going from raid z1 to z2

[louielips3]

When I initially built my first Freenas server I threw some old hardware together and put in 3 drives using Raid-Z1. After lurking on this forum for quite some time I finally went with a Xeon/ECC setup and now want to switch to raidZ2. I am looking to go to a 6 drive Z2 setup. Below is my thought process for the steps to copy my data over

1. Create a snapshot of all my data (datasets including jails) and replicate it to one of the new drives (1 drive has enough space to hold all the data)
2. Delete the 3 drive Z1 and create a 5 drive Z2
3. Restore the snapshot the the 5 drive Z2
4. Add the 6th drive to the 5 drive pool to create a 6 drive raid Z2 setup

Now to the questions:

Can I even do this? If I can, can this be done via the GUI or would I have to use command line? Not really sure if I need to recreate my datasets or will the snapshot that I replicated take care of that?

If I can't is there any alternative than to just copy the data to an external drive and starting from scratch and then just copying the data back? My main goal was to restore my jails, especially Plex. My wife uses it and would not be happy if I had to start over and all her shows came up as unwatched.

 

[Ericloewe]

Steps 1-3 are possible. Step 4 is not, unfortunately.

 

[louielips3]

What if I plugged in an external harddrive and send the replication snapshot there and then I can build the 6 drive pool and restore the snapshot?

Do I need to recreate any of the datasets or jails or will restoring the snapshot handle that?

 

[danb35]

Replication, if done correctly, will recreate all the datasets and jails. If you name your new pool the same as the old pool, you won't even need to change anything in the configuration.

 

[toadman]

Yes, if the snapshot is *recursive* it should work as designed. i.e. snapshot the pool recursively. replicate snapshot to pool on external drive. build new 6 drive pool. replicate from external drive to 6 drive pool.