_Shin_
Dabbler
- Joined
- Aug 2, 2014
- Messages
- 25
Guys, please help. I think I'm going crazy. I've been reading for days and I still can't find the solution to my problem.
(please move if it's in the wrong forum section)
♥ ♥ ♥ I'd very much appreciate any help of pointers you could give me ♥ ♥ ♥
Preface:
I own the following build I made back in 2014.
MoBo: SuperMicro X10SLL-F (http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C220/X10SLL-F.cfm)
CPU: Xeon E3-1220 V3
RAM: 4x8GB (32GB tot) Crucial DDR3 PC3-12800 Unbuffered ECC 1.35V
PSU: Corsair HX 750 80+ plat
Case: Fractal Designs Define r4
HDDs: 6 x 4TB Seagate ST4000VN000 on ZFS2 with two disk for parity.
I'm running various things on it:
- home LAN CIFS shares for archiving and manual backups
- severals jails for media download and streaming (radarr/sonarr/transmission/plex)
- a virtualbox jail with a couple of guest systems (a centos dev webserver, a ubuntu installation for zoneminder, and a windows box for a dumb company management software)
- a jail for owncloud (personal use)
The system still seems to be bearing the load so that is not the problem. (usually there aren't more than three concurrent users).
So here are my problems:
1) a disk has some reallocated sectors and I know I must replace it before it gets too late
I have already bought the replacement disk but...... the ZFS pool is encrypted and, before doing anything I know I must run a backup of the most sensitive data (about 5 TB)
addendum: said disk was flagged in the alert system (orange light) but it's a couple of weeks the warning has disappeared!
2) I found out that the system isn't performing any scrubs since 2015, even if they were scheduled. And I am afraid to launch one now without having a proper cold backup
3) on top of this, this box still runs the FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201506292332 version. I never upgraded because everything was working fine, and I was (still am) afraid of wasting a lot of time rebuilding everything and finding a replacement for virtualbox (AFAIK not available in the recent version). (I know it's bad, most of all for safety reasons, so plz don't hate me)
4) I'm running out of free space. I'm at 80% storage capacity and I know that sooner or later I'll have to upgrade (I'm kind of a data hoarder)
So, until now I had the following ideas:
IDEA N.1
- buy a cheap external 8TB drive, and backup the data
- launch a scrub, pray the box doesn't catch fire
- replace the faulty drive
- upgrade to the latest 11.2 version
- buy a SAS2 expander, 6x8TB disks, 3x 4drive cages
- probably move all the hardware to another case (resurrect an old CM stacker from the 2000's (what a beast))
- create a new 6x8TB RAIDZ2 pool
- move the data to the new pool
- use the old pool as backup on the same machine (somehow)
PROS:
- cheaper because I get to keep the current motherboard, CPU, RAM
CONS:
- a lot of work involved
- countless ways to screw everything up
- all 12 disks in the same physical place
IDEA N.2
- build a new mid/high end rig with 6x8TB RAIDZ2 pool
- move the data from the old freenas
- use the old freenas as a backup server
PROS:
- easier
- two separate data locations
CONS:
- more expensive
- I believe the old motherboard, CPU and RAM are wasted for a freenas meant only for backup
IDEA N.3
- build a cheap freenas build with 6x8TB RAIDZ2 pool, only for backup purpose
- move the data from the old freenas box to the new cheap one
- switch the disks between the machines, so I get to keep the 6x4TB backup pool on the new cheap box, and the larger 6x8TB on the old, but more powerful one
PROS:
- easier (perhaps!)
- still quite cheap
- two separate data locations
CONS:
- I have no idea if it is doable!!
So...... first of all thank for you time, if you made it until here.
What are your thoughts? Should I go for option 1, 2 or 3?
Do you have some better ideas?
Thank you for your help!
(please move if it's in the wrong forum section)
♥ ♥ ♥ I'd very much appreciate any help of pointers you could give me ♥ ♥ ♥
Preface:
I own the following build I made back in 2014.
MoBo: SuperMicro X10SLL-F (http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C220/X10SLL-F.cfm)
CPU: Xeon E3-1220 V3
RAM: 4x8GB (32GB tot) Crucial DDR3 PC3-12800 Unbuffered ECC 1.35V
PSU: Corsair HX 750 80+ plat
Case: Fractal Designs Define r4
HDDs: 6 x 4TB Seagate ST4000VN000 on ZFS2 with two disk for parity.
I'm running various things on it:
- home LAN CIFS shares for archiving and manual backups
- severals jails for media download and streaming (radarr/sonarr/transmission/plex)
- a virtualbox jail with a couple of guest systems (a centos dev webserver, a ubuntu installation for zoneminder, and a windows box for a dumb company management software)
- a jail for owncloud (personal use)
The system still seems to be bearing the load so that is not the problem. (usually there aren't more than three concurrent users).
So here are my problems:
1) a disk has some reallocated sectors and I know I must replace it before it gets too late
I have already bought the replacement disk but...... the ZFS pool is encrypted and, before doing anything I know I must run a backup of the most sensitive data (about 5 TB)
addendum: said disk was flagged in the alert system (orange light) but it's a couple of weeks the warning has disappeared!
2) I found out that the system isn't performing any scrubs since 2015, even if they were scheduled. And I am afraid to launch one now without having a proper cold backup
3) on top of this, this box still runs the FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201506292332 version. I never upgraded because everything was working fine, and I was (still am) afraid of wasting a lot of time rebuilding everything and finding a replacement for virtualbox (AFAIK not available in the recent version). (I know it's bad, most of all for safety reasons, so plz don't hate me)
4) I'm running out of free space. I'm at 80% storage capacity and I know that sooner or later I'll have to upgrade (I'm kind of a data hoarder)
So, until now I had the following ideas:
IDEA N.1
- buy a cheap external 8TB drive, and backup the data
- launch a scrub, pray the box doesn't catch fire
- replace the faulty drive
- upgrade to the latest 11.2 version
- buy a SAS2 expander, 6x8TB disks, 3x 4drive cages
- probably move all the hardware to another case (resurrect an old CM stacker from the 2000's (what a beast))
- create a new 6x8TB RAIDZ2 pool
- move the data to the new pool
- use the old pool as backup on the same machine (somehow)
PROS:
- cheaper because I get to keep the current motherboard, CPU, RAM
CONS:
- a lot of work involved
- countless ways to screw everything up
- all 12 disks in the same physical place
IDEA N.2
- build a new mid/high end rig with 6x8TB RAIDZ2 pool
- move the data from the old freenas
- use the old freenas as a backup server
PROS:
- easier
- two separate data locations
CONS:
- more expensive
- I believe the old motherboard, CPU and RAM are wasted for a freenas meant only for backup
IDEA N.3
- build a cheap freenas build with 6x8TB RAIDZ2 pool, only for backup purpose
- move the data from the old freenas box to the new cheap one
- switch the disks between the machines, so I get to keep the 6x4TB backup pool on the new cheap box, and the larger 6x8TB on the old, but more powerful one
PROS:
- easier (perhaps!)
- still quite cheap
- two separate data locations
CONS:
- I have no idea if it is doable!!
So...... first of all thank for you time, if you made it until here.
What are your thoughts? Should I go for option 1, 2 or 3?
Do you have some better ideas?
Thank you for your help!
Last edited:
