions for a FreeNAS server owner is the zpool type, and you are claiming you had none. If you didn't have redundancy(which requires a RAID1, Z1, Z2, or Z3) then you are 99% certainly screwed. Honestly, I'm getting the impressions that the server was put together without adequate planning and now its coming back to bite you :(

I sent you a PM.

 

[ProtoSD]

When I look at the 2nd drive through the "Import Volume" function it shows it as two for some reason, ada1p1 3.0TB and ada1p2 2.1TB. There any reason why it would show up as 2 drives instead of 1?

Those aren't 2 drives, they are 2 partitions on the same drive. FreeNAS creates a swap partition before the data partition.

It sounds like you originally created 2 one disk vdevs striped in the same pool and then removed half of your stripe. "Import Volume" wouldn't be the correct way to add that disk back to the pool, I think you probably needed to reattach it / online it to make it part of the pool again, but I'm also wondering if you could have wiped the wrong disk.

Just for grins, you could post the output of these commands:

zfs list
gpart show

 

[v33]

 

[v33]

View attachment 1809 View attachment 1810 View attachment 1811

So since ada1p1 and ada1p2 are two partitions of the same drive, is that why I am unable to import it? Is there a way to merge them so that I can bring everything back to a readable state?

 

[paleoN]

So since ada1p1 and ada1p2 are two partitions of the same drive, is that why I am unable to import it? Is there a way to merge them so that I can bring everything back to a readable state?

Actually, ada1 appears to have a single 2.7TB linux partition on it. D-1 appears to be a single 2TB disk pool and D-3 a single 3TB disk pool. You couldn't be bothered use SSH and the gpart show is cut off, but I guess ada0 contains D-1 and ada3 is D-3.

Code:

glabel status

Would confirm that.

Exactly what are you trying to do with ada1 and the linux partition?

 

[ProtoSD]

Thanks for jumping in PaleoN

I'm knocked on my ass with the flu, and yes I had a flu shot in october....

 

[paleoN]

Thanks for jumping in PaleoN

Sure, even if the pictures bug me for no good reason. :p

I'm knocked on my ass with the flu, and yes I had a flu shot in october....

Not for anything, but you would have been better off supplementing with some Vitamin D3. ;) Of course anyone can still get sick and if you're lucky it gets to be the flu.

 

[cyberjock]

Actually, ada1 appears to have a single 2.7TB linux partition on it. D-1 appears to be a single 2TB disk pool and D-3 a single 3TB disk pool. You couldn't be bothered use SSH and the gpart show is cut off, but I guess ada0 contains D-1 and ada3 is D-3.

Code:

glabel status

Would confirm that.

Exactly what are you trying to do with ada1 and the linux partition?

You are exactly correct. The missing 'zpool' is actually a linux-data partition. I just did a Teamviewer session with the OP. It won't "auto-import" and I wasn't sure of how to mount it properly since its his data. He's going to see if it auto-mounts with an Ubuntu LiveCD to verify the file system format. It's definitely not ZFS so it should be identified by Ubuntu.

 

[paleoN]

The missing 'zpool' is actually a linux-data partition. I just did a Teamviewer session with the OP. It won't "auto-import" and I wasn't sure of how to mount it properly since its his data.

Auto-import is for ZFS volumes. Import is for the others.

FreeNAS® supports the import of disks that have been formatted with UFS, NTFS, MSDOS, or EXT2.

He's going to see if it auto-mounts with an Ubuntu LiveCD to verify the file system format. It's definitely not ZFS so it should be identified by Ubuntu.

Depending on what it's formatted as this post may be useful. I don't know what if any FUSE is included with FreeNAS though.

 

[v33]

Ok ya'll...bad news; the data's gone. Here's why
1.) After my talk and remote session with cyberjock(thanks for taking the time out to help me btw) he found that in shell, the drive was reading as "linux-data" so we agreed that I'd try and load up the drive onto a live cd and see if linux would mount it
2.) I loaded up the drive, ubuntu, and an external drive(for transfer) onto virtualbox however the drive did not auto mount
3.) I found that the drive in /dev was sda2
4.) Attempted to mount it however ubuntu did not mount it because it read as "zfs member"
5.) After searching for a bit on how to get zfs to mount on ubuntu I came across a video on youtube with someone showing how to get zfs to work on ubuntu
6.) Followed him step by step and the drive mounted
7.) Problem is, after looking back through his steps what it did was create a new zfs pool and after checking the size data it was showing 0% used out of the 2.73TB. *Proceeded to use profane language at my computer screen*
8.) I was in denial for a minute so I dropped back the drive into the computer with freenas on it and loaded it up. Sure enough, "auto import volume" recognized it however it recognized it as that zpool that was made on that ubuntu live cd
9.) I made a share of that loaded pool and checked the cifs share, shure enough, the drive is empty

So I'll just take it as a loss. Guess my utorrent is gonna be working overtime for the next few months making up for this mistake. I'm honestly thinking of pulling the rest of my files out of the zfs volume of the other drive considering that all it took was a simple dismount of a drive to render it useless. Also considering the fact that there is no real solid method for data recovery on zfs, it would leave a dark cloud of worry knowing that if something were to go wrong with the drive, configurations, or the usb stick holding freenas then I might be in trouble all over again. I guess It would have made sense if I did have a major setup with lots of redundancies and an enterprise like build, i'd have not much to worry about. Even though zfs has a lot of features, I simply can't rely much on how safe I am using it. I may just have to revert back to NTFS volumes or hop on the dark side(WHS2011)

 

[cyberjock]

Sorry for your loss. What may have happened is you actually lost your data when you did the wipe. The fact that Ubuntu didn't like it kind of tells me that you didn't have a success path. I don't think ZFS is to blame for your situation, I think it was your wipe. :(

I have seen plenty of corruption on NTFS. NTFS was never intended to be TBs in capacity and doesn't handle it very well at all. Microsoft intended to replace NTFS in 2001 and never did. Things are getting really ugly for NTFS with 10TB+ servers, which is why Server 2012 has their new file system. After losing alot of data to file system corrupt(possibly bitrot) I'll never leave ZFS again. People don't take bitrot seriously, but its becoming a bigger problem with each increase in drive size. It is probably the best file system out there with regards to reliability, with some restrictions, naturally.

 

[paleoN]

Ok ya'll...bad news; the data's gone.

That sucks.

I'm honestly thinking of pulling the rest of my files out of the zfs volume of the other drive considering that all it took was a simple dismount of a drive to render it useless.

By your own admission it was far more than a simple dismount. Redundant ZFS pools would have helped in this instance. Storage is cheap, data is not.

 

[v33]

Sorry for your loss. What may have happened is you actually lost your data when you did the wipe. The fact that Ubuntu didn't like it kind of tells me that you didn't have a success path. I don't think ZFS is to blame for your situation, I think it was your wipe. :(

I have seen plenty of corruption on NTFS. NTFS was never intended to be TBs in capacity and doesn't handle it very well at all. Microsoft intended to replace NTFS in 2001 and never did. Things are getting really ugly for NTFS with 10TB+ servers, which is why Server 2012 has their new file system. After losing alot of data to file system corrupt(possibly bitrot) I'll never leave ZFS again. People don't take bitrot seriously, but its becoming a bigger problem with each increase in drive size. It is probably the best file system out there with regards to reliability, with some restrictions, naturally.

Forgive my frustration. I was going to zfs because I was looking to get involved with what will be better than what's the current norm but in that process I lost my data anyways. Kind of unsure of what route to take next really. You're probably right that the data got lost during that wipe but it still makes no sense to me that FreeNAS would ask to dismount drive 2 in order to wipe drive 3. And after that seeing that drive two is the drive it wiped. I know I did not select the option to wipe drive 2 after the dismount but the data cot corrupted anyways. The question of "what will I do if something goes wrong" is something I always ask when I try out anything technology wise but I kind of took a shot in the dark when it came to FreeNAS because it had the features I needed without being to demanding like a Windows Home Server OS. And not that data has been lost though theoretically taking the right steps, I'm skeptical as to what will be the best next move

 

[cyberjock]

Forgive my frustration. I was going to zfs because I was looking to get involved with what will be better than what's the current norm but in that process I lost my data anyways. Kind of unsure of what route to take next really. You're probably right that the data got lost during that wipe but it still makes no sense to me that FreeNAS would ask to dismount drive 2 in order to wipe drive 3. And after that seeing that drive two is the drive it wiped. I know I did not select the option to wipe drive 2 after the dismount but the data cot corrupted anyways. The question of "what will I do if something goes wrong" is something I always ask when I try out anything technology wise but I kind of took a shot in the dark when it came to FreeNAS because it had the features I needed without being to demanding like a Windows Home Server OS. And not that data has been lost though theoretically taking the right steps, I'm skeptical as to what will be the best next move

There are lots of "if..then" for data. ZFS is pretty robust when working. If using redundancy, regular scrubs and review of SMART parameters, and snapshots you can get some amazingly reliable disk space. There are serious drawbacks when things go wrong: Too many people not familiar with ZFS but trying commands they don't understand, tweaking things that remove reliability for the sake of performance without realizing their mistake, lack of "data recovery" tools, and the ever glaring "no backups" issue all come to mind.

For me, if I had only 1 copy of my data with no backups I'd go with ZFS far before I consider anything else. But, it's a matter of doing your homework and really understanding what you are doing before you do it. Experiment in a VM, ask questions in the forum/IRC, etc. I've seen alot of data go bye-bye under NTFS for no reason that I could see. Nothing was wrong, but NTFS just went bad. ZFS doesn't just "go bad"...there's lots of checksums, redundancy, etc.

Be a smart administrator and you have an amazingly reliable and protected file server with ZFS. Be a poor administrator and have a file server that will eventually eat your data and you'll learn the lesson the hard way. ZFS isn't for those amateurs that think they can do 2 hours of reading and be ready for ZFS. I'd say you'd really have to dedicate yourself to learning ZFS/FreeNAS for 2-3 weeks before you really have a good grasp of what to do(and what not to do) if you've never done anything besides Windows Server.

Windows Server is, in my opinion, less reliable but more forgiving of screw-ups by the admin. While ZFS is far more reliable but far less forgiving of screw-ups by the admin. It's just a matter of what you want the weakest link to be- you or the file system. I refuse to let myself be the weakest link in the chain, hence I've spent a great deal of time learning ZFS.