Storage

The Storage Dashboard screen allows users to configure and manage storage resources such as pools (VDEVs), and disks, and keep the pool healthy (scrub). The dashboard widgets organize functions related to storage resources.

The No Pools screen displays before you add the first pool.

The Create Pool button in the center of the screen opens the Pool Creation Wizard screen.

The buttons at the top right of the Storage Dashboard screen provide access to pool and disk functions:

• Import Pool (Click to expand)

  Import Pool opens the Import Pool screen.

  

  Select a pool from the Pool dropdown list. These are ZFS storage pools previously created and stored on disks connected to the TrueNAS system. TrueNAS detects these as present on the system but not yet connected in TrueNAS.

  Import starts the process of connecting the pool and bringing it into TrueNAS.

• Disks opens the Disks screen.

• Create Pool opens the Pool Creation Wizard.

After adding pools, the dashboard shows storage widgets and two more buttons.

• Export/Disconnect (Click to expand)

  Export/Disconnect opens the Export/disconnect pool: poolname window where users can export, disconnect, or delete a pool.

  The Export/disconnect pool window includes a warning stating data becomes unavailable after export and that selecting Destroy Data on this pool destroys data on the pool disks.

  Exporting/disconnecting can be a destructive process! Back up all data before performing this operation. You might not be able to recover data lost through this operation.

  

  This window displays the share type (for example, SMB share, etc.) affected by the export/disconnect operation if a share uses the pool.

  Disks in an exported pool become available to use in a new pool but remain marked as used by an exported pool. If you select a disk used by an exported pool to use in a new pool, the system displays a warning message about the disk.

  Setting	Description
  Destroy data on this pool?	Select to erase all data on the pool. A field displays where you enter the pool name to confirm the operation before the Export/Disconnect button activates.
  Delete configuration of shares that use this pool	Enabled by default to remove the share connection to this pool. Exporting or disconnecting the pool deletes the configuration of shares using this pool. You must reconfigure the shares affected by this operation.
  Confirm Export/Disconnect	(Required) Select to confirm the operation and accept the warnings displayed. Activates the Export/Disconnect button.

  Export/Disconnect executes the process and begins the pool export or disconnect. A status window displays with progress. When complete, a final dialog displays stating the export/disconnect completed successfully.

• Expand (Click to expand)

  Select Expand Pool to increase the pool size to match all available disk space. Users with pools using virtual disks use this option to resize these virtual disks apart from TrueNAS.

  

  Confirm activates the Continue button.

After adding a pool, the screen displays storage widgets. The same set of four widgets and the Export/Disconnect and Expand buttons display for each pool created on the system. The Unassigned Disks widget at the top of the Storage Dashboard only shows when there are disks available to add to a new or existing pool.

Each set of pool widgets provides access to screens for disks, datasets, VDEVs, snapshots, quotas, and pool ZFS functions for the pool. For example, Manage Devices on the Topology widget opens the Devices screen with the VDEVs configured for only that pool.

The Unassigned Disks widget displays the number of disks available on your system to use in pools. The disk count includes disks assigned in an exported pool. If you attempt to use a disk assigned in an exported pool, a warning message displays that prompts you to select a different disk.

To see information on each disk on the system, click Manage Disks on the Disk health widget

• Add To Pool Window (Click to expand)

  Add to Pool on the Unassigned Disks widget opens the Add to Pool window. It displays the number of unassigned disks and provides the option to assign these disks to a new or existing pool.

  

  The Add To Pool window has three radio buttons:

  • New Pool opens the Pool Creation Wizard.
  • Existing Pool shows the Existing Pool dropdown list of available pool options.
  • Existing Pool (Legacy) adds the Existing Pool dropdown list of available pool options.

  

  

  Add Disks opens the Pool Manager screen if the existing pool was created with the Pool Manager, otherwise it opens the Pool Creation Wizard. If you select New Pool, Add Disks opens the Pool Creation Wizard screen.

The Topology widget shows information on the VDEVs configured on the system and the status of the pool.

The widget lists each VDEV type (data, metadata, log, cache, spare, and dedup). A Data VDEV includes the data type (stripe, mirror, RAID, or mixed configuration), the number of disks (wide), and the storage capacity of that VDEV.

Manage Devices opens the Devices screen where you can add or manage existing VDEVs.

The Usage widget shows information on the space datasets consume in the pool, and the status of pool usage.

The widget includes a color-coded donut chart that illustrates the percentage of space the pool uses. Blue indicates space usage in the 0-80% range and red indicates anything above 80%. A warning displays below the donut graph when usage exceeds 80%.

Usable Capacity details pool space statistics by Used, Available, and Used by Snapshots.

View Disk Space Reports opens the pool usage reports for the selected pool.

Large (>1 petabyte) systems could report storage numbers inaccurately. Storage configurations with more than 9,007,199,254,740,992 bytes round the last 4 digits. For example, a system with 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 bytes reports the number as 18,446,744,073,709,552,000 bytes.

Manage Datasets opens the Datasets screen.

The ZFS Health widget shows information on the health of the pool.

Widget details include:

• Pool Status as online or offline
• Total ZFS Errors as a count of the number of ZFS errors
• Scheduled Scrub Task as set or not
• Auto TRIM as on or off

View all Scrub Tasks opens the Data Protections > Scrub Tasks details screen. This lists all scheduled scrub tasks and allows you to add a new or edit an existing task.

• Scrub Pool Dialog (Click to expand)

  Click Scrub on the ZFS Health widget to initiate a check on pool data integrity. The Scrub Pool dialog allows you to perform an unscheduled scrub task. If TrueNAS detects problems during the scrub, it either corrects them automatically or generates an alert in the web interface.

  By default, TrueNAS automatically checks every pool to verify it is on a reoccurring scrub schedule.

  To schedule a single or a regular pool scrub operation, click View All Scrub Tasks to open the Data Protections > Scrub Tasks details screen and add or manage scrub tasks configured on your system.

  

  Confirm activates the Start Scrub button.

• Auto TRIM Dialog (Click to expand)

  The Edit Auto TRIM option on the ZFS Health widget opens a dialog to set Auto TRIM.

  

  When enabled, Auto TRIM allows TrueNAS to periodically review data blocks and identify which empty blocks of obsolete blocks it can delete. Leave unselected to incorporate day block overwrites when a device write is started (default). Select Confirm to activate Save.

  For more details about TRIM in ZFS, see the autotrim property description in zpool.8.

The Disk Health widget shows information on the health of the disks in a pool. The details on the widget include the non-dismissed disk temperature alerts for highest, lowest, and average temperature, and failed S.M.A.R.T. tests.

Manage Disks opens the Storage > Disk screen.

View Reports opens the Report screen for the disks in the selected pool.

View all S.M.A.R.T. Tests opens the Data Protection > S.M.A.R.T. Tests screen.

Each widget in the set of four pool widgets includes a color-coded icon just to the right of the header. This icon indicates the status of the pool as healthy (green checkmark), offline (orange triangle), or in a warning state (purple warning sign).

This same information displays on both the Storage widget and a pool widget you can add to the Dashboard.

The Storage Dashboard shows the Upgrade button for existing pools after an upgrade to a new TrueNAS release that includes new OpenZFS feature flags. Newly created pools are always up to date with the OpenZFS feature flags available in the installed TrueNAS release.

The upgrade itself only takes a few seconds and is non-disruptive. It is not necessary to stop any sharing services to upgrade the pool. However, it is best to upgrade when the pool is not in heavy use. The upgrade process suspends I/O for a short period but is nearly instantaneous on a quiet pool.