Fastest way to backup data from a FREENAS server so

[Storms]

I have the following setup:
3 x 2TB drives
12 GB Ram
ZFS pool RAIDZ1
Freenas 9.1

I'm planning a backup of the data because I want to upgrade my system to use RAIDZ2, so i'm planning the new system will have 6 x 2TB drives (reuse the 3 that i already have and add 3 more)

So whats the fastest way to backup my 4TB data??? pulling it across over an ethernet cable is going to be slow and then I have to send it back again when the new machine is built. I'm wondering if there's a way to hook up other drives directly to the NAS and transfer data; e.g. i have a 500GB drive lying around.... can I install it into my NAS box and transfer 500 GB worth of data across to it and then pull it out??

Or is there a way i can upgrade to the new system without having to format my current drives?? i.e. so that n the end i just have one big RAIDz2 system with one vdev

Having 2 NAS boxes is not practical for me (too expensive and not required) so that's not an option

Thanks

 

[pirateghost]

hook the 500gb up
create a volume on it
drop to command line and rsync your data to it

 

[Storms]

thanks for that pirateghost, i have a follow up question though...

the motherboard i'm using only has 6 SATA ports, so when I upgrade I'll be using all 6 ports for my one large volume

So in this situation could i put my backup drive into another machine (e.g. another linux machine)? and then just transfer over ethernet??

Or would I have to temporarily create a freenas on another machine to be able to read the backup drive.

Thanks in advance

 

[pirateghost]

if thats the case, then you should do the initial backup over ethernet also. a zfs/ufs drive will work best with a bsd, but with some work you could get it readable under linux.

i would probably just stick the drive into a linux machine, use rsync to pull all the files from the FreeNAS and when the new one is in place, rsync everything back