Simple ZFS question about drive readability

[ck42]

If I have a system configured with a ZFS Mirror (two drives) would one of these drives, if detached and connected to another computer, be readable on a FreeBSD system (that has ZFS support)?

 

[depasseg]

Depends on the ZFS feature flags version.

 

[ck42]

Would be as simple then to say that the orphaned ZFS disk should be readable by a FreeBSD system that has whatever is the LATEST version of ZFS support?

 

[Ericloewe]

It would be readable. Each computer would see a pool with one good drive and one missing mirror. It's not something you should rely on, though - you can use replication to transfer data.

 

[ck42]

Okay, that's good.
It's really more about having a fear of not having access to the data in some bizarre emergency, like if the FreeNAS system blew up and I needed the data.
I just want to make sure that the data isn't somehow 'tied' to the FreeNAS installation, and can't be read w/o it.

 

[Ericloewe]

Oh, you can definitely move whole pools. The move a single individual from a mirror is a subset of that, because the pool exists and is "usable".

 

[depasseg]

And if FreeNAS blew up, swapping out the USB and installing on a new one (and restoring the config), is probably easier than moving the drives.

 

[L]

there is a zfs command zpool split that should make your drive separate cleanly. Zpool split was designed with your specific case in mind.. Actually for building a 4-way mirror and then spliting off a pair. I know of a couple companies using this in production to build boot drives, split and slap them into new chassis's