FreeNAS NTFS to Z.... FreeNAS virgin

[BrutalRage]

Evening,

So like the nice title says, I am a freenas virgin and reading up on loads off stuff.

Let me explain my problem.
I have a nas running on windows 10 with 6 drives of 2 tb inside.
Now I like to make my nas a freenas with the different disk partition thingy ZFS.
The problem is all my 6 drives are full (with movies). Today I ordered a 8 tb hdd.
Now the solution I have been thinking of is entering the 8tb in the nas running freenas (on a 16gig usb) and formatting the 8tb to zfs.
If I understand correctly i can then import the NTFS disk and thus transferring the data from the 2 tb to the 8. Then when the data is safe format the 2tb to zfs adding it to the pool.
Now seeing that I am a compleet freenas virgin is this possible? or do I have to think of an other way of holding on to my data and making my disks ZFS.
Sorry for my bad English my native language is Dutch.
The solution is probably on the internet but a helping hand would be welcome.
Thanks in advance,

Guido

 

[depasseg]

Are the 6 windows disk configured as individual disks? Or one large windows disk? If they are individual, then you could import into freenas, but if it's one large disk, then I doubt that it's possible.

Are you FreeNAS and windows servers different? If so, I would install the 8TB drive in it, create a share and copy the files from windows over the network (use robocopy or something similar). Then once you are certain that your data is safe on the 8TB disk, move the 6 disks to FreeNAS, format them as ZFS and replicate the data from teh 8TB to the new zpool (6x2TB disks).

 

[BrutalRage]

Hi thanks for the reply. No they are individual disks and partitions. The Windows nas is going to be the freenas. So I should first insert the 8 tb then copy to disk. Then format disks and make 4 z3. Then copy the files back to the 4. Correct? Can I then add the 8 tb to that pool? Thanks for your help
Guido

 

[Stux]

you need more disks if you want redundancy. And you do.

Either some more 2+ TB disks

Are you using any redundancy currently? If not you have 12TB of data, which won't fit on your 8TB disk.

If you had 6 drives (which you do) and you could backup the 12TB, which you can't, then you would probably want to use 6 disks in raidz2. That would get you 4x2 TB of capacity. Ie 8TB.

But you need 12. Which means adding some more disks.

...

Unless your disks aren't actually full ;)

 

[MrToddsFriends]

Can I then add the 8 tb to that pool?

Adding a single 8TB disk to a pool consisting of a RaidZ(1/2/3) vdev made out of your 2TB disks had to be done as a separate vdev without redundancy. This would be a bad idea, because your pool as a whole would have no redundancy at all afterwards.

https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

 

[BrutalRage]

Thanks for the reply's.

So I should: or cancel the 8tb or by more of them?

I can also first backup some date to the pc and redownload some of the data if that would make it more easy.
I run it on Windows 10 no redunancy currently.
What would you advice in this situation?
Thanks
Guido

 

[Stux]

How much data do you currently have? less than 8? 10, 11, 12TB?

The trick is you can't adjust the number of disks in a RaidZ vdev after its been made.

You do have a few approaches, but assuming that you want to use all your 2TB drives in a new RaidZ/Z2 vdev, then you will need to find a place to store all the data you want to copy to the new vdev which consists of the 2TB drives.

You have an 8TB drive. That's great... you can now store 8TB... but you still have potentially 4TB of data to either delete or find a place to keep.

...

I spent about 30 mins trying to work out the best approach you should take. It was an interesting puzzle.

BUT, its very complicated. I would suggest cancelling the 8TB order until you work out what you want to do, because I suspect it won't involve an 8TB drive.

 

[BrutalRage]

Thanks alot for the reply's.
Just canceled the 8tb.
Well think i have 11 tb worth of data. Was thinking to upload to cloud but that takes forever so thats not option.
Your right I want all the disk in the z2/z3.
So maybe the best thing is the buy 3x4tb. Kinda prefer 2x 8tb but that again is tricky with redunancy.
My nas is kinda full with 6 drives so thats the reason i wanted to put a big disks in it and then put 1 or 2 disk in my normal pc without cutting from my nas size.
I can spend a bit of cash but prefer not to waste the disk in cant put in my nas.
Thanks Guido

 

[Bidule0hm]

Ok, let's make things a bit clearer so we can offer better advices:

- how many drives do you have now and what are their sizes?
- how many SATA ports can you use?
- what quantity of data do you think you will have in 3 years?

 

[BrutalRage]

Ok il try to give all details.

Nas running on motherboard:
35-DQ6 (Socket 775) think 6 sata but maybe 8 (there are 2 purple sata on it not sure what it is) site says 8 Serial ATA 3Gb/s connectors
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2637#sp

Proc:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600

Ram:
Type DDR2
Grootte 4096 MBytes
Kanalen # Dual
DRAM Frequentie 400.0 MHZ

My Nas has 6 drives all 2 tb and they are as good as full. They are in NTFS.

Nas usage: Movies/series storage (kodi in living room and bedroom)

And ofcourse a main pc with about 2 tb free on it.
I am open to suggestions and I appreciate your help!

Thanks alot
Guido

 

[Stux]

Here's the problem. Assuming you want redundancy, and if you didn't, there's no point going with FreeNAS, because with a 6 way stripe of 2TB drives, you might as well just erase your data now.

So, assuming you want redundancy, then you want double redundancy, ie RaidZ2, see first point about erasing your data now.

So, assuming you want RaidZ2, then 6 2TB drives is going to get you 8TB of storage.

But actually you want at least 12TB, and actually you want more than that... because I assume your needs are going to grow.

Now, to grow a pool you need to upgrade each drive in a pool before it grows.

The easy option is to use mirrors... but then you lose half your pool to redundancy.

This means that your current 6 2TB drives will give you 6TB of storage... so you need another 2 6TB disks to get to 12, or 2 8TB disks to get to 14.

I assume you won't like that option.

Alternatively, you decide to buy 2 more 2TB drives and now you have 8, and in theory, you could then build an 8 way RAIDZ2 and have 12TB of storage... but you have NO WAY to get from where you are to there. And you'd still only have 12TB of storage.

Okay, what about you decide that where you want to go is 6 * 4TB, which will get you 16TB of storage.

Or perhaps 8 * 3TB which gets you potentially 18TB of storage...

Or perhaps 8 * 4TB, which gets you 24TB of storage... eventually.

If only you could buy 2 4TB drives now... and then use your 6 drives... to make an 8*2TB RAIDZ, then when you replace your other 2TB drives... you end up with the 24TB of storage.

So, you decide to buy 2 4TB drives (cheaper than 1 8TB drive probably) Now... and the idea is that you build a 8 way RAIDZ2 with the 2 4TB drives... and 6 2TB drives... but you won't see the extra storage until you replace all the drives.

And you still have no way to get all the content on to your drives! as you have no wiggle room...

So, you buy 2 4TB drives. And decide to dance.

... Lets Dance...

The goal is you want to end up with 4 x 2TB partitions.

Partition the 2 4TB drives into 8 partitions, and make an 8 way RAIDZ2.

That gives you 6 TB of storage.

Copy 6TB to the array.
Copy 2TB to your other computer

This frees up 4 2TB drives. and leaves 2 to copy.

Now, partition those drives into 1TB partitions.

Replace the 8 partitions on the 4TB drives one at a time with the partitions from the 2TB drives you partitioned.

Now you have two spare 4TB drives. and 2 2TB drives to copy.

partition the 4TB drives into 2TB partitions.

replace 4 of the 1TB partitions with the 2TB partitions from the 4TB disks.

Now you have 2 spare 2TB drives, and 2 to copy.

Replace 2 more slices with the 2TB disks.

Now you have a spare disk. and two more slices to replace.

Replace one of the remaining slices.

Offline the other. wipe the disk. replace it with itself.

Now you have 2 2TB partitions on a 4TB disk. and 6 2TB drives forming a 8 disk 2TB RAIDZ2. which gives you 12TB.

Copy the remaining two disks to the raid.

Now replace both of the partitions on a 4TB disk with the 2 spare 2TB disks.

Now you have a 4TB spare. replace one of the other 2TB partitions on a 4TB disk with the 4TB disk.

Now offline the other 2TB partition on the 4TB disk. Wipe the disk. Replace the partition with the 4TB disk.

Now you have an 8 disk RAIDZ2 consisting of 6 2TB disks and 2 4TB disks.

Which gives you 12TB.

You can copy your 2TB back from your PC now.

When you replace the 6 2TB disks with 4TB disks, you will jump to 24TB.

...

That is an awful lot of work to end up with 12TB of storage.

This is why 2TB disks are not so good these days.

It might just be better to buy a set of new disks and build a NAS to cover your future growth.

For example 8*4 = 24TB of actual storage.

You would then be able to copy your 12TB of date to your new pool directly (one disk at a time from your other PC)

AND you would have a set of 6 2TB disks, which you could use for backups.

 

[Stux]

An 8-way RAIDZ2 is a good goal. It gives decent performance, good redundancy, and you only have 25% parity loss.

If you wanted to continue growing the next step would be to get a bigger chassis, add an HBA, and add another 8 disks. No need to copy.

 

[danb35]

The hardware you have is not going to be at all suitable for FreeNAS. Even if you doubled the RAM to meet the bare minimum requirement of 8 GB, you'd still be dealing with a front-side bus, which will drastically reduce your performance. I'm not sure how prices are in .nl, but here in .us, you can get either a Dell PowerEdge T20 or a Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 for under US$300. Add a little RAM and your drives, and you're set with decent, suitable, server-grade hardware.

 

[Stux]

BTW, you NAS machine is underspecced.

You will need at least 8GB of RAM.

In your shoes, I'd seriously consider building a new NAS box, and then demoting the old one to a backup of that new NAS box.

 

[BrutalRage]

First of thanks alot. Seems you have spend some time thinking about this and typing this.

Damn I have to read that a couple of times to let it sink in.
but 8*4tb would set me back about 900 euro. I was kinda thinking of saving money cause I already have the 6*2tb and an old machine but boy was i wrong :(.
Also if I understand correctly then I also need more memory.... I can buy a whole lot of movies for 900 euro... hmmm hard descisissons.
Let me think about it for a second.
Thanks alot for the reply's!!.
Guido

 

[BrutalRage]

I already asked alot of you guys.... but do you have a suggestions what I should use if i make a new server? I kinda having fun with this freenas stuff and raid etc.
Thanks

 

[Stux]

32TB of disk costs what it does unfortunately.

As I said, it was an interesting puzzle.

The trick is that you don't have any spare disks. You have 12TB of content to copy to a NAS with no HDs in it.

 

[BrutalRage]

The hardware you have is not going to be at all suitable for FreeNAS. Even if you doubled the RAM to meet the bare minimum requirement of 8 GB, you'd still be dealing with a front-side bus, which will drastically reduce your performance. I'm not sure how prices are in .nl, but here in .us, you can get either a Dell PowerEdge T20 or a Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 for under US$300. Add a little RAM and your drives, and you're set with decent, suitable, server-grade hardware.

Dell Poweredge T20-3708 370 euro
Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 765 euro !!!

 

[Stux]

I already asked alot of you guys.... but do you have a suggestions what I should use if i make a new server? I kinda having fun with this freenas stuff and raid etc.
Thanks

A Supermicro Skylake motherboard (ie X11-SSM-F)
8x 4TB NAS drives (WD Red or Seagate NAS HD)
a stick or two of 16GB ECC DDR4 ram to suit (use 16GB sticks so you can go to 64GB one day)
A suitable Socket 2011 CPU which supports ECC (i3 or Xeon)
Fractal Node 804 chassis
2x Sandisk Cruiser Fit 16GB USB drives
and a suitable high quality PSU

Enjoy

 

[BrutalRage]

Thanks alot, Il check with its gonne set me back for.