Daily powering on and off, upgrade, and encrypt question.

[Kennee]

New Guy here.
I'm a photographer and was looking for a way to look over my archive images without unplug my external harddrive and pluging another one in.
To make a long story short. I use a older computer to run freeNAS. But cool thing about this computer case is it's a Cooler Master HAF Stacker 935 case that can hold up to 19 harddrive. Right now I have 4-10TB harddrive running in it now. 2-10tb drives stripe and other two 10TB mirror, with all data backup on external drives.
The plans is to add drives as I need them. So here are some questions I have.

1. I don't need my freeNAS computer running 24-7. So is it okay to turn it off daily?
2. Do I need to encrypt the drives? If yes, Can I do it with my data on that drive already.
3. And the last question. Can you add a drive to a strip drives without erasing all your data.

Computer hardware:
CPU: I5-4670K
Memory: 32GB
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87-D3HP
16 port sata controller card

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

Hi @Kennee welcome to the forums! I wrote some thoughts/replies below. Let me know if you have other questions.

1. I don't need my freeNAS computer running 24-7. So is it okay to turn it off daily?

You can turn it off, yes, but it will increase the wear and tear on your drives. The spin up/down cycle is part of what wears them out. Most folks opt to leave theirs on.

2. Do I need to encrypt the drives? If yes, Can I do it with my data on that drive already.

FreeNAS encryption protects data at rest. Meaning when the pool is exported or the system is off your data is protected. If you are not worried about that; then no need to use encryption.

3. And the last question. Can you add a drive to a strip drives without erasing all your data.

Yes, one way to increase the size of a pool is to add another vdev as a strip. Please not, a vdev is NOT a disk. Striping a vdev is not the same as striping a disk. Check out the User Guide for more details.

Right now I have 4-10TB harddrive running in it now. 2-10tb drives stripe and other two 10TB mirror, with all data backup on external drives.

What are your pools designed like? Could you copy-paste the output of zpool status here within code tags [code] code goes here [/code] and preserve the formatting? The reason I am asking is because it sounds like you have pools with single-drive vdevs as a strip. FreeNAS uses zfs and zfs stores data in pools. Pools are made of 1 or more vdev stripped together. Vdevs are made of disks. If any single vdev experiences a number of drive failures greater than the amount of parity; the vdev fails and thus the pool fails. So, those striped drives may be putting you at risk of losing your pool.

Also, be wary of USB backups. For one, the USB enclosures can be finicky and if they fail while you are recovering from backup you'll have lost everything. Many folks use them though; and if you're find with it, cool. I would suggest you consider storing them off-site. A fire, flood, etc would destroy them along with your primary pool and that would be a HUGE bummer.

 

[Kennee]

Thanks for the info and replying,
Sorry, but how do you do a zpool status. Also the my FreeNAS computer is at my studio and the backup is at my home. I bring a external hard drive to my studio to backup and to have if I work from home. I use a software call Goodsync to sync my drives. But open to any other way that better for syncing my drives.

 

[Basil Hendroff]

how do you do a zpool status

Hi @Kennee, you can do this from the FreeNAS shell. You will find the Shell in the LHS menu. To copy the output of the zpool status, highlight the text and then CTRL-INSERT. When pasting, remember to use code tags as @PhiloEpisteme has advised.

2. Do I need to encrypt the drives? If yes, Can I do it with my data on that drive already.

It really depends on your risk appetite. To help you answer this question, consider the following questions first.

1. Do I consider the FreeNAS server physically and logically secure (think about physical security, internet, etc.)?
2. Do I trust local network users?

If you answer YES to both these questions, then encryption may not be necessary. Encryption does add another dimension of complexity, which if you're not careful in setting it up and managing it through FreeNAS upgrades and rebuilds, can lock you out of your data permanently. Try searching 'encryption' on the forum to get a better sense of what might be involved.