Pool expand functionality soon?

Kasazn

Explorer
Joined
Apr 17, 2021
Messages
60
Currently if you navigate to the option below
Storage > Pool Operations > Expand Pool

You are greeted with the following message:
"[EFAULT] Expand is not supported on this platform yet because of underlying ZFS issues."

I've been researching on how to expand my current RAIDZ2 pools of 4 x 4TB HDDs and came up with this good news:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/06/raidz-expansion-code-lands-in-openzfs-master/

Is this going to be integrated into TrueNAS SCALE in the future? Is there a timeline? :)
 

ChrisRJ

Wizard
Joined
Oct 23, 2020
Messages
1,919
Nothing specific is publicly known in terms of timeline. Personally, I would treat it as non-existent; since even if it came out today, I would wait a few years until I entrust my data.
 

Yorick

Wizard
Joined
Nov 4, 2018
Messages
1,912
I'd say Soon(tm): "No lie. It’s going to happen. It’s going to happen really freakin’, like, eventually. But it will happen!"


My personal rampant speculation is OpenZFS 3.0, so quite possibly as soon as sometime 2023. Eternal optimist, me.

If you need to expand now, your options are:

- Send/recv critical data to another pool (keep in mind 2TB SAS are dirt cheap on eBay, there's a post around here about that), burn in new disks, destroy your pool, redo pool as 6 x 4TB (taking care that the new 4TB aren't SMR) and send/recv the other way. Will take maybe a couple weeks.
- Replace your 4TB with 8TB one by one, taking care that the new 8TB aren't SMR and have been burnt in. Once the last disk has been replaced, you are at 4 x 8TB. Wait until 2023 and see whether raidz2 expansion is possible yet, then do 5 x 8TB and 6 x 8TB.
- Same idea but replace with 12TB drives
 
Last edited:

Kasazn

Explorer
Joined
Apr 17, 2021
Messages
60
Thanks for the input and insight. Really helpful. If there comes the need for me to expand my pool, my best bet would be replacing each 4TB to higher capacity drives, like 8TB or 12TBs one by one. ;)
 

Etorix

Wizard
Joined
Dec 30, 2020
Messages
2,134
If you have spare ports, you can replace one or more drives at the same time, keeping the old drive in place. It's safer this way—and faster if you can do two at a time.
 

Kasazn

Explorer
Joined
Apr 17, 2021
Messages
60
If you have spare ports, you can replace one or more drives at the same time, keeping the old drive in place. It's safer this way—and faster if you can do two at a time.
I have spare connectors on my HBA card, four to be precise. The only problem is insufficient SATA power ports. :oops:
 

Etorix

Wizard
Joined
Dec 30, 2020
Messages
2,134
Unless the PSU is already at its limit, splitters should easily fix the issue with power delivery. ;)
15-Pin-SATA-Power-Cable-Male-to-Female-2-SATA-Splitter-90-Degree-Power-Adapter-Cable.jpg
 

jgreco

Resident Grinch
Joined
May 29, 2011
Messages
18,680
Unless the PSU is already at its limit, splitters should easily fix the issue with power delivery. ;)
15-Pin-SATA-Power-Cable-Male-to-Female-2-SATA-Splitter-90-Degree-Power-Adapter-Cable.jpg

Ah, no, never use these for hard drives. SATA power connectors are not rated for the spinup current of two simultaneous 3.5" drives. We just talked about this on Thursday.


They are fine for SSD's or laptop HDD's.
 
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