Want to rebuild my vdev - need some help

[jcbergqu]

Ok, so I'm really new to FreeNAS but I really want to learn it and make it work for my home server application. I have played with my machine for the past couple of week following the manual and had some struggles, but thought I was getting the hang of it. To this point, I have just been playing with setup and practicing with jails and plugins. No big deal. To do so, I followed the manual and used my new machine to practice.

Now I want to wipe the machine and start over in a production mode. My first problem arises when I want to recreate my volume. When I started in "play" mode, I had 3 disks, so I made them a volume to play in. No big deal I thought... Now that I want to switch to a production mode I have added 5 more disks for a total of 8. When I go to create a new volume, it recognizes the original 3 disk as one (2/3 the size). I can't seem to figure out how to break them apart back to the original 3 disks. I followed the manual to detach a volume, but I missed the check the box for mark the disks as new... can I recover from this?

 

[pirateghost]

Wipe the disks manually to remove all partitions on them. There are lots of guides found in the forums here. I'm on mobile or I would track some down.

Look for dban

 

[jcbergqu]

I did find some posts about dban, but there were some mixed emotions and opinions about its use. Some of the experts here recommended staying inside the GUI. I'll take a look. Thanks.

 

[pirateghost]

Technically you should be able to wipe/clear any drive from any OS. I prefer using a bootable Linux distribution,

 

[jcbergqu]

After doing some quick searches for dban I ran across some other interesting points. I am using a HP smart array controller currently... I was intending to replace it with the M1015, but have not gotten there yet due to monetary constraints with the holidays. Could that be my problem? If so, Is there a solution here or do I need to look elsewhere?

 

[pirateghost]

If you are using a raid on the disks, then there is no way to pass through individual disks...

 

[jcbergqu]

Not sure I understand your answer... When I set up the disks originally, I did it through the web GUI in FreeNAS. They are 3ooGB HP SAS disks. The GUI recommended them in a configuration that allowed 600GB usable space. I accepted it and moved on. Now it shows it as a single drive at 600GB. Is that the controller or FreeNAS that is doing it? I suspect the controller... Anyone know how to undo it?

 

[pirateghost]

Only you know what configuration your disks are in.

Check the controller options. If Freenas allowed you to create a zfs array from the 3 disks, I'm inclined to say they are NOT in raid from your controller.

Just wipe them. Zero them out in some way to remove all partitions and freenas should see them as available again.

 

[gpsguy]

I am inclined to believe that that's the case.

If Freenas allowed you to create a zfs array from the 3 disks, I'm inclined to say they are NOT in raid from your controller.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I followed the manual to detach a volume, but I missed the check the box for mark the disks as new... can I recover from this?

Just auto-import your original pool, then detach it again, with the box checked.