4 HDD in a raid-z + hot-swap

[Kezender]

Hello everyone,

I've been dealing with FreeNAS for a while and have really no Idea how am I supposed to do this Task.

I have 4 HDD with 500GB of space in each hard drive.

ada0
ST500DM002
(500GB)

ada1
ST500DM002
(500GB)

ada 2
WDC WD5000AAKX
(500GB)

ada 3
WDC WD5000AAKX
(500GB)

and my goal is to set up a working Raid-z with hot spare. I have installed the latest version of my FreeNAS on ada3 + spare partition and I integrated the remaining 3 hard drives with Raid-Z.
My problem is that I can't create a spare on any hard drive.

What options do I have in this situation?
Does my Hardware Information really needed in this post?

thank you for your support!,
Kezender

 

[Spearfoot]

Hello everyone,

I've been dealing with FreeNAS for a while and have really no Idea how am I supposed to do this Task.

I have 4 HDD with 500GB of space in each hard drive.

ada0
ST500DM002
(500GB)

ada1
ST500DM002
(500GB)

ada 2
WDC WD5000AAKX
(500GB)

ada 3
WDC WD5000AAKX
(500GB)

and my goal is to set up a working Raid-z with hot spare. I have installed the latest version of my FreeNAS on ada3 + spare partition and I integrated the remaining 3 hard drives with Raid-Z.
My problem is that I can't create a spare on any hard drive.

What options do I have in this situation?
Does my Hardware Information really needed in this post?

thank you for your support!,
Kezender

If you installed FreeNAS on ada3, then you can't use it as a data disk. Your best bet is to install FreeNAS on a thumb drive or small SSD (preferably the latter), which will free up your ada3 disk for use as a spare.

 

[Kezender]

Hello Spearfoot,
yes that should work but my task was to run the FreeNAS software on one of the 4 hard drives. not boot from the USB or CD-Rom. I needed to create an OS partition and the rest data.
Do you have any clues?

 

[jgreco]

Hello Spearfoot,
yes that should work but my task was to run the FreeNAS software on one of the 4 hard drives. not boot from the USB or CD-Rom. I needed to create an OS partition and the rest data.
Do you have any clues?

That won't work, as @Spearfoot already explained. FreeNAS expects to have some separate device from the pool to boot from.

 

[Kezender]

Is it possible to install FreeNAS on a thumb drive and then somehow copy the FreeNAS Data on a HDD to make the FreeNAS System think, it was on a seperate device?

 

[Chris Moore]

Is it possible to install FreeNAS on a thumb drive and then somehow copy the FreeNAS Data on a HDD to make the FreeNAS System think, it was on a seperate device?

NO. FreeNAS / TrueNAS is designed to boot from a ZFS pool named "freenas-boot". That is where the OS and configuration data is stored. Then there is a separate group of disks on which the storage pool (also ZFS) is created. You can not use a storage pool disk as a boot disk. The storage pool disks are formatted and partitions are created as part of the pool creation process.

You can use a very small USB memory module such as this:

Robot or human?

It is small and inexpensive. Many people used these successfully but I would recommend a mirrored pair.

 

[Kezender]

NO. FreeNAS / TrueNAS is designed to boot from a ZFS pool named "freenas-boot". That is where the OS and configuration data is stored. Then there is a separate group of disks on which the storage pool (also ZFS) is created. You can not use a storage pool disk as a boot disk. The storage pool disks are formatted and partitions are created as part of the pool creation process.

You can use a very small USB memory module such as this:

View attachment 44053

Robot or human?

It is small and inexpensive. Many people used these successfully but I would recommend a mirrored pair.

A mirrored pair? How?

 

[danb35]

my task was to run the FreeNAS software on one of the 4 hard drives.

So you're asking us to help you with your homework?

 

[Chris Moore]

A mirrored pair? How?

You can initially install to two drives (as a mirrored pair) or you can add a second drive to a single drive boot pool later. There is an option for it in the GUI if they didn't take it away. It has always been possible to boot from USB, it is just better to use SSD because they are more durable.

 

[Kezender]

So you're asking us to help you with your homework?

not really.. I got this "little Challenge" from somebody i know.

 

[Kezender]

You can initially install to two drives (as a mirrored pair) or you can add a second drive to a single drive boot pool later. There is an option for it in the GUI if they didn't take it away. It has always been possible to boot from USB, it is just better to use SSD because they are more durable.

Okay thanks, ill try it out!