Taking a FreeNAS Disk to a different Computer to quickly view the Files.

[Kris Kizlyk]

FreeNAS is great project, I require some help...I am a trained in electronics and not afraid to try something new but when it comes to servers and Unix it is completely out of my scope. I have a NAS at home, and it has worked great for the last 5 years and now I have the itch to try creating my own NAS at our small office.

I have created a NAS using two 1TB drives and a 8GB USB drive installed with 9.10 FreeNAS. I created a ZFS mirror, and I was hoping if there was ever a problem I could just take out that drive and slap it on a Windows computer and read the files. To my surprise I can't simply put the drive in a Windows or Linux system to view the files...my Dlink NAS at home...no problem.

My question, is there a simple way to view these files in an operating system like a my DLink does at home?

 

[danb35]

is there a simple way to view these files in an operating system

Sure, as long as that operating system supports OpenZFS. FreeBSD does, Linux mostly does, OpenIndiana does, but Windows doesn't.

 

[depasseg]

Yes and no. Yes you can read the drive at home, no you aren't going to be able to use windows.

You can create a second USB drive and boot from that on your home PC without affecting your windows install.

 

[Kris Kizlyk]

Thank you for responding danb35 and depasseg! I greatly appreciate it! I have Ubuntu running in VirtualBox right now. I see that Native OpenZFS is installed on my Ubuntu and I used the Disks app and see it is there...forgive my lack of experience with Linux...how do I see the contents? In Ubuntu it says that it is a FreeBSD Swap, Contents Unknown? Did I possibly set it up wrong in FreeNAS?

 

[danb35]

Go to a terminal window and type 'zpool import'. Post the result.

 

[Kris Kizlyk]

Go to a terminal window and type 'zpool import'. Post the result.

kriskizlyk@kriskizlyk-VirtualBox:~$ sudo zpool import
[sudo] password for kriskizlyk:
pool: MicroCanNAS
id:9660563184704704722307
state: DEGRADED
status: The pool was last accessed by another system.
action: The Pool can be imported despite missing or damaged devices.

The fault tolerance of the pool may be compromised if imported.
see: zfsonlinux.org/msg/ZFS-8000-EY
config
MicroCanNAS DEGRADED
mirror-0 DEGRADED

 

[nightshade00013]

Using virtualbox on windows still is windows and you will have a difficult time getting it to work correctly if at all and run a higher risk of trashing any data.

If you ever have a problem with a system and need to use another system to try and rescue data it would be best to just set up a USB drive with FreeNAS like depasseg said on it and import the pool. Even if this is a desktop computer that you normally run windows on you should be able to change your boot order or use a one time boot menu.

 

[Kris Kizlyk]

I think you and depasseg are right nightshade...my last post didn't show it is waiting for moderator approval...basically the state is DEGRADED and the pool was last accessed by another system. I wanted to create a NAS where if I got hit by a bus a non-technical person could take out the drive and put it on a Windows computer to recover the files. Thanks for the help and everyone patience.

 

[depasseg]

If you get hit by a bus, whoever is looking for that data could reach out for help. Either here in the forums, or through ixsystems. Just put a label with this website and or the ixsystems support phone number.

 

[Kris Kizlyk]

Actually...that is a great idea. Even though it is not exactly what I hoped for, I have just heard too much about FreeNAS and ZFS files systems being incredibly reliable. Head Office has a server that they are going to pull from our NAS so that we are secure just in case if a catastrophe does happen. TBH if I get hit by a bus...I wouldn't have to worry about it. :p

 

[Kris Kizlyk]

Update. I installed FreeBSD with a ZFS file system with the Gnone3 interface on a separate drive and then connected my NAS mirrored drives to the system hoping to view them. I open up the Files and the drives are not there. I did go to the terminal and did a camcontrol devlist and it does show that the drives are available. Can someone help me on how to actually view those contents?

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Did you import the pool?

 

[Kris Kizlyk]

I did a zpool import, and then I did a -f to force it. Checked it again and it said online...however no drives showed up when I looked in the "Files" application.

 

[depasseg]

Where are the datasets mounted?

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

no drives showed up when I looked in the "Files" application

Run "zpool list" at the command-line to see if the pool shows up. I expect the pool will be mounted at /mnt/<pool-name>.

You're not going to see the drives in the Files application, since you're dealing with a ZFS pool.