Looking for best storage option for me

[AceMilo]

My current FreeNAS box has 2x 4TB drives as a JBOD array. I'm currently at 94% capacity so I bought 2x 6TB drives that arrived today. What's going to be my best option for adding these drives to my box? I would like to have some redundancy, so if I back up my data first then add the new drives and wipe the old pool can I make a RAIDZ with the 4x drives even though they're different sizes or do they have to all be the same size? I'd like to maximize space while having some redundancy and I'm just not totally sure what my options are. I can get access to a big drive I can back up my data to temporarily if I need to wipe stuff.

Thanks.

 

[Chris Moore]

has 2x 4TB drives as a JBOD array.

This doesn't describe the configuration of your storage pool in terms that others might understand. Please review the documents at the following links so we can speak the same language:

Slideshow explaining VDev, zpool, ZIL and L2ARC
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

Terminology and Abbreviations Primer
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/terminology-and-abbreviations-primer.28174/

I'm currently at 94% capacity

Please share the output of zpool status, should look something like this:

Code:

  pool: Irene
 state: ONLINE
  scan: scrub repaired 0 in 0 days 03:23:04 with 0 errors on Wed Apr  3 03:23:05 2019
config:

        NAME                                            STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        Irene                                           ONLINE       0     0     0
          raidz2-0                                      ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/8710385b-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/87e94156-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/88db19ad-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/89addd3b-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/8a865453-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/8b66b1ef-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0
          raidz2-1                                      ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/8c69bc72-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/8d48655d-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/8e2b6d1f-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/8efea929-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/8fd4d25c-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/90c2759a-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

  pool: freenas-boot
 state: ONLINE
  scan: scrub repaired 0 in 0 days 00:09:57 with 0 errors on Sun Apr 14 03:54:57 2019
config:

        NAME                                            STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        freenas-boot                                    ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-0                                      ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/f659fd6d-4b12-11e6-a97c-002590aecc79  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/f6a61d33-4b12-11e6-a97c-002590aecc79  ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

Also, please share the output of the command zpool list, which should look something like this:

Code:

NAME           SIZE  ALLOC   FREE  EXPANDSZ   FRAG    CAP  DEDUP  HEALTH  ALTROOT
Irene         43.5T  17.5T  26.0T         -     0%    40%  1.00x  ONLINE  /mnt
freenas-boot  37.2G  11.9G  25.4G         -      -    31%  1.00x  ONLINE  -

I would like to have some redundancy, so if I back up my data first then add the new drives and wipe the old pool can I make a RAIDZ with the 4x drives even though they're different sizes or do they have to all be the same size?

Sure, you can do that.

I'd like to maximize space while having some redundancy and I'm just not totally sure what my options are.

Reading the documents I linked above should help you understand your options. I would suggest RAIDz2 and six drives.

Why not to use RAID-5 or RAIDz1
https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-raid-5-stops-working-in-2009/

 

[Chris Moore]

PS. You can create a code listing by placing code tags like this [CODE] around your text [/CODE].

 

[AceMilo]

This doesn't describe the configuration of your storage pool in terms that others might understand. Please review the documents at the following links so we can speak the same language:

Slideshow explaining VDev, zpool, ZIL and L2ARC
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

Terminology and Abbreviations Primer
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/terminology-and-abbreviations-primer.28174/

Please share the output of zpool status, should look something like this:

Code:

  pool: Irene
state: ONLINE
  scan: scrub repaired 0 in 0 days 03:23:04 with 0 errors on Wed Apr  3 03:23:05 2019
config:

        NAME                                            STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        Irene                                           ONLINE       0     0     0
          raidz2-0                                      ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/8710385b-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/87e94156-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/88db19ad-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/89addd3b-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/8a865453-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/8b66b1ef-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0
          raidz2-1                                      ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/8c69bc72-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/8d48655d-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/8e2b6d1f-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/8efea929-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/8fd4d25c-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/90c2759a-becf-11e8-b1c8-0cc47a9cd5a4  ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

  pool: freenas-boot
state: ONLINE
  scan: scrub repaired 0 in 0 days 00:09:57 with 0 errors on Sun Apr 14 03:54:57 2019
config:

        NAME                                            STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        freenas-boot                                    ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-0                                      ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/f659fd6d-4b12-11e6-a97c-002590aecc79  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/f6a61d33-4b12-11e6-a97c-002590aecc79  ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

Also, please share the output of the command zpool list, which should look something like this:

Code:

NAME           SIZE  ALLOC   FREE  EXPANDSZ   FRAG    CAP  DEDUP  HEALTH  ALTROOT
Irene         43.5T  17.5T  26.0T         -     0%    40%  1.00x  ONLINE  /mnt
freenas-boot  37.2G  11.9G  25.4G         -      -    31%  1.00x  ONLINE  -

Sure, you can do that.

Reading the documents I linked above should help you understand your options. I would suggest RAIDz2 and six drives.

Why not to use RAID-5 or RAIDz1
https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-raid-5-stops-working-in-2009/

I'm not going to be buying more drives any time soon so I'm stuck with 2x 4tb and 2x 6tb. What are my options?

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

What are my options?

The number and size of disks is really limiting you here. If you do two mirrored vdevs that'll give you a theoretical max of 10TB. Consider the 80% rule, which you've gone past already it seems, and you have ~8TB of storage. That setup gives you 1 disk redundancy in each vdev. Check out the links shared above for more detail. If you do RAIDZ1 with all 4 disks you have 1 disk redundancy and ~9.6TB of usable space but you're leaving 4 TB on the table by mixing disk sizes in the RAIDZ1 vdev.

I think reading the links above and providing the info asked for above will be very helpful. For example, are your two disks in a mirror vdev or not?

Do keep in mind that redundancy in a vdev is not a substitute for a real backup. Things can go wrong; you can make a mistake with your pools or something can bring the whole machine down such that only a real backup will give you a chance to save your data.

 

[AceMilo]

The 2 in there now are just striped. I'm not currently using any redundancy but I would like to if I can.

 

[garm]

If the original drives are striped and the data is at all important you need to take the drives you bought and attach them as mirrors to the existing.
This will give you Zero new storage surface.

Rebuilding the pool in mirrors as mentioned (your only real option with the drives you have) will give you ~ 2 TB of additional raw storage, which just puts you just below the 80 % line, effectively giving you Zero new storage surface.

The only way of increasing the effective storage space with your drives is to add them as stripes. But this is really dangerous (!)

As you have close to 8 TB of stuff and you want to increase your storage in a meaningful way, your only real option is a RAIDZ2 pool consisting of six 6 TB drives (reusing the two you already have) or a mirror pool of three vdevs using your existing 4 and 6 TB drives and two additional 6 TB drives. This will give you roughly 10 TB and 5 TB additional storage respectively.

 

[Chris Moore]

The 2 in there now are just striped. I'm not currently using any redundancy but I would like to if I can.

This is very bad. A single disk failure will destroy all your data. Please make a full backup as quickly as possible.

I'm not going to be buying more drives any time soon so I'm stuck with 2x 4tb and 2x 6tb. What are my options?

This doesn't leave many options. Not really any good ones. You should have asked before spending money so we could have made some suggestions that you could have more wisely invested in.
At this point, you need more drives if you want to have both redundancy AND more capacity.

 

[AceMilo]

Ok let's say I want to do this. I want to mirror the 2 6tb droves I have so I'll be adding 6tb to the server effectively. Now I want to move the data to the new array then wipe to old array and make that a mirror as well so I'd have a 4tb pool and a 6tb pool. What's the best way to do this without losing my jails and everything I've already set up?

 

[Chris Moore]

I want to mirror the 2 6tb droves I have so I'll be adding 6tb to the server effectively.

Add the two 6TB drives as a new mirror storage pool.
Copy all the data from the old pool to the new pool.
After you are sure everything is copied over, destroy the old storage pool.
Then add the old drives as an additional vdev to the new storage pool.
It is all easily done, but if you need some guidance on the details, just ask.

 

[AceMilo]

I know how to add the new drives and make the pool but you're losing me on the vdev part. Can you explain how to do that?

 

[AceMilo]

Also what's the best way to migrate the data over?

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

I know how to add the new drives and make the pool but you're losing me on the vdev part. Can you explain how to do that?

Pools are made of vdevs and vdevs are made of disks. What you'll do is make a new pool with 1 vdev itself made of 2 6TB drives as a mirror. Copy the files over. Then, follow the instructions on extending a pool by adding vdevs. You'll add the 2 4TB drives as another mirror vdev to the same pool as the 6TB drives. Dont do any striped vdevs. If any single vdev in a pool fails the pool is lost and if any single drive in a striped vdev fails the vdev is lost.

 

[AceMilo]

Ok so what's the best way to copy the data over?

 

[Chris Moore]

Ok so what's the best way to copy the data over?

Midnight Commander works pretty easily. Here is a demo video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWu2R9cn_b8

 

[anmnz]

If any single vdev in a pool fails the pool is lost and if any single drive in a striped vdev fails the vdev is lost.

"striped vdev"? You're thinking of a single-disk vdev. (Which will indeed take out the entire pool if it fails, as will any vdev, as you say.)

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

"striped vdev"? You're thinking of a single-disk vdev.

Correct, or multiple such vdevs as is created if you select several disks and then choose stripe. I was replying on my phone and so trying to save keystrokes.

 

[AceMilo]

So I finally got the drives installed. I had a bad sata cable so it took time until I could get a replacement and sit down to do the work. I've begun copying data over so I can wipe my old pool and that's been fine.

However I now need to know how do I copy over both my old style and new style jails and then restore them back when I wipe the drives? There doesn't seem to be an easy option for this? Any help is appreciated.

 

[AceMilo]

Bump. I'm completely stuck until I figure this part out.