Adding new hard drive to mirror

ivanavm

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Jul 6, 2019
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Can I add new empty hard drive to existing pool (with data) with only one drive?
We should copy data from existing pool and continue working in mirror without data loss.
 

Chris Moore

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Can I add new empty hard drive to existing pool (with data) with only one drive?
We should copy data from existing pool and continue working in mirror without data loss.
There is no facility for this in the GUI. It is possible, but it would need to be done from the command line. Do you have SSH access setup to communicate with your FreeNAS system? Are you fairly comfortable working in the command line?
 

ivanavm

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Too bad there is no GUI for this. Anyhow please try to explain to me step by step what to do in order to keep data.
 

Chris Moore

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melloa

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Too bad there is no GUI for this. Anyhow please try to explain to me step by step what to do in order to keep data.

Also, please, read the forum rules.

I quote:

Don't forget to use the search box in the top right to look for existing solutions to your problem. This saves time for everyone, including the person who needs an answer.
 

Lewscrew

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Jul 2, 2019
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Similar to the OP, I have a single drive FreeNAS system with 1 8TB drive and need to add a mirror redundancy or RAID type system to back up my data. I have purchased an identical 8TB drive and am running 11.2-U5.

When I read this thread, I am getting confused if I can add a drive for mirroring in the new GUI, need to use the old interface, a command prompt, or which set of instructions to follow. I'm familiar with the command prompt and GUI.

I'll apologize in advance to those forum members who will be annoyed with my question. I have suffered a traumatic brain injury and have concentration and cognitive challenges and am facing a lengthy recovery.

Yes, I have read the forum rules, but am reaching out to the community for help since I have no experience with FreeNAS prior to 11.2 release and am getting a mental block with this process and have been trying to work thru the process for over a month. Prior to my injury this would not have been an issue.

Thanks in advance
 

Chris Moore

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I can add a drive for mirroring in the new GUI,
No. There is no feature to add a mirror to an existing single drive through the GUI.
You must use the command line to do it. Read through the thread that was linked. All the instructions are there.
You need to configure SSH so you can have command line access to the system
 

NeostormT

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Sep 3, 2020
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I found this guide to convert an existing pool (1 drive) into a mirrored (2 drive) it was clearer to me than the one listed above.

The only part i wasn't sure about is why when you create a new mirrored pool with the guide the pool status in the gui shows one as ada#p2 and the other as ada#p1 where a mirrored pool created in the gui would have both labeled as p2
 

Chris Moore

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I found this guide to convert an existing pool (1 drive) into a mirrored (2 drive) it was clearer to me than the one listed above.

The only part i wasn't sure about is why when you create a new mirrored pool with the guide the pool status in the gui shows one as ada#p2 and the other as ada#p1 where a mirrored pool created in the gui would have both labeled as p2
The steps in the non-forum article you cite are incomplete as they do not create a swap partition on the drive before creating the data partition.
The steps in this - post - are the correct steps to use in FreeNAS.
 

NeostormT

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Sep 3, 2020
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The steps in the non-forum article you cite are incomplete as they do not create a swap partition on the drive before creating the data partition.
The steps in this - post - are the correct steps to use in FreeNAS.
Thanks, everything makes much more sense now. I went back and detached/destroyed the mirrored drive and followed the guide you suggested. This time with a little more confidence I wasn't going to destroy my data running a command I didn't fully understand.
 

SAK

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Dec 9, 2022
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I think a lot of people would find super useful a GUI method to add a disk to an existing mirror, or create a mirror from an existing single disk. Both of these cases, especially the former, would serve a great many people I believe. Being able to turn a 2-disk mirror into a 3-disk mirror for example or a 3 to 4...very useful for duplicating/migrating and minimizing downtime. Or if data becomes more critical and someone just wants a 3 disk mirror. It would be nice to have this option in the GUI I think. I ran into that last night and was disappointed there isn't a way to do it. CLI scares me a bit with TrueNAS so far.
 

Patrick M. Hausen

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I think a lot of people would find super useful a GUI method to add a disk to an existing mirror, or create a mirror from an existing single disk.
TrueNAS supports this perfectly well. In CORE click on Storage > Pools, then on the cogwheel for your pool, select Status, click on the menu for a single disk, select Extend.

This is the Legacy FreeNAS section of the forum. This thread does not apply to current supported software.
 

SAK

Dabbler
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Dec 9, 2022
Messages
20
TrueNAS supports this perfectly well. In CORE click on Storage > Pools, then on the cogwheel for your pool, select Status, click on the menu for a single disk, select Extend.

This is the Legacy FreeNAS section of the forum. This thread does not apply to current supported software.
Thank you, sir. I did not see that before :) Great feature!
 
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