SOLVED Volume re-configuration

[slarionoff]

Dear colleagues!

I searched through this forum but I'm not sure if I used correct keywords, so if this subject is well-known please just give me a link and I'll be happy.

I have an HP Microserver. There's a VMWare ESXI on it with FreeNAS as one of the virtual systems. I had there 2x3TB HHDs which were set as a mirror (da0,da1). Later on I've added 2x2TB volumes (da2,da3) and here I guess I made a mistake - I've just added those two devices to existing volume. It looks in volume status like:

On second thought I've found that I wanted to have 2x3TB in a mirror (like they are set now, da0,da1) to store some valuable things - photos, documents and a stripe volume for storage of software, videos and so on - things which I can download again. I thought that I will see those two groups separately and will be able to create folders or shares separately on a "safe" and "store" parts, but I was wrong. So the question is - what should I do in order to obtain my goals? Actually I can backup most valuable things, drop existing storage and re-create it again, but for sure I will not be able to save everything. Can I somehow re-configure that storage without data loss? Yeah, those datasets created on a volume are filled with data, so they are not empty.

Thank you in advance!

 

[HoneyBadger]

Can I somehow re-configure that storage without data loss? Yeah, those datasets created on a volume are filled with data, so they are not empty.

Short answer: No. ZFS in its current iteration does not support vdev removal. You will have to back up your data onto separate disks, destroy the pool, and recreate it.

If you want it split as you suggested (one mirror, one stripe) then you need to create two pools in the future. The first will be mirrored, the second will be striped - although you should consider the value of your time.

 

[slarionoff]

Thank you, HoneyBadger!

Am I right that now I just can't control where exactly my data is and new photos can be stored somewhere at newly added disks?

And please tell me if this fix plan is correct:

0. Backup as much as possible;
1. Remove everything - datasets, volume, ...;
2. Create one by one two volumes with clear names and add there disks in a configuration I want;
3. Restore info;
?

 

[HoneyBadger]

Am I right that now I just can't control where exactly my data is and new photos can be stored somewhere at newly added disks?

Correct. ZFS will save files wherever it finds free space - and the two disks you just added are (or rather were) completely empty, so it will try to stuff them full to balance things out over time as writes come in. Pulling the newly added drives will very likely result in data loss.

Back up everything you can. Then you need to destroy right down to the pool level - under Storage->Volumes, you need to select and destroy "volume1" at the top level. Once you're done there, create the two pools individually and restore the data.

 

[slarionoff]

OK, thank you very much!