HD Upgrade Concern

[statik]

Hey everyone, I am debating my upgrade and am looking for clarification.

I currently have a 20 bay case with 20x 1TB Seagate hard drives (not NAS friendly). My current Volume has raidz 2-1 with 10 drives and raidz 2-2 with 10 drives.

I want to purchase 10x 3TB WD RED to replace ALL of my 20x 1TB Seagate drives.

Will I be able to do this, allowing me to remove all 20x 1tb drives? if I want all 20x 1tb drives out, do i have to replace with 20x 3tb wd red drives?

Thanks in advance!

 

[danb35]

You have three options that I can see, and none of them sound very good:

1. Back up your data, destroy your existing pool, create a new pool on the new disks, and restore the data. This, of course, requires a place to back up the data.
2. Create a new pool with the new disks, migrate the data from the old pool to the new pool, then detach the old pool. This will require you to have a way to have all 30 disks connected to your machine while the data migration is happening.
3. Buy 20x 3 TB disks, and replace all the 1 TB disks (one at a time) with 3 TB disks.

If eliminating the 1 TB disks isn't critical, you could replace the disks in just one vdev (RAIDZ2-1 or RAIDZ2-2) with the new 3 TB disks. That would increase your pool capacity (by ~ 16 TB) and remove half of the 1 TB disks.

 

[statik]

1. I do have something i can backup the data on, so yes that is an option.
if i do this, then all of my permissions will be lost and i will have to redo them right?
2. cant happen, my system only has a 20 max connections
3. 20x 3tb disks is a lot more then what i can spend

those 1tb disks are not nas friendly and they crap out a lot, that is part of the reason why i need to put in red drives, i am afraid of losing my data.

Could I install the 10 3tb drives, replace 10 of the 1tb drives, and some how then transfer all the data on the other raid pool to the upgraded pool?

 

[9C1 Newbee]

You can upgrade one of the vdevs to the 3TB drives. I have never done it. The procedure is laid out in the manual. Replacing the drive one by one might take a bit of time. But the procedure doesn't seem difficult at all. Check out cyberjocks powerpoint on ZFS. It gave me a MUCH better understanding. Sounds like it would benefit you as well.

https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

 

[gpsguy]

Yes, but that's not what the OP wanted to do. The volume consists of 2-10 drive vdev's (20 disks). He wants to end up with a volume containing one vdev consisting of 10x3Tb drives.

You can upgrade one of the vdevs to the 3TB drives.

 

[9C1 Newbee]

Ok. If that is the case. Can he do as I suggested, then transfer the data from the old vdev to the newly upgraded vdev? Then he can remove the non-upgraded vdev. In the end he will have ten 3TB drives.

 

[statik]

Yes, but that's not what the OP wanted to do. The volume consists of 2-10 drive vdev's (20 disks). He wants to end up with a volume containing one vdev consisting of 10x3Tb drives.

I want to remove all my 1tb drives. but can only afford 10x 3tb drives. those 3tb wd red drives are at least 120 each. however possible, but the best solution and trying not do damage my data and permissions.

 

[9C1 Newbee]

Green drives are $104 ish. Just sayin ;)

 

[gpsguy]

No, he can't remove the non-upgraded vdev, since it's part of the volume. He has 2 vdev's striped together. That's why danb35 outlined the choices available to him.

Then he can remove the non-upgraded vdev.

 

[statik]

Green drives are $104 ish. Just sayin ;)

green drives are not nas friendly

 

[statik]

OK, this just came to me.

since i have to vdev's, each = to 10tb. can I just replace 5 drives from each with my new 3tb drives, this would be more hd space then originally there. Assuming, I can remove the excess 1tb drives.

Do i have to have 20x drives?

 

[danb35]

Ok. If that is the case. Can he do as I suggested, then transfer the data from the old vdev to the newly upgraded vdev? Then he can remove the non-upgraded vdev. In the end he will have ten 3TB drives.

No. Once a vdev has been added to a pool, it cannot be removed. @statik states that he has a single volume (i.e., pool) with two vdevs.

 

[danb35]

since i have to vdev's, each = to 10tb. can I just replace 5 drives from each with my new 3tb drives, this would be more hd space then originally there. Assuming, I can remove the excess 1tb drives.

Yes, you could replace five disks in each vdev. However, this would not increase the size of your vdev, because a RAIDZ vdev's capacity is determined by the capacity of the smallest disk. In short, that would give you two vdevs, each consisting of 5 x 1 TB and 5 x 3 TB disks, with the same net capacity you have now, and 2 TB of unusable space on each of your 3 TB disks.

@9C1 Newbie has given you the link to cyberjock's powerpoint on ZFS--you really should go through it.

 

[statik]

i will go through the power point. it seems like my only option is to backup my current data and then wipe my current pools, and then pull out all 1tb drives and put in the 3tb drives. OR be patient and save up more lol

 

[Jailer]

i will go through the power point. it seems like my only option is to backup my current data and then wipe my current pools, and then pull out all 1tb drives and put in the 3tb drives. OR be patient and save up more lol

To do what you have stated in your OP with the hardware you have described, that is correct.

If you are losing a lot of drives to failure I'd be monitoring the drive temps closely.

 

[danb35]

@statik, something else just clicked for me. If your disks are dropping offline, it's highly unlikely that this has anything to do with their not being "NAS friendly." Lots of us are using disks other than the manufacturers' designated NAS product line without problems. WD Greens are known to work well, as long as you use the WDIDLE3.EXE utility to set the park timer to something sensible. I have a Hitachi Deskstar 2 TB in my system that's been running over 2 years, and a Seagate Barracuda 2 TB with about 18 months on it.

You may be barking up the wrong tree here.

 

[statik]

@statik, something else just clicked for me. If your disks are dropping offline, it's highly unlikely that this has anything to do with their not being "NAS friendly." Lots of us are using disks other than the manufacturers' designated NAS product line without problems. WD Greens are known to work well, as long as you use the WDIDLE3.EXE utility to set the park timer to something sensible. I have a Hitachi Deskstar 2 TB in my system that's been running over 2 years, and a Seagate Barracuda 2 TB with about 18 months on it.

You may be barking up the wrong tree here.

well im also running out of space, so i want to upgrade to top quality drives. I lost 7tb once, and i dont want it to ever happen again. my NAS has top quality gear except the drives.

 

[gpsguy]

Remember this option.

If eliminating the 1 TB disks isn't critical, you could replace the disks in just one vdev (RAIDZ2-1 or RAIDZ2-2) with the new 3 TB disks. That would increase your pool capacity (by ~ 16 TB) and remove half of the 1 TB disks.

Down the road, when drive prices fall, you might be able to replace the other 10x1Tb vdev, with 10x6Tb drives.

 

[statik]

Remember this option.



Down the road, when drive prices fall, you might be able to replace the other 10x1Tb vdev, with 10x6Tb drives.

ahh i get it now, perfect. and since i will have 10 extra 1tb drives in case one the others fail. and will give me time to save for the other 10 3tb drives. this is the choice i will go, it will not affect my data and permissions.

 

[9C1 Newbee]

No. Once a vdev has been added to a pool, it cannot be removed. @statik states that he has a single volume (i.e., pool) with two vdevs.

Ahhhhhhh That's right. My bad. Thank you for squaring me away. Guess I need to re-watch cyberjocks presentation myself.