Add more storage

[peter-swe]

Hi guys!
I'm running a small nasbox that earlier had 4x2TB drives in RAIDZ1. I know I should have 3, 5 or 9 drives for RAIDZ1. But that was my setup.
Now I was running low on space. So I've changed the drives one by one and now it's running 4x4TB drives.
And I wanted to add another drive for a total of 5x4TB, thinking that would be OK to do as it is more suitable for RAIDZ1...? (I will eventually make this a RAIDZ2 when I'm ready though)

But for now RAIDZ1 will have to do. I feel my backups is good enough.

So I added another drive to the system. Went to Storage, Volumes, Volume Manager, Manual Setup. I choose my Volume to Extend and my new Disk and pressed "Add Volume".

But my Available space didn't change. So I checked under Volume Status and it looks like this.
MainRaid

stripe

ada3p2 (new drive)​

raidz1-0

ada4p2
ada1p2
ada2p2
ada0p2
​

Shouldn't I be able to add this drive to the raidz1-0? What good does it do right now as "stripe"?
If it isn't possible to add it I might have to format it all and go raidz2 instead, in a bit. Can I remove the stripe and put it as a spare instead for the time being?

Thanks guys! All the best

​

 

[DrKK]

Oh. No.

You didn't see the huge warning message about not doing what you just did?

 

[peter-swe]

I guess... Not? :/

Oh. No.

You didn't see the huge warning message about not doing what you just did?

 

[peter-swe]

I'm guessing I should be worried...

 

[gpsguy]

At this point, with the new drive in the mix, should that drive fail, all your data is gone.

The real fix, is to backup the data and start over with your RAIDz2 pool.

In the meantime, you might want to add a mirror to that single disk, so you have some redundancy. Unfortunately, you can't do it from the webGUI. It's strictly a command line option. You'll have to search the forum for instructions on how to do it.

 

[Klontje]

You just added the new disk as a seperate vdev to your pool, if this disk fails your entire pool will be lost...

Oh, and you can't remove it from the pool without destroying the pool. So you best backup your data (you already should have done that anyway) and recreate your pool with one RAIDZ1/2 vdev (whatever you want).

 

[wtfR6a]

log story short , your stripe has no redundancy you lose the whole pool, which includes your Z1 array.
You need to copy off all your data to another set of drives and recreate a 5 disk Z1/Z2 as you intended to originally create with you existing drives.
There is no way to add a single disk like you just tried.

 

[peter-swe]

Well thats... Neat... Guess I have a reason to do that RAIDZ2 now then huh?
Will it be a problem to just use 5 drives instead of 6 in RAIDZ2? (6 would be preferred? I'm guessing...)

At this point, with the new drive in the mix, should that drive fail, all your data is gone.

The real fix, is to backup the data and start over with your RAIDz2 pool.

In the meantime, you might want to add a mirror to that single disk, so you have some redundancy. Unfortunately, you can't do it from the webGUI. It's strictly a command line option. You'll have to search the forum for instructions on how to do it.

 

[DrKK]

Well the problem is, now you have to evacuate the files off the pool to another storage, so that you can reconfigure the pool. ?

 

[peter-swe]

Well the problem is, now you have to evacuate the files off the pool to another storage, so that you can reconfigure the pool. ?

Yeah but I have a couple of backups of it all. So that's fine. I'm sure I will be able to get everything back to place.

But Is it OK to use 5 Drives for RAIDZ2 or will that give me problems?
Also. IF everything else failes. I still have the drives that were replaced. If i were to insert them in a freenas system, would I be able to import the volume? I didn't wipe them.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Is it OK to use 5 Drives for RAIDZ2

Yes, it's fine. Ignore any advice you see regarding 2^n + p disks being optimal, it's irrelevant except in a very limited set of specific use cases.

I still have the drives that were replaced. If i were to insert them in a freenas system, would I be able to import the volume?

I'm 99.9974% sure that won't work, because each drive was removed with the pool in a different state.

 

[peter-swe]

Thanks for all the quick answers everyone! Just wish I had made this mistake about 6 TB of critical data earlier :P

 

[Klontje]

Another general rule; once a vdev is created you can't add extra drives. Only replace drives like you initially did. So when you create your new raidz2 vdev with 5 drives you won't ever be able to expand it to a 6 disk raidz2.

 

[wtfR6a]

And honestly, please read the manual and the Cyberjock intro guide. It won't take you more than an hour or so and you'll avoid basic mistakes like this going forward.

 

[BigDave]

Another general rule; once a vdev is created you can't add extra drives. Only teplace drives like you initially did. So when you create your new raidz2 vdev with 5 drives you won't ever be able to expand it to a 6 disk raidz2.

you may properly expand a pool by adding Vdevs, but you can't properly expand a Vdev once
it has been configured, (edit) unless you add disks as mirrors of the original drives

 

[peter-swe]

Yeah I kinda thought I knew that it wouldn't be a problem... And I've done some reading in the beginning but guess this one slipped by me.
That's why I can be thankful for this forum and all of you guys pointing in the right direction! I'm gonna do a lot more research before doing anything like this again :)
Thanks again. Now wish me luck...
Here goes nothing

 

[Klontje]

good luck ;)

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

If you want maximum flexibility, consider building with striped mirrors. It's the easiest way to build an expandable pool, but all else being equal, is not as reliable as RAIDZ2 or RAIDZ3.

Just wish I had made this mistake about 6 TB of critical data earlier

At least it wasn't 60TB

Good luck!

 

[peter-swe]

Thanks everyone! I've made it a RAIDZ2 with the five drives.
My backups were made using rsync from a mac to a couple of different USB-drives (and later to a external NAS from the usb-drives)
And I have to put back a lot of files. My rsync backup looked kind of like this: rsync user@192.168.0.2/files/ /volume/usbhdd
So i tried to just reverse it. rsync /volume/usbhdd user@192.168.0.2/files/

However, my terminal only gives me this
>
And then nothing happens
Now I connected the mac to the server through AFP and moving files with cp-command instead of rsync. But it's slow and I don't get any feedback.
Anyone know what the problem could be with rsync?

I'm not in the same location as the server right now. But could I connect my USB-drive to freenas and copy it you think? It's formatted as a mac drive...

Thanks again! You guys are the best!

 

[Klontje]

;)check your trailing slash.

https://www.digitalocean.com/commun...to-sync-local-and-remote-directories-on-a-vps