question on expansion of pool.

[Dirk]

Updating the old smaller server from 6 2tb drives (5 in pool and a spare) to 4tb drives can I expand the pool after the 5 are replaced and then eliminate the spare and replace with another 4tb later or would I cut myself off by expanding before the sixth is replaced even though it is a spare?

Thanks

 

[AVB]

When you say 5 in the pool do you mean 5 data drives or 4 data drives and a parity drive? Is the spare really a spare or a parity drive? Now I have never run a system with a hot spare but AFAIK the only way to change your pool structure is with a rebuild. Once the structure is the way you want then at some later date you can add another Vdev of exactly the same number of drives to the pool but you can't add drives one at a time.

 

[Jailer]

No no one is going to be able to give a meaningful response until you post the output of zpool status in code tags so we know the layout of your pool.

 

[Dirk]

Thanks for the input. The pool is 5 data drives and a hot spare.

Jailer: I have never had any luck with doing a copy of text from the shell. A control insert and shift insert always results in about 25% of the bottom of the text being left out. Any tip on that?

Thanks

 

[elvisimprsntr]

As long as auto expand is enabled, TrueNAS will automatically expand the pool. You have to replace each drive 1 by 1, let it resilver before replacing the next drive. I just completed installing larger drives

Code:

zpool get autoexpand {pool name}

 

[Jailer]

Any tip on that?

Yeah, use putty or another terminal app.

 

[jgreco]

You have to replace each drive 1 by 1, let it resilver before replacing the next drive.

That's not true. You can replace more than one drive at a time, if you have available bays to add the new without disconnecting the old ones. It's really kind of cool to replace several drives simultaneously, and it makes things faster in this era of massive hard drives.

 

[Dirk]

Yeah, use putty or another terminal app.

Thanks for the wakeup call Jailer. I should have been on that.

Code:

root@Brutus[~]# zpool status
  pool: boot-pool
 state: ONLINE
  scan: scrub repaired 0B in 00:00:12 with 0 errors on Mon May 10 03:45:12 2021
config:

        NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        boot-pool   ONLINE       0     0     0
          ada0p2    ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

  pool: mainpool
 state: ONLINE
  scan: resilvered 1003G in 02:59:38 with 0 errors on Mon May 10 23:20:54 2021
config:

        NAME                                            STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        mainpool                                        ONLINE       0     0     0
          raidz2-0                                      ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/9e4e45c0-a656-11eb-8654-bc5ff4e7a738  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/b95114e8-ab9d-11eb-a3b1-bc5ff4e7a738  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/b3e5c5d9-b110-11eb-8c21-bc5ff4e7a738  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/f179a7a7-b207-11eb-90d7-bc5ff4e7a738  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/72e213db-b12d-11eb-8135-bc5ff4e7a738  ONLINE       0     0     0
        spares
          gptid/096345bc-7b93-11eb-bb81-bc5ff4e7a738    AVAIL

errors: No known data errors

 

[danb35]

I have never had any luck with doing a copy of text from the shell.

That's because you shouldn't be using the web shell. Use ssh instead.

Edit: never mind, ninja'd.

 

[Dirk]

That's because you shouldn't be using the web shell. Use ssh instead.

Edit: never mind, ninja'd.

Thanks danb. Both servers have been rock solid and the little effort I've had to make was with upgrades or an occasional app problem. I simply forgot about the prudence of going in with putty. That's why I thanked jailer for the head smack.

 

[danb35]

If you're using Windows 10, you don't even need PuTTY; it has its own built-in SSH client.

 

[Dirk]

So, back to the subject at hand. The five pool drives have been replaced and re-silvered. Pool is showing healthy. The last remaining drive is the 2tb spare. I decided to go with (I think it was jailer many weeks ago) doing away with the spare in faver of more space considering the redundancy already in a six drive pool.

What do the forum members recommend? expand the pool and replace the spare incorporating it into the pool (I think that's not possible) Or replace the spare with another 4tb and incorporate it into the pool then expand

 

[Dirk]

Well, an update!
Truenas went ahead and apparently expanded the pool on its own. So, the remaining task is what to do with the remaining 2TB spare? Meaning, can I replace it somehow and then incorporate it into the main pool.

As always, thanks for the fish!

 

[SweetAndLow]

Well, an update!
Truenas went ahead and apparently expanded the pool on its own. So, the remaining task is what to do with the remaining 2TB spare? Meaning, can I replace it somehow and then incorporate it into the main pool.

As always, thanks for the fish!

You can not incorporate it into the main pool. Your can not extend a vdev. You can only add more vdevs.

 

[Dirk]

Thanks everyone. That's what I thought once the pool expanded itself.
So, I assume a 2tb drive in a pool of 4tb drives is useless as a hot spare and should remove it? If so just hit the remove menu item?

Best of luck to everyone.