Going from UFS to ZFS help please..

[cattledog]

Well here it goes.

I have started building a system with 9.3 Freenas. I have used the previous with UFS but now that we have a ZFS we have to upgrade my whole server.

1 x Supermicro X10SLL-F LGA 1150 Motherboard (in stock)

2 x Crucial CT102472BD160B 8GB PC3L-12800 ECC Unbuffered 240-pin DIMM

1 x Intel i3-4160 3.60GHz 2C 3M FCLGA1150

2 x Green WD 1 tera

2 x Green WD 3 tera

Yes I know that the hdd are not ideal as red would of been better but in Australia that would be around another $150.00 plus.

The thing is that I download/copy a lot of movies and apps in my windows comp and then transfer them to the Freenas so we are able to access them by media players in other rooms.

I have no idea how I should set this up as I had hdd for each things that I wanted ie: hdd for movies hdd for apps hdd for music and so on in all I had 6 hdd in the ufs system but with the zfs what would be my best option as I do not want to loose any of my stuff?

Can someone please give me an idea how to set this up cheers.

 

[Bidule0hm]

The best option to not lose data would be a RAID-Z2 with your 4 drives but you lose 2TB on the 3TB drives and you lose half the space for the parity so you have 2Tb for your data.

The next best option would be a mirror of the two 1TB drives striped with a mirror of the two 3TB drives. You again lose half the space for parity but this time you have 3 + 1 TB for your data ;)

And, as always, a RAID doesn't replace a backup.

 

[danb35]

If you haven't bought the drives yet, I'd strongly encourage replacing the 1 TB disks with 3 TB disks, then setting them up in the RAIDZ2 configuration @Bidule0hm mentioned. That would give you 6TB (or 5.4 TiB) of net capacity, and protect against the loss of any two disks. Then, plug in your UFS disks one at a time and use the Import Disk feature in the web GUI to copy the data from there into a specified dataset on your new pool.

Better yet would be to set up a 6-disk pool, but then you don't have a SATA port to plug in the UFS disks to copy the data from them. It would be better in that you'd only use 1/3 of your total disk space for parity, rather than 1/2.

 

[cattledog]

If you haven't bought the drives yet, I'd strongly encourage replacing the 1 TB disks with 3 TB disks, then setting them up in the RAIDZ2 configuration @Bidule0hm mentioned. That would give you 6TB (or 5.4 TiB) of net capacity, and protect against the loss of any two disks. Then, plug in your UFS disks one at a time and use the Import Disk feature in the web GUI to copy the data from there into a specified dataset on your new pool.

Better yet would be to set up a 6-disk pool, but then you don't have a SATA port to plug in the UFS disks to copy the data from them. It would be better in that you'd only use 1/3 of your total disk space for parity, rather than 1/2.

No probs about copying ufs to system as I can have a usb external hdd reader and use UFS Explorer Professional Recovery in windows and copy it across.

So when you say 6-disk pool, do you mean with hdd that I have cause I cannot buy anymore at the moment. If this is what you are saying how do I set this pool up?

Cheers

 

[danb35]

The fastest way to copy the data from your existing drives, of course, would be to connect them directly to your new motherboard. The network slows things down, and USB slows them down even more. However, directly connecting a disk to your motherboard occupies a SATA port which then can't be used for your storage pool.

The reason I suggest setting up a 6-disk pool if possible, rather than a 4-disk pool, is (1) assuming all disks are the same size, you'll use less of the pool capacity for parity (1/3 vs. 1/2); and (2) you can't add disks to the vdev later--that is, you can't turn a 4-disk RAIDZ2 into a 6-disk RAIDZ2. You'd have two SATA ports on your motherboard that you wouldn't be able to use very well with your system. Both of these are explained in some detail in cyberjock's guide, linked in @Bidule0hm's signature.

To set up a six-disk pool, you'd need to have six disks to install in your FreeNAS server, and you'd have to be prepared to format them. If you can copy data off of your old disks to your Windows PC, maybe you can free up a couple of disks that way.

 

[cattledog]

The fastest way to copy the data from your existing drives, of course, would be to connect them directly to your new motherboard. The network slows things down, and USB slows them down even more. However, directly connecting a disk to your motherboard occupies a SATA port which then can't be used for your storage pool.

The reason I suggest setting up a 6-disk pool if possible, rather than a 4-disk pool, is (1) assuming all disks are the same size, you'll use less of the pool capacity for parity (1/3 vs. 1/2); and (2) you can't add disks to the vdev later--that is, you can't turn a 4-disk RAIDZ2 into a 6-disk RAIDZ2. You'd have two SATA ports on your motherboard that you wouldn't be able to use very well with your system. Both of these are explained in some detail in cyberjock's guide, linked in @Bidule0hm's signature.

To set up a six-disk pool, you'd need to have six disks to install in your FreeNAS server, and you'd have to be prepared to format them. If you can copy data off of your old disks to your Windows PC, maybe you can free up a couple of disks that way.

So really.....I should have all 3 tera hdd x6 in a raidz2 this inturn would mean that in total 18tera but loss of 50% due to parity? This would then give me a use of 9tera for data storage but unable to increase 1)no more ports on m/board 2)can not add extra hdd to the raid.

Would it be just as simple to mirror each hdd?

 

[Bidule0hm]

No, only 33% of parity ;)

Mirroring would use 50% for parity and moreover it'll be a bit less safe.

I just made a calculator, the link is in my signature :)

 

[cattledog]

No, only 33% of parity ;)

Mirroring would use 50% for parity and moreover it'll be a bit less safe.

I just made a calculator, the link is in my signature :)

Funny ya say that.....was just looking at it then.... well done

 

[cattledog]

Funny ya say that.....was just looking at it then.... well done

I love the calculator....and I say this as a person as a noob and also no money to buy extra hdd all the same sizes but is there or do you have a calc that will work with 2xhdd =same size and 4xhdd=smaller size? ie:2x3tera and 4x1tera total=10tera or this will not work in a raidZ2?

 

[Bidule0hm]

Thanks ;)

No, and it would be utterly complicated to handle different drive sizes unfortunately.

But the rules are simple: for RAID-Zx the size of each drive is limited by the size of the smaller drive. So with 3 and 1 TB drives it's like if the 3 TB drives are 1 TB drives. For stripe and mirrors it depends.

 

[cattledog]

Thanks ;)

No, and it would be utterly complicated to handle different drive sizes unfortunately.

But the rules are simple: for RAID-Zx the size of each drive is limited by the size of the smaller drive. So with 3 and 1 TB drives it's like if the 3 TB drives are 1 TB drives. For stripe and mirrors it depends.

Ok...here is a stupid question....If I had say4x3tera hdd and 4x1tera hdd for example could I have 2x RAID-Z2 independent of each other like say movies on the 3tera and songs on 1 tera.....if I had the ports to support this on the board of course.

Also if I had 4x3tera and wish to build it to a 6x3tera could I? or would I have to build new system and transfer data?

 

[marbus90]

That would work. You also either create a raidz2 on each of these sizes and just stripe them together, which gives you one bigger pool. That said:

4x3TB = 6TB usable + 4x1TB = 2TB usable == 8TB usable right now, but you would need the X10SL7-F with an integrated LSI HBA.
I'd just add another 2x 1+TB drives into the X10SLL-F mix, create a raidz2 across all 6 disks, live with 4TB usable for a while and then replace the 1TB with 3+TB later on, which gives you 12TB without having to rebuild your pool later on. Just replacing your smaller disks with the bigger ones as you would do if one would break.

 

[danb35]

Ok...here is a stupid question....If I had say4x3tera hdd and 4x1tera hdd for example could I have 2x RAID-Z2 independent of each other like say movies on the 3tera and songs on 1 tera.....if I had the ports to support this on the board of course.

You could have those as two separate pools, or combined into one single pool--the latter is what I'd generally recommend, and is more or less how my storage is set up (though in my case it's two six-disk RAIDZ2 vdevs in the pool).

Also if I had 4x3tera and wish to build it to a 6x3tera could I? or would I have to build new system and transfer data?

No, you'd need to back up the data, destroy the pool, re-create it with six disks, and then restore the data. This is one of the reasons I suggest starting with a six-disk RAIDZ2 if possible, rather than a four-disk RAIDZ2.

 

[cattledog]

You could have those as two separate pools, or combined into one single pool--the latter is what I'd generally recommend, and is more or less how my storage is set up (though in my case it's two six-disk RAIDZ2 vdevs in the pool).

No, you'd need to back up the data, destroy the pool, re-create it with six disks, and then restore the data. This is one of the reasons I suggest starting with a six-disk RAIDZ2 if possible, rather than a four-disk RAIDZ2.

Thanks danb35

 

[cattledog]

That would work. You also either create a raidz2 on each of these sizes and just stripe them together, which gives you one bigger pool. That said:

4x3TB = 6TB usable + 4x1TB = 2TB usable == 8TB usable right now, but you would need the X10SL7-F with an integrated LSI HBA.
I'd just add another 2x 1+TB drives into the X10SLL-F mix, create a raidz2 across all 6 disks, live with 4TB usable for a while and then replace the 1TB with 3+TB later on, which gives you 12TB without having to rebuild your pool later on. Just replacing your smaller disks with the bigger ones as you would do if one would break.

marbus90....I beleive that you are correct and I will follow you lead and use the 4x1tera and get 2x1tera more and as money increases...(wife gives me more) and enlarge the drives later...:)