No RAIDZ option appears when adding volume? 8.3.1

[osdpotf]

I have been searching for the answer to this for hours. When I origninaly Installed 8.3.1 I was able to see the Raidz option when adding a volume comprised of two disks. I recently removed one of the drives and deleted the volumes. I added a differe drive. I niw have three drives Installed and showing In the system under view disks. I have one 250GB drive and two 320GB drives. When I select both 320 drives under add volume only mirror and stripe appear as options when zfs Is selected. Same thing happens If I select all three drives.

I am self taught and a noob. Sorry If my question Is Ignorant

 

[cyberjock]

If you are doing what I think you are doing you should read my guide, then you will understand. You cannot add drives the way that you think. Link is in my signature.

If you aren't trying to add 2 disks to an already existing zpool, then you will need to clarify what you are trying to do. You may have to erase a disk that has previously been used in a zpool in the past before you can reuse it.

 

[osdpotf]

Well I don't know what happened but now when I select all three drives and select ZFS the RAIDZ option appears below Mirror and Stripe. This will now give me the ability to create a 250 GB RAIDZ volume right?

Sorry for my vocab if it is wrong or incomprehensible, I am such a noob at all things FreeNAS, networking AND file systems! Sorry, I am just doing this as a hobby but will use the RAIDZ to store data related to my business and accessible from multiple computers on my network.

Actually just did this and what I get is 453.1 GB of useable data in RAIDZ? I do not know what this is doing for me? I thought I would end up with 250 GB of space that is mirrored on three drives. I am obviously wrong LOL!

 

[cyberjock]

If you chose your 250GB drive and both of your 320GB drives and put them in a RAIDZ1 you would end up with approximately 450GB. If you want a 3 way mirror then I believe you have to select all 3 disks and then choose "mirror". Remember that all RAIDZ and mirrors will always be limited to the smallest sized disk. In your case, you will have approximately 70GB of disk space that is unused on each of your 320GB disks.

Your vocab is a little off, but noobs gotta start somewhere. :)

 

[osdpotf]

Thanks for your help. I got it setup and will play with it a bit before I destroy what I have done and start over with new questions. LOL. I have all three in RAIDZ1 with 450 GB of space. I notice that the transfer rates are slower which I expected, but they are drastically slower, like a power of 10 slower. Not a big deal for me but something to consider as I move forward with my system.

Again, thanks for your prompt reply and assistance :) . I will continue to read and learn and utilize this FreeNAS! I will be adding another drive in the coming weeks so I will have more experimentation to do.