Detailed Disk Replacement (no hot-swap, no additional disk bays/ports)

[ChristianGrebe]

Hi,

maybe a dumb question, but I could not find an exact answer to my problem.

I would like to replace a SATA disk in my system (see signature). My system has no hot-swap capability and no free disk bays or ports.

Is the suggested procedure as follows?:

1. Offline the old disk to be replaced.
2. Optional shut down the system if no hot-swap capability?
3. Physically remove the old disk.
4. Physically install the new disk on the same SATA port as the old disk.
5. Optional turn on the system?
6. Replace old disk with new one in Pool Status.

The documentation does not state if you can shut down the system after putting the old disk offline. Since my system does not have any free SATA ports I would replace the old disk at say ada0 with a new disk at ada0, which sounds kind of odd.

Regards,

Christian

 

[winnielinnie]

Since my system does not have any free SATA ports I would replace the old disk at say ada0 with a new disk at ada0, which sounds kind of odd.

The GUI, for some reason of which I have yet to fully understand, presents the "shorthand" device names e.g, (ada0, ada1, ada2, sda, sdb, sdc, etc.).

If you bypass the GUI, you'll see that underneath ZFS is using more unique identifiers, which are not prone to overlapping names. (Such as the GPTID). (When you use the GUI to create pools, it actually invokes the GPTID, even though you don't see this in the forefront.) So yes, when you go to replace the missing drive with the new one, it will show you "ada0", even if it's really adding "gptid/XYZABC123456".

You can see this for yourself by issuing zpool status poolname

Notice it doesn't show you ada0, ada1, ada2, etc?

My hunch is that TrueNAS presents the shorthand names (only in the GUI) because it's easier to read? (That's a question for iXsystems.)

Optional turn on the system?

I don't believe you need to do this? I think the TrueNAS GUI still works without any power to the system. I'm accessing my SMB shares as we speak, and my TrueNAS server isn't even plugged into the wall for the past month.)

 

[ChristianGrebe]

Thank you for the explanation. I could have guessed it is more elaborate under the hood/GUI.

I don't believe you need to do this? I think the TrueNAS GUI still works without any power to the system. I'm accessing my SMB shares as we speak, and my TrueNAS server isn't even plugged into the wall for the past month.)

I think I do not have to open my system. I just put the new disk on top of the case and TrueNAS will replace it all by it's own