Changing Pool Configuration

[wizengamot]

Hey FreeNAS experts, I have what I hope to be a simple question. I did do a google search prior to asking it here but found nothing other than a similar post here but not my scenario. I am changing my pool configuration so that rather than having two sets of four drives in z1 configuration (where each set is n-1 for storage) I am going to one set of 8 drives in z1 configuration. All the drives in the configuration are brand new NAS drives. Of course, to do this I need to get all my data off the volume. My google search was "how to remove partitions from usb drive FreeNAS" and I got nothing useful.

What I want to do is to attach two brand new 8TB each USB 3 drives to the NAS computer, mount them, format them with a filesystem that FreeNAS enjoys using (aka NOT NTFS) but I am not 100% sure which fs to use or how. They will likely reach the FreeNAS system already formatted for NTFS but the only data on them will be whatever seagate ships on them and can be erased. Essentially I am looking for two man pages, one that describes how to remove partitions from existing NTFS drives and to add a new ready to format partition and one describing how to format them in a format agreeable to FreeNAS.

My overall goal is to copy data from the volume already on my FreeNAS onto these drives. I don't need step by step but would appreciate any information gotchas that could destroy my data. The drives I am partitioning are 8TB and all the other drives in the system are 4TB or less each so it should be easy to differentiate the drive when partitioning.

However, if a method exists to perform this operation on a windows machine and just connect these drives already formatted for FreeNAS to the nas box I would use that method over using the CLI on the FreeNAS box itself.

 

[Ericloewe]

You're looking at it the wrong way. Metaphorically, you're trying to figure out how to assemble a car that will take you somewhere, instead of grabbing your own car.

Connect the disks to the server, create a new pool on them and move your stuff over. Replication to localhost is your best option (zfs send | zfs recv if you're comfortable with the CLI, both under man zfs).

 

[Chris Moore]

My two cents, each USB drive should be a separate pool. Don't rely on USB to maintain a mirror and definitely not a stripe.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[Ericloewe]

Don't rely on USB to maintain a mirror

A mirror is fine. The worst that can happen is that ZFS makes the best out of the wonky connection.

and definitely not a stripe.

100% agree.

 

[Stux]

And an 8-way RaidZ1 seems like a less than optimal idea.

I’d go with 8-way RaidZ2.

Re filesystem that FreeNAS likes. Use ZFS.

 

[danb35]

Connect the disks to the server, create a new pool on them

...and just in case it isn't clear from this, @wizengamot, you should be able to create the pool through the GUI. No CLI work should be required to do this.

 

[wizengamot]

Many thanks to everyone who took the time to reply. So what I am assimilating from all of this is that
1. When I connect the disks via USB they will show up as a disk in the disks tab of FreeNAS.
2. I then create a single disk pool using each USB drive (not a mirror as it is temporary and I need space not redundancy in this scenario)
3. The above will give me 16 TB of space and that is ALMOST what I need. I can that start the new pool (4 x 2TB x RZ1 + 4 x 1.5TB x RZ1) put the remaining data on the new pool, destroy the old pool that is now empty, and put the new NAS drives in my 8 x 4TB x RZ1 configuration.
4. Then use zfs send/zfs recv to copy the data from one pool to another (or maybe I could also use rsync which I have used before)
5. Once my config is changed and the data is back on the main pool, I would then use the USB drives in a mirror config to add 8TB of space to my array.

I know that Stux said here that they would use Z2 config for that many drives and while I do understand the urge to use Z2 config with 8 drives, that config will achieve a total space of n-2 for space and I am currently using 2 arrays of 4 drives and each is z1 (n-1). Thus, I would not really be gaining any additional storage space with the n-2 configuration and my goal is to gain additional space.

The main reason for doing this is that FreeNAS keeps on yelling at me when I get 80% plus utilization of my array, so I am trying to get more space out of what I currently have in drives and rather than trust old drives in a 8 drive z1 config, I would rather trust brand new NAS drives in a 8 drive Z1 config and have the old drives in a z2 array (assuming I can scrounge a total of 8 old 4tb drives.

I have so much data that right now I am at 93% utilization of 32TB RAW space and I am only about half done creating my array. (still waiting for parts from China, another M1015 card and some cables to connect drives and deploy a second PSU to power some additional Chenbro 4 bay drive bays) My final config will be 24 drives in Chenbro bays connected via 16 M1015 ports and 8 internal ports and 2 USB 3 drives 8TB each in mirror all mounted in a wood case I built myself.

If anyone out there is planning to use Chenbro 4 bay drive bays I have found a way to silence the bays. If you use them in a chenbro case, they don't squeal their alarm, but outside of a chenbro case when they power on they squeal and I found a way around that. You need to attach an old reset switch to some pins. If there is interest, I'll post on how to do this.

 

[Stux]

If there is interest, I'll post on how to do this.

Think you should just post it :)

(Everything interests me anyway ;))

 

[Chris Moore]

and put the new NAS drives in my 8 x 4TB x RZ1 configuration.

It is still a bad idea to use RAIDz1 with any drive larger than 1TB. It isn't about the number of drives, it is about the capacity of the individual drive.

Once my config is changed and the data is back on the main pool, I would then use the USB drives in a mirror config to add 8TB of space to my array.

You should not join a RAIDz1 vdev and a mirror vdev into a single pool. It is a particularly bad idea. Especially if you are still connected by USB. Once you add a vdev to a pool, you can't take it out again without destroying the entire pool.

I know that Stux said here that they would use Z2 config for that many drives and while I do understand the urge to use Z2 config with 8 drives, that config will achieve a total space of n-2 for space and I am currently using 2 arrays of 4 drives and each is z1 (n-1). Thus, I would not really be gaining any additional storage space with the n-2 configuration and my goal is to gain additional space.

You should never have used RAIDz1 with drives of that capacity and the upgrade path is to add more drives or change to larger capacity drives. Reducing redundancy is a bad idea.

I would rather trust brand new NAS drives

You don't have to worry so much about "trust" if you use RAIDz2.

I have so much data that right now I am at 93% utilization of 32TB RAW space and I am only about half done creating my array. (still waiting for parts from China, another M1015 card and some cables to connect drives and deploy a second PSU to power some additional Chenbro 4 bay drive bays) My final config will be 24 drives in Chenbro bays connected via 16 M1015 ports and 8 internal ports and 2 USB 3 drives 8TB each in mirror all mounted in a wood case I built myself.

You should really consider getting a real server chassis with a SAS expander backplane and all your drives could be run by a single SAS controller.

You should probably read some of the resources on these concepts:

Slideshow explaining VDev, zpool, ZIL and L2ARC
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

Terminology and Abbreviations Primer
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/terminology-and-abbreviations-primer.28174/