Migrating HDD and Bootdrive data

[Grinas]

when i first installed FreeNas it didnt really matter to me where anything was as i was going to reset up every thing after i got use to it.
Plan changed and before i knew it i was after backing up a lot of stuff on striped VDevs.

I have a 3TB drive with a few jails installed on it. I want to move the jails to an SSD and use the 3TB along with another to create another pool to transfer over all the data i have on a striped VDev.

How do i made the SSD the default location for Jails to be installed in future? I change Sytem>System Dataset to the SSD and created another jail but it still created it on the 3Tb drive.



Also regarding my boot drive. Im waiting for 2 usb drives to arrive. what is the best way to copy my currrent configuration to these when configured as mirrored? Do i just reinstall Freenas from the Installation disk while selecting the 2 new drives and copy over my config file that i backed up in System>General>Save Config??

Thanks for any help

 

[melloa]

How do i made the SSD the default location for Jails to be installed in future?

You will probably need to move your jail root (Jails -> Configuration). You will need to create the new dataset on your ssd first. Just becareful as the old jails my stop working - not sure do some research or wait for feedback from the forum to confirm.

what is the best way to copy my currrent configuration to these when configured as mirrored?

You can mirror the current boot drive. Going to system -> boot -> status. Do a search on the forum as there are several posts about this.

Also as per forum rules, please post your server hardware information and configuration.

 

[Grinas]

I went home yesterday and had a powercut. Now the freenas wont boot.

I guess i will have to start from scratch again. What are the chances, the USB drives just arrived again.

 

[melloa]

Try to get an UPS to protect your server. It might be expensive, but it pays off in cases like this.

Maybe the data on your disks are OK, so install a fresh copy and try to import the volume (data -> import volume). Also if you are up to some extra steps, you can try to get BSD on another box and see if you can read the old USB to salvage the config with your configuration. It should be the file: /data/freenas-v1.db

 

[Grinas]

Thats the first power outage i had in years. Not really worried about it happening again so no need really for me to get a UPS. If i had a backup of my config i wouldnt be in this situation

Thanks I will try that on a BSD vm. Im not too worried about the data it was all backup.

Probably a good thing the power outage happened as it will make me set up the vDevs correctly this time and not rush it like the last time.

 

[gpsguy]

Just do what you were planning to do before the power failure.

Reinstall FreeNAS onto the pair of flash drives, skip the configuration wizard, and restore your configuration file. Reboot and you should be back in business.

Do i just reinstall Freenas from the Installation disk while selecting the 2 new drives and copy over my config file that i backed up in System>General>Save Config??

 

[Evertb1]

Thats the first power outage i had in years. Not really worried about it happening again so no need really for me to get a UPS. If i had a backup of my config i wouldnt be in this situation

Thanks I will try that on a BSD vm. Im not too worried about the data it was all backup.

Probably a good thing the power outage happened as it will make me set up the vDevs correctly this time and not rush it like the last time.

A UPS is not only useful with power outage. A couple of months ago the alarm of my APC smart UPS sounded. Strange, because there was no power outage. My first reaction was s...t, the UPS is in error. I brought my Freenas box down and performed a reset on the UPS. And everything was OK. I started the Freenas box up again and there was the UPS alarm again. To make a long story short: the power supply of my Freenas box was shot. I did not even know that the UPS could detect that. Must be somewhere in the manual and one day I will read it more carefully :)

 

[Grinas]

A UPS is not only useful with power outage. A couple of months ago the alarm of my APC smart UPS sounded. Strange, because there was no power outage. My first reaction was s...t, the UPS is in error. I brought my Freenas box down and performed a reset on the UPS. And everything was OK. I started the Freenas box up again and there was the UPS alarm again. To make a long story short: the power supply of my Freenas box was shot. I did not even know that the UPS could detect that. Must be somewhere in the manual and one day I will read it more carefully :)

Never knew they could do that.

We have a few APC UPS at work not sure what models, they dont seem to have that feature as im replacing PSU the odd time and never get any warning about them going.

Try to get an UPS to protect your server. It might be expensive, but it pays off in cases like this.

Maybe the data on your disks are OK, so install a fresh copy and try to import the volume (data -> import volume). Also if you are up to some extra steps, you can try to get BSD on another box and see if you can read the old USB to salvage the config with your configuration. It should be the file: /data/freenas-v1.db

reinstalled freenas on mirrored usb's. didnt take me long to reconfigure it lucky enough. Just waiting for the data to transfer off a HDD so i can configure a vDev with it. 16 hours to go.

Thanks for the Help.

 

[Ericloewe]

The best they can do (and what they have to do) is detect short-circuits, which are unusual faults on good PSUs.

 

[Arwen]

Let's be clear, UPS are great for increased reliability and short term power outages.

But, ZFS was specifically designed to handle un-intended power losses gracefully.
Meaning, ZFS won't loose any existing data on power loss, only new data in flight.

So, in the case of the original poster, the failure was likely hardware, like the USB
drive(s).

 

[Evertb1]

The best they can do (and what they have to do) is detect short-circuits, which are unusual faults on good PSUs.

I agree. Still it was a surprising event. Especialy because the PSU was still keeping the server alive. And the PSU was of a good brand (Antec) and a decent model (EarthWatts Platinum 550). Not the best of its class but nothing to sneeze at either. Anyway I tested it in another (old) rig because I have no measuring equipment. The voltages were all over the place. I would expect that the UPS would give an alarm if something was going wrong in the primary stage of the circuit. But it was still functioning somehow/somewhat. I suspect that the problem was somewhere in the low voltage circuitry. But I am nothing close to a technician so I am just guessing.

 

[Evertb1]

Let's be clear, UPS are great for increased reliability and short term power outages.

But, ZFS was specifically designed to handle un-intended power losses gracefully.
Meaning, ZFS won't loose any existing data on power loss, only new data in flight.

So, in the case of the original poster, the failure was likely hardware, like the USB
drive(s).

Keeping you (expensive) hardware protected against spikes etc. is a nice extra function of a UPS. And who knows what was happening prior to that power loss?

 

[Arwen]

Keeping you (expensive) hardware protected against spikes etc. is a nice extra function of a UPS. And who knows what was happening prior to that power loss?

Yes, thank you for the reminder.

In my case, I use high power rated ISOBar surge protectors for all my equipment. Even my UPSes are plugged into one.