Trouble in River City

[Mike Zahorik]

I want to thank you guys for all this help. I'm sorry that the money is a problem, but..... I'll look into getting two 2TB drives, don't think I can swing more memory, but maybe in a few months I can do that. From what I hear, the drives are the most urgent part.

So..... I'll backup the 400 or so GB on my portable drive and wait for the new drives. Then how should they be installed, so that I can have mirrored also?

 

[danb35]

Consider a single 2 TB disk and an extra 4 GB of RAM now, and the second 2 TB disk later. Once you have the data backed up, as I mentioned above, destroy your current volume, remove the failing disk, and install the new 2 TB disk. Then create a mirrored ZFS volume (pool) using the Volume Manager--see section 6.3.3 in the manual. I would recommend checking the box to "force 4096 bytes sector size" for compatibility with future versions.

Once you've created the new pool, copy your data back. When you later are able to get a second 2 TB disk, replace the 1 TB disk with the new 2 TB disk, at which time your pool will expand.

I'm recommending prioritizing the RAM upgrade over the second disk because 8 GB of RAM is the minimum for safe and stable operation with a ZFS pool. The second disk can wait.

Edit: And then the remainder of the upgrade is only about $300, and can be done later.

 

[Mike Zahorik]

OK, Thanks again. I'll see what I can get, then in a week or so, I'll come back and let you know how it went. Thanks a million or should I say 2TB.

 

[Mike Zahorik]

Well...... I have transferred all my NAS files (>150,000) to my portable drive. It took all night. There were 4 bad files. I have located and ordered 8GB of ECC ram to replace my 4GB of memory. I have read pro's and con's about ECC ram, but seems that that is an important aspect that needs to be included. Next I have to decide on a hard drive. Mike

 

[danb35]

I have located and ordered 8GB of ECC ram to replace my 4GB of memory.

ECC is absolutely a good thing, but it requires CPU and motherboard support to work--otherwise it will just sit there and not do anything for you.

 

[Mike Zahorik]

I did do a little research. My motherboard, etal does support ECC. Mike

 

[Mike Zahorik]

Well...... I found a deal on two WD RED NAS 2TB drives. So my total expenditure for the 8GB memory and the 2 drives was just a bit over $180. Now I have to wait until the end of next week to receive them. Mike

 

[danb35]

That sounds pretty good. Good luck, we're all counting on you.

 

[Mike Zahorik]

Received the two 2Tb WD RED Hard Drives today. I plan on using both of these and the better 1Tb seagate drive in a ZFS?? pool? Do I need to wipe the 1Tb drive first? Mike

 

[danb35]

No, if you've got two 2 TB drives, just create a new ZFS pool with them. It will consist of the two drives mirrored.

 

[toadman]

No, if you've got two 2 TB drives, just create a new ZFS pool with them. It will consist of the two drives mirrored.

Agreed. Optionally leave the "good" 1TB in the system and create a new ZFS pool on it. This can be used as a backup target when necessary.

 

[Mike Zahorik]

Well.... today the new memory arrived in the afternoon mail. Unfortunately one of the sticks must be bad. I can only see 6gb and not 8gb. I tried moving it around but no change. I plugged in one of the old 1gb sticks and now I have 7gb. So that will be that for now. Hopefully I can sent it back and get a replacement.
So...... My freeNAS machine now has two 2TB and one 1TB hard drives in it and 7 GB of memory. I booted it up and accessed the GUI. I deleted the old volume and created a new ZFS mirrored volume. But, for some reason when I look at the Volume manager it reports my new volume has only 913.5 GB, I was expecting more. Did I do something wrong? Mike

 

[Mike Zahorik]

OK, I deleted this new volume and then selected just the 2 TB as the ZFS mirrored volume and the 1TB as the log. Now I have a volume that is 1.8TB. Mike

 

[toadman]

The 1TB as a log won't do you any good. It's no faster than the 2TB disks. I would get rid of it as the log. Just make a 1 disk pool out of the 1TB disk and use it for backup or temp storage if you need it.

 

[Mike Zahorik]

So, I would be just as well off with removing it all together, Mike

 

[Mike Zahorik]

OK, I beleive that I have sucessfully made a windows share. I can see the FreeNAS on my windows machine. And I have transferred a 1GB directory to the FreeNAS. I want to checka nd see if I can reach these files from the other machine in the house. Next how can I be sure that I actually have a mirrored system and that SMART is on? Is there anything else I should do? Mike

 

[danb35]

how can I be sure that I actually have a mirrored system

Look at the Volume Status page.

and that SMART is on?

Is it turned on on the Services screen?

 

[danb35]

Is there anything else I should do?

Configure email reporting, so the system will send you emails of unusual conditions. Schedule regular SMART self-tests (I run a short test daily and a long test weekly; you could go as infrequently as a short test weekly and a long test monthly) and scrubs (I run every two weeks). All of this is described in the manual. Take regular copies of your config file (or, better, set up a script to do it automatically).

 

[Mike Zahorik]

Unsure of where the Volume Status page is. I see my /mnt/Ford1 which is what I created. Under that there is change permissions, create ZFS dataset and create ZFS volume. Didn't I do that already? Mike

 

[Mike Zahorik]

OK, I think I have the SMART turned on, a test schedule setup and an email address set. Is there anyway that I can force an email to see if it is working?
As the last post, I think those create ZFS is for adding another not the one that I already have. But I still do not see where it says mirrored, yet I only have 1.8Tb of space, kinda indicating the it is mirrored. Mike