FreeNAS migration plan. Does it make any sense?

[TheKiwi]

Right now I have a bit under 3TB of data on what I call my pile of random drives. I have built an awesome new FreeNAS server and [edit: want to] make a 6 drive RAIDZ2 using a brand new set of 6 3TB HDDs. But I can't afford all the new HDDs for a while, and I want to actually use my new FreeNAS server now. I have two of the brand new 3TB hard drives. So here's my plan.

1. Make a ZFS mirror using two of my new 3TB drives.
2. Move data to the mirror from my pile of random drives.
3. Wait until I get the rest of the drives.
4. Move the data from the mirror [back] to my pile of random drives.
5. Wipe the mirror.
6. Build the proper Z2 array with all 6 new drives.
7. Move the data back to the final Z2

As far as I can tell this should work perfectly fine.

 

[anodos]

Right now I have 3TB of data on what I call my pile of random drives. I have built an awesome new FreeNAS server and make a 6 drive RAIDZ2 using a brand new set of 6 3TB HDDs. But I can't afford all the new HDDs for a while, and I want to actually use my new FreeNAS server now. I have two of the brand new 3TB hard drives. So here's my plan.

1. Make a ZFS mirror using two of my new 3TB drives.
2. Move data to the mirror from my pile of random drives.
3. Wait until I get the rest of the drives.
4. Move the data from the mirror on to my pile of random drives.
5. Wipe the mirror.
6. Build the proper Z2 array with all 6 new drives.
7. Move the data back to the final Z2

As far as I can tell this should work perfectly fine.

Yup. Just be sure not to fill your mirror past 80%.

 

[TheKiwi]

Yup. Just be sure not to fill your mirror past 80%.

Awesome. I figure doing this also gives me a chance to get used to FreeNAS and try things out before I make my final array. I have one other question. If I make jails on the mirror (and I want to) can I export these jails as some form of standalone file in step 4 so I can bring them to my new RAIDZ2 in step 7?

 

[anodos]

Awesome. I figure doing this also gives me a chance to get used to FreeNAS and try things out before I make my final array. I have one other question. If I make jails on the mirror (and I want to) can I export these jails as some form of standalone file in step 4 so I can bring them to my new RAIDZ2 in step 7?

You should be able to use "warden export" and "warden import".