Updating from Nexenta to a new, upgraded FreeNAS build

[danb35]

how would one go about creating a "backup pool"

Creating such a pool is simplicity itself: add disk(s), create pool. It's setting up the backup that can be tricky. Snapshots and replication are probably the simplest method to implement (and it'd be much easier if iX would pull their heads out and make local replication simpler), but that wouldn't play as well with the idea of pulling the disk and taking it offsite.

 

[Jatrabari]

My backup pool (just tonight) saved me some pain because my wife mistakenly deleted an entire directory of files from the NAS and I was able to recover it in a matter of seconds from the online backup. It is a nice safety net.

I noticed that you are also using the same strategy where you have your primary pool as Raidz2 and backup pool as Raidz1 with big drives. Of course you have also the other NAS for outside backup.

What kind of strategy do you use for syncing these pools? rsync?

 

[Chris Moore]

I noticed that you are also using the same strategy where you have your primary pool as Raidz2 and backup pool as Raidz1 with big drives. Of course you have also the other NAS for outside backup.

What kind of strategy do you use for syncing these pools? rsync?

I have two cron jobs setup that each run a script and the script has some rsync actions in it. I sync to the other NAS hourly and sync to the backup pool weekly. In addition to that, I have snapshots, but it is often easier to go to the backup pool than to mount a snapshot. The backup pool is getting pretty full, so I am looking at upgrading those four drives to 8TB models. There is a significant speed difference between the main pool and the backup pool, because of the layout. For example, a scrub of the main pool completes in about 3 hours where the backup pool takes over 6 hours.

 

[NASbox]

Not trying to hijack this thread but how would one go about creating a "backup pool" perhaps on one disk for taking offsite?

I have a equivalent to a raid 10 running on 4 2TB WD reds and would like to take the data offsite.

I am working on this now. I got an addonics removable drive caddy and a 10TB disk to mount in it. You can either use the gui or the command line to create a single disk pool with zpool create. Make snapshot(s) of the drives you want to backup and then do a zfs send | receive to copy them to the backup pool. Export the pool and remove the drive. Works like a charm.

The hardest part is if you have to too much data to go on one disk. Then you need to plan which datasets you export to which pool. If you look at some om my back posts you should see some hints that will give you a start. If you are going to use a removable caddy, I highly recommend Addonics. They are really well made (have used similar units many years ago - back in the IDE days, and the fits were not good, so they were a real pain to mount reliably.) The Addonics units slide in beautifully, they heatsink the disk well to keep the temp decent, and they protect the delicate pcb fingers on the SATA drive (it was very hard to find a mount that provided this protection-something I consider essential given how fragile the drive connections are - they are not meant for repeated insertion/removal).

Search the forum for some of my back posts and you should get a few good hints. When I get some time, I'll do my best to post a bit more on the subject. The best method for backup is a second server for replication, but if that isn't possible/practical/affordable, then I believe removable drives are the only way to go.

 

[Jatrabari]

Ok, got all of the components last week actually quite smoothly in the span of few days and here are the before pictures

Hardware

10 HDDs

So here we go, diving into the deep end... :)

 

[rvassar]

My backup pool (just tonight) saved me some pain because my wife mistakenly deleted an entire directory of files from the NAS and I was able to recover it in a matter of seconds from the online backup. It is a nice safety net.

That's what periodic snapshots tasks are for! ;)

 

[Chris Moore]

That's what periodic snapshots tasks are for! ;)

I have snapshots, but it is easier to use an online filesystem than to mount a snapshot. I do it this way to make my life easier.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[Jatrabari]

Ok, first small update:

May I present: The Wall of Cool. Those Noctua fans fit very snugly with the rubber corners and anti vibration attachment thingies...

Behind the wall is of course the Column of Data. Blacks are 4 TB and whites are 6 TB. Two of these, top and bottom, will be my cold spares but now they are all in for burn-in testing. Then the drives will be covered very well by the cooling fans (even with those they are already)

To be continued...

 

[Chris Moore]

To be continued...

Nice

 

[Jatrabari]

Second update

Cabling is done but the SAS cables that I had are too long as they were intended for another larger case. But still quite neat... I ordered shorter ones to suite this case. I also labelled the drives for easier recognition later...

Inside on the other side, CPU cooler, 140 mm Noctua fans, SATADOMs and LSI HBA card ready to go...

Glad to say, the assembly passed the smoke test with flying colors and everything was detected by BIOS and HBA card. Also IPMI is running now so management is easier compared to monitor and dedicated keyboard...

What I noticed though is that the HBA card reports the sizes of the HDDs as 0 TB. But the card is old (2013 or something) and the next thing on the list is to update the firmware and BIOS.

Was it P20 that is currently the one to use with FreeNAS?

To be continued...

 

[danb35]

Was it P20 that is currently the one to use with FreeNAS?

20.00.07.

 

[IQless]

Blacks are 4 TB and whites are 6 TB

Hi, how did you get the extra drive trays for the R6?

 

[Chris Moore]

What I noticed though is that the HBA card reports the sizes of the HDDs as 0 TB. But the card is old (2013 or something) and the next thing on the list is to update the firmware and BIOS.

What card did you end up using in the build?
How the drives are reported would be influenced by what firmware is installed and if the card had some saved configuration if it was previously used.

 

[Chris Moore]

Hi, how did you get the extra drive trays for the R6?

http://support.fractal-design.com/s...r-additional-hdd-ssd-trays-for-the-define-r6-

 

[IQless]

http://support.fractal-design.com/s...r-additional-hdd-ssd-trays-for-the-define-r6-

That is exactly why I asked, I kinda hoped that Fractal had finally started to ship these and that OP had found a reseller that sold them :\
Regrettably Fractal still seems to struggle to deliver additional products to the R6 series. Even the products they "promised" should come after the launch, eg. vertical GPU mount.

I would guess (according to the color difference) that OP stole some trays from someone else? :P

 

[Jatrabari]

What card did you end up using in the build?
How the drives are reported would be influenced by what firmware is installed and if the card had some saved configuration if it was previously used.

And that is why I am updating the firmware and BIOS next. I bought this card in 2013 and it hasn't been used at all after that as plans and priorities changed. The FW version is at the moment 5.00.13.00-IT so quite ancient...

The card is LSI SAS9201-16i HBA.

http://support.fractal-design.com/s...r-additional-hdd-ssd-trays-for-the-define-r6-

That is exactly why I asked, I kinda hoped that Fractal had finally started to ship these and that OP had found a reseller that sold them :\
Regrettably Fractal still seems to struggle to deliver additional products to the R6 series. Even the products they "promised" should come after the launch, eg. vertical GPU mount.

I would guess (according to the color difference) that OP stole some trays from someone else? :p

Yes, my evil planned worked... I stalked a few R6 buyers from the local computer store, made sure that there was one white and one black case and in the dead of night stole their HDD trays MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA :p:D

But actually that is not true anymore what they say in the FAQ and I think it says that still because due to the shipping difficulties that they have had with the R6 spare parts.

I ordered the trays from the German website that they mention somewhere else in the support pages:

https://www.fractal-design-shop.de/

BUT... I took about 2,5 months of patient updating and checking the web page and messaging to the support to get those... They updated the store at the same time so there was alot going on. Now it runs quite smoothly.

And when I got 6 trays, they went like hot cakes and there was ONLY 5 of each color on sale at that moment. Originally they told that the parts will come for sale at very limited quantities.

They have been unfortunately out of stock since but I think that is the best and only place to get spare trays for the R6.

Ok, I checked during my writing and the white trays for R6 are again on stock and have a "Best Seller" tag on them... Blacks are still out of stock.

 

[Jatrabari]

Third update

Memory test with Memtest86+ is done without errors

Also after updating HBA all of the HDDs are detected correctly

Next is CPU stress test and about that I have a question.

I have not yet installed FreeNAS and as the purpose of the test is to monitor the temps of different components I would like to record the history or high/low values of the test to see the effect of cooling strategies

So can I do that with FreeNAS UI because IPMI does show only current temps?

 

[Jatrabari]

Is there a way to record motherboard component high/low temps during CPU stress test? I didn't find anything more from FreeNAS GUI.

 

[droeders]

Is there a way to record motherboard component high/low temps during CPU stress test? I didn't find anything more from FreeNAS GUI.

You could write a shell script which periodically queries the temperatures using the 'ipmitool sensor' command.

 

[Chris Moore]

Is there a way to record motherboard component high/low temps during CPU stress test? I didn't find anything more from FreeNAS GUI.

The only temperature the GUI monitors is the CPU.


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