Time for a rebuild.

[Nomad]

Let me first start off by saying thank your to FreeNAS and the community. I'm so happy I found a simple and safe solution to store my data.

I build my first box around Q12013, and here we sit almost 5 years later and I'm running out of space. I've learned a lot from the community and I'm ready to build a new box.

1) Currently I'm sitting at 6x3TB ~ 10.5TB of space Z2, I would like to move to a 6x10TB Z2 setup, but really unsure what the best way is to migrate the data and setup the new pool. 90% of the data from the 10.5TB will be moved to the new box, but some data I'd like to keep two copies of because it's priceless. (Yes I have backups, but since I'm moving to a new box anyways might as well)

2) I've noticed after many years opening my maps is taking a "long" time. I don't know if this is CIFS or the box causing the issue. Opening a share takes 15-20secs. Picture included. What can I do to figure out what is causing this delay? But only the first time it's opened, and then again after 'some time here'. Looks like this is a caching thing but don't know enough to figure out what is causing it.

The 'old' 10.5TB will just be a backup server, documents, pictures, IE: Super Important Stuff and I'd like this synced to a slice of the new setup. So here's the setup.

New Device:
6x10TB WD RED or SG Iron. I've never used SG but they are currently about $60 cheaper/drive.

How do I slice this up so I can have a 1:1 backup of the 10.5TB system and leave the rest for new storage? Will ZFS replication allow Old to New one way? I'm thinking of setting up my shares as follows:

Backup --> 10.5TB
Media --> 40TB
Backup also has a copy that lives on the 40TB but syncs automatically.

 

[Nomad]

I found some settings on another thread about CIFS so I've adding the following:

ea support = no
store dos attributes = no
map archive = no
map hidden = no
map readonly = no
map system = no

 

[Chris Moore]

The image has all the information blacked out. Not helpful.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[Nomad]

The image has all the information blacked out. Not helpful.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

Ya, but you see the green bar at the top? It says like that for 20-30 secs. I think I might have found a solution, but more testing will be needed.

 

[Nomad]

Update: Using the Disk Price/Performance Spreadsheet with updated prices and my current data growth I should be fine with 6x6TB for the next 5 years. Looking at the WD AE for 6tb they are currently ~$150
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...e-performance-analysis-buying-information.62/

 

[Chris Moore]

Ya, but you see the green bar at the top? It says like that for 20-30 secs. I think I might have found a solution, but more testing will be needed.

Do you want advice on how to improve your old server or how to build a better server?
What version of FreeNAS are you using?

 

[Chris Moore]

Looking at the WD AE for 6tb they are currently ~$150

There was a discussion recently about that model drive. They are intended for 'cold' storage and are not rated for actual daily use. If you use your storage, you will probably kill them in a couple years. If you want something to go the distance (5 years) you should at least get a desktop drive but most people will suggest a WD Red. I use Seagate Desktop drives in my system at home because I am cheap, but at work I use WD Gold Datacenter drives or Red Pro, or the regular WD Red, sometimes I have even talked the management into getting Seagate Constellations.

The point, those AE drives are for Archival storage where the data will be written once and accessed very rarely. They don't have an endurance rating high enough for me to even want to use them at home.

 

[Nomad]

There was a discussion recently about that model drive. They are intended for 'cold' storage and are not rated for actual daily use. If you use your storage, you will probably kill them in a couple years. If you want something to go the distance (5 years) you should at least get a desktop drive but most people will suggest a WD Red. I use Seagate Desktop drives in my system at home because I am cheap, but at work I use WD Gold Datacenter drives or Red Pro, or the regular WD Red, sometimes I have even talked the management into getting Seagate Constellations.

The point, those AE drives are for Archival storage where the data will be written once and accessed very rarely. They don't have an endurance rating high enough for me to even want to use them at home.

I'm storing video. 99% they are write once and read every now and then. But the Seagates are coming in at $119 and that's a damn good price/TB.

 

[Nomad]

Do you want advice on how to improve your old server or how to build a better server?
What version of FreeNAS are you using?

FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201604150515

I'm looking at building a new one, but I'll post a new build thread with what I have selected.

 

[joeschmuck]

If you just want to refresh your system to restore the speed then stay away from SMR hard drives, they start out fast but become slow when they start filling up.

The modification I'd make to your system are:
Add an Intel NIC and disable the RealTek NIC. This will speed up the interface, I have first hand knowledge of this and I tried to fight it but my own testing lost the battle.
Replace your 3TB hard drives one at a time with new 10TB hard drives, let it resilver, then replace the next hard drive. Once you have replaced all your hard drives then you will be upgraded. When selecting whivch drive to replace first, I'd choose any drive which you may have any trouble with. Resilvering takes a long time if you have a lot of data. And if you are running SMART Long Tests, disable it during the resilvering process to ensure you don't slow the process down.

This will keep your upgrade on the cheap and it should speed things up.

6x10TB WD RED or SG Iron.

I'd say the main difference here is the RPM and Heat Generation. If you are picking these into a small tight case then the Reds, if you will have lots of good airflow then the Ironwolfs.

 

[joeschmuck]

and I'm running out of space

This could account for your current slow speed also. If you hit 90% full or greater then your pool will run slow, very slow. It's a byproduct of ZFS.

 

[Nomad]

This could account for your current slow speed also. If you hit 90% full or greater then your pool will run slow, very slow. It's a byproduct of ZFS.

I'm getting close, I'm at 79% and trying to be proactive about getting something new up and running, just in research mode for right now.