Help with NAS4FREE (Raid0/ZFS Striping)

[zikmir]

Hi:

Been using nas4free for a long time, i have two disks in Raid0 (or perhaps called ZFS dynamic striping). The nas4free OS was running of a usb drive and today the drive went to hell. Basically i lost my instillation. I don't have the configuration saved which i used to before and now i'm in water. Is there a simple way for me to mount these two disks together without loosing the data? I simply used to go to the "mount" menu, and click mount/unmount and the drives used to come back on when ever the power went out. This time though since it is a new instillation over a new liveusb i do not have the option to simply mount it.

I know i am using nas4free and NOT FreeNAS but i got no feedback from the other community forum, wondering if any one had a general idea of such recovery. I literally have data sitting next to me and not sure i can ever recover it.


Any simple steps i can do to mount them back?

Thanks

 

[kdragon75]

If you install FreeNAS it should mount your pool with little to no trouble at all.

 

[danb35]

Any simple steps i can do to mount them back?

If it's a ZFS pool, you should be able to install FreeNAS and import the pool that way. No idea if NAS4Free does anything funky with disk/pool configuration, though.

 

[kdragon75]

@zikmir You should also know that anyone that reads "i have two disks in Raid0" is going to cringe! That's a good way to kill all of your data!

 

[zikmir]

If it's a ZFS pool, you should be able to install FreeNAS and import the pool that way. No idea if NAS4Free does anything funky with disk/pool configuration, though.

Really!!???? I thought it would be impossible without the original configuration file! Because every time i lost power i needed to load the config file then mount the disks. I have never used FREENAS, i will try to set it up now, any tips on what i should do there or how automatic is automatic as you said?

And yes @kdragon75 i learnt my lesson, will buy a complete external disk to actually BACK up the data!

 

[danb35]

any tips on what i should do there

There's a lot of documentation available, including the manual. It's worth your time to read it.

And when you first log in to the web GUI, you're going to get a setup wizard. Cancel out of that. One of the things it will want to do is create a new pool, which you absolutely don't want to do. You can then go to Storage -> Import Volume, and should be able to bring in your pool that way.

FreeNAS isn't for everyone. It has substantial hardware requirements (minimum of 8 GB of RAM, ECC strongly recommended, etc.), and many of its users (at least those who are active here) are pretty pathological about integrity of their data. If this isn't a good match for your needs, there's nothing wrong with that, but better you figure that out sooner rather than later.

will buy a complete external disk to actually BACK up the data!

That's not the lesson he was indicating. If you value your data (which we tend to assume people do), you'd want a redundant pool configuration--mirrors or some sort of parity RAID.

 

[kdragon75]

i learnt my lesson, will buy a complete external disk to actually BACK up the data!

Depending on what you are running, you may consider moving to RAIDz1 or RAIDz2 setup AND backing up.

On that note, welcome to FreeNAS. Please take a moment and add you entire system configuration to your signature including model numbers so we can better help and tell you what to expect.

 

[zikmir]

There's a lot of documentation available, including the manual. It's worth your time to read it.

And when you first log in to the web GUI, you're going to get a setup wizard. Cancel out of that. One of the things it will want to do is create a new pool, which you absolutely don't want to do. You can then go to Storage -> Import Volume, and should be able to bring in your pool that way.

FreeNAS isn't for everyone. It has substantial hardware requirements (minimum of 8 GB of RAM, ECC strongly recommended, etc.), and many of its users (at least those who are active here) are pretty pathological about integrity of their data. If this isn't a good match for your needs, there's nothing wrong with that, but better you figure that out sooner rather than later.

That's not the lesson he was indicating. If you value your data (which we tend to assume people do), you'd want a redundant pool configuration--mirrors or some sort of parity RAID.

Okay! I will read every step and compare with the manual, any link to the documentation where i can start? Also i understand the idea i do not want to FORMAT or re-create pool. My specs are tri core amd cpu at 3 ghz with 16gb of ddr 3 ram. I only used raid 0 since i could access the disks are double speed over the network to stream movies for the family!

I am willing to donate $$ for the person who originally gave the idea i can use FreeNass and if they are willing to guide me if i get stuck. This data is all my families photos and pics along wiht our old clips we recoreded. Segate asked flat $2000 for recovery!

 

[danb35]

any link to the documentation where i can start?

The "User Guide" link at the top of the page (in the black bar across the top). Uncle Fester's guide (in my sig) is also pretty good, I think.

I won't take your money, but I also can't guarantee I can help you along the way--though from what you've said, I'd expect getting your pool online should be fairly straightforward, as long as both disks are still in good shape. For that matter, I'd be really surprised if it weren't pretty straightforward to do the same with NAS4Free, though I don't have any experience with that since iX bought the FreeNAS name and applied it to a completely different code base.

 

[zikmir]

The "User Guide" link at the top of the page (in the black bar across the top). Uncle Fester's guide (in my sig) is also pretty good, I think.

I won't take your money, but I also can't guarantee I can help you along the way--though from what you've said, I'd expect getting your pool online should be fairly straightforward, as long as both disks are still in good shape. For that matter, I'd be really surprised if it weren't pretty straightforward to do the same with NAS4Free, though I don't have any experience with that since iX bought the FreeNAS name and applied it to a completely different code base.

Just all done setting it up, though the import disk didnt quite work! It is showing both disks, how do i let it know its in a raid0 format? Or can it not detected it it self?

https://ibb.co/ehx6b8

 

[danb35]

though the import disk didnt quite work!

Use Import Volume, not Import Disk.

 

[zikmir]

Use Import Volume, not Import Disk.

https://ibb.co/jPnKUT

Seems empty! Doesn't list any volumes, is this the end of my hope? :/

 

[zikmir]

Use Import Volume, not Import Disk.

There is this Volume Manager! Not sure if you want me to mess around with it?

https://ibb.co/iRTR9T

 

[danb35]

You can paste images directly into your posts, or upload them to the post--there's no need to link to external hosting services, and doing so is discouraged.

It does seem empty, which it shouldn't be if both disks are attached and were in a ZFS pool. Go to the shell and run zpool status, zpool import, camcontrol devlist, and gpart show, and post the output.

DO NOT use the Volume manager; you'd create a new pool (formatting your disks and destroying your data) if you do so.

 

[zikmir]

You can paste images directly into your posts, or upload them to the post--there's no need to link to external hosting services, and doing so is discouraged.

It does seem empty, which it shouldn't be if both disks are attached and were in a ZFS pool. Go to the shell and run zpool status, zpool import, camcontrol devlist, and gpart show, and post the output.

DO NOT use the Volume manager; you'd create a new pool (formatting your disks and destroying your data) if you do so.

Here you go!

 

[danb35]

Here you go!

As far as that shows, your two disks have no partition table at all. That isn't a good sign.

 

[zikmir]

As far as that shows, your two disks have no partition table at all. That isn't a good sign.

Oh... So all lost?

 

[danb35]

All may not be lost, but I don't know a better way to proceed from within FreeNAS. There may be better options within NAS4Free, but I haven't used anything related to that in years.

 

[zikmir]

All may not be lost, but I don't know a better way to proceed from within FreeNAS. There may be better options within NAS4Free, but I haven't used anything related to that in years.

Oh well i truly appreciate your time and thoughts, if you have other ways, like removing the disks finding a way in windows to recover via software? Either way truly appreciate your help. If any one else can shed some ideas, welcome!

 

[danb35]

finding a way in windows to recover via software?

Windows doesn't read ZFS (it's the only major OS that doesn't), so if you did set those disks up as ZFS it's unlikely to help you. But other than that, I hope someone else can chime in.