Expanding Mirror + Strip

[Ned LeBouthillier]

Hi,

I just running a home NAS as a media center and data protection and I'm at the point where drives are starting to fail. I can find my way around but am in no way an expert an my Linux/Unix is limited so bare with me.

Have 6 drives configured in a Strip of Mirrors (Mirror then strip configuration). My smaller Mirrored drives (oldest drives) are starting to fail. Below, ada5 is failing. I want to replace the mirror with a bigger one. I'm planning to take ada5 off line are replace it with a bigger driver then once re-silvered do the same thing with ada4. Is it that simple? I know it's not a problem in a mirror but since it's alos stripped I'm not sure. I don't have an easy way to back up the NAS before the upgrade so I don't want to atempt it before I know it will work.

I'm running FreeNAS-11.2-U6

Thanks!

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

I'm planning to take ada5 off line are replace it with a bigger driver then once re-silvered do the same thing with ada4. Is it that simple?

Basically, yes. You'll want to follow the User Guide's instructions on resilvering a disk as well as growing a pool by resilivering every drive in the vdev. Essentially though, what you described is the process; resilver ada5 with a larger disk, then when it is done resilver ada4. Once ada4 is done you'll have increased the size of your pool.

I don't have an easy way to back up the NAS before the upgrade so I don't want to atempt it before I know it will work.

Beware that a NAS, even FreeNAS is not a substitute for a backup. Consider if you made a mistake in growing your pool and accidentally ruined your vdev; you'd lose your whole pool. If a single vdev in a pool fails you lose the entire pool. Also consider if fire or some other disaster were to happen and you lose the server. If you have data you REALLY don't' want to lose you should consider a backup strategy if you can.

 

[Ned LeBouthillier]

Thanks. I don't consider a NAS backup either. I don't keep anything on there that I'm not willing to lose. It would just be a BIG annoyance to lose it.

I'll give it a try and see what happens!