SOLVED Will Volume Manager create a 3 x 10 drive RAID Z2 ?

[VictorR]

FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201511280648

We have a 30 x 4TB drive NAS. I used Volume Manager to create a RAID Z2 volume. But, I can't tell how it created the array. From this Volumes screen below, it doesn't look like all 30 drives are being used.

If it cannot, is this something that has to be done from the command line? like "# zpool create datapool raidz2....."?

 

[depasseg]

Look at the results of "zpool status" at the CLI or via SSH. That will show the exact configuration. You can also access it via the GUI, by clicking on the main pool name and then click the "status" button near the bottom of the page.

Yes you can do it using the volume manager. Don't do it via the CLI.

 

[VictorR]

Thank you for the quick help
Here's the status result. How is it possible to tell that it is using 3 x10 as compared to 5 x 6?

 

[depasseg]

You have all your drives in a single RAID-Z2 vdev. See how all the drives are listed under raidz2-0? you want to see 10 under raidz2-0, raidz2-1, and raidz2-2.

 

[VictorR]

Oddly, Drag & Drop is only allowing me 3x9 in RAIDZ or 2x10 Z2. It will not highlight 3x10

 

[Bidule0hm]

IIRC you want to have 3 cols of 9 rows if you want 3 vdevs of 9 drives, wait for a confirm though.

 

[VictorR]

Hi Bidule0hm,
I'm looking to create 3 rows of 10 columns(drives) as a single 30 drive RAID Z2 volume

Oddly, it had allowed me to do this when I first booted up the NAS

 

[depasseg]

Try to just create 10 drives in a vdev and then expand with another 10 and then once more.

 

[Bidule0hm]

Yes, wanted to say 3x10 but it's still valid, try 3 cols and 10 rows :)

 

[VictorR]

Yes, wanted to say 3x10 but it's still valid, try 3 cols and 10 rows :)

FreeNAS treats that as a RAID Z config, and will not allow Z2

 

[Bidule0hm]

Wait a minute: was the RAID-Z2 option available when you did have 9 cols and 3 rows?

Edit: well, if you want to be sure to do things right, follow @depasseg advice in this post ;)

 

[depasseg]

FreeNAS treats that as a RAID Z config, and will not allow Z2

That because a 3 disk raidz2 doesn't make sense.

 

[Bidule0hm]

Yeah, I think I was wrong. But then the GUI is badly designed because the numbers in the cols titles make you think it's a vdev id (like first vdev, second vdev, ...). And the manual is unclear, at best. Zero details and zero example...

And why he can't make 3x 10 drives RAID-Z2s with the right config (10 cols 3 rows)?

 

[VictorR]

Well, it turns out that Volume Manager is right, after all....Drive "da18" is not showing up in "View Disks", so only 29 drives are available to Volume Manager. That's why it cannot make a 3x10 array

But, it does bother me that nothing is telling me I have a dead drive. It must have died sometime in the last !10 days, because this is a brand new NAS the we brought online two weeks ago. I was able to make a 3 x 10 array sometime in the first 3-4 days of that.

Although, it kind of bums me out that FreeNAS didn't highlight that in the GUI (of course, we didn't configure email, so it may have tried)

I pulled da18 and put it in an external drive shuttle, it did not recognize as a WD Re drive as others do. Instead, it came up as a generic 4TB drive. The platter is definitely spinning, but something is not working

 

[Bidule0hm]

If you don't configure SMART tests and email you'll not be warned when a drive is failing. And even then, sometimes drives die without any warning (happened to me actually). And even if you're not warned by SMART the drive is usually part of a pool and this pool will be in a degraded state, that also trigger an alert and an email (currently the drives are not part of a pool so that's why you didn't have any warning) ;)

 

[VictorR]

If you don't configure SMART tests and email you'll not be warned when a drive is failing. And even then, sometimes drives die without any warning (happened to me actually). And even if you're not warned by SMART the drive is usually part of a pool and this pool will be in a degraded state, that also trigger an alert and an email (currently the drives are not part of a pool so that's why you didn't have any warning) ;)

Hmmmmm, I'm sensing a theme here.....:)

Joking aside, there was a 3x10 Z2 pool configured until ~noon yesterday. First order of biz today, configure all management and reporting options!