SOLVED Pool cant be Imported after exported via Export/Disconnect(Solved)

[Anonza]

Hi fellow Tech peeps,

I have a problem that I am hoping you are able to assist me with.

I have x4 6TB disks in raid2 with a Boot disk for Truenas.

In short, I attempted to migrate the data disks from one truenas server to another server(It was originally Virtualized). Essentially changing the Boot disk for the OS. I did not run "zpool export" before exporting via the Pool menu. Instead, I used: "Storage->Pools, and click the gear. Select Export/Disconnect and did NOT check all the boxes to delete my data/cache. Since booting up the new Truenas OS, I cannot import my old pool. There are none to be found on the new server.

I can see the 4 disks in the new Truenas OS install but no option to import a pool.

Can I still re-import the old pool or do I have to create a new pool? I really do not want to loose a lifetime of data.

If I run "zpool import" within shell it states there are no pools to import.

What else can I try?

Thanks in advance everyone!

Many thanks,
Richard

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

How exactly were the disks connected to the TrueNAS VM in the virtualised setup?

 

[Anonza]

How exactly were the disks connected to the TrueNAS VM in the virtualised setup?

Hi Patrick,

So VMware ESXi was the host, on there, I created a Virtual machine for Truenas.

I had a lot of strange issues with copying data from the VM, so I removed VMware ESXi from the equation.

Before doing so, I selected Export/Disconnect from the original Truenas boot disk. I have not wiped the original boot disk. I have only added a new boot disk overwriting the Vmware instance.

Can I use the old Disk to restore the Pool?

Thanks in advance.

Let me know what else you need.

Kind regards,
Richard

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Did you use PCIe passthrough in ESXi to give an entire HBA/controller to TrueNAS to which the disks were connected or did you pass the disks to the VM? If the latter this perfectly explains why you cannot import the pool. Boot ESXi, reconstruct your VM settings, import the pool, copy all your data, build the new system without ESXi and create a new pool, then copy back your data.

 

[Anonza]

Did you use PCIe passthrough in ESXi to give an entire HBA/controller to TrueNAS to which the disks were connected or did you pass the disks to the VM? If the latter this perfectly explains why you cannot import the pool. Boot ESXi, reconstruct your VM settings, import the pool, copy all your data, build the new system without ESXi and create a new pool, then copy back your data.

Hi Patrick,

Thanks for the speedy responses.

The x4 data drives(In raid2) and the x1 Truenas boot disk were both allocated to the Truenas VM from settings. I never used PCIe passsthrough.

So you saying that recreating the Virtualized Truenas will allow me to re import the pool to get back to normal?

Then once back like I was, I then need to create a new server then copy the data across?

The issue I have there, is that I could not copy data from the previous server, hence why I decided to try this method.

The entire server would crash when attempting to copy via SMB to my desktop.

Kind regards,
Richard

 

[Anonza]

Did you use PCIe passthrough in ESXi to give an entire HBA/controller to TrueNAS to which the disks were connected or did you pass the disks to the VM? If the latter this perfectly explains why you cannot import the pool. Boot ESXi, reconstruct your VM settings, import the pool, copy all your data, build the new system without ESXi and create a new pool, then copy back your data.

Hi Patrick,

I hope all is well. Thanks for the kind assistance on the matter.

I have restored the VM now and have imported the pool and can access the data.

So virtualization plays a part in this it seems.

Thanks again and have a great day ahead.

Keep well.

Regards,
Richard