how to create a RAID10 array in FreeNAS 9.1.1

[asheenlevrai]

Hi,

I am totally new to FreeNAS. I did my best installing FreeNAS 9.1.1 x64 on an home PC and I managed to get it up an running. I can access the web GUI and create user accounts etc...

However, as soon as I try to create volumes, I get error messages.

INFO: the system is installed on a 4GB USB dongle while there are 4 200GB disks in the machine. 2x 200GB ATA133 on a PCI controller and 2x 200GB sATA2 on onboard sATA2 ports

The error messages I get basically tell me that the disk cannot be modified/wiped due to rights limitation ("operation not permitted" for dd) or that the partition table cannot be modified ("unable to GPT format the disk").

AS I said, I am brand new to FreeNAS... Maybe I forgot something obvious, maybe I did something wrong, Maybe some of my hardware is incompatible... I don't know...

Please let me know what information could be useful to troubleshoot this further...

Thank you very much in advance for your help.
Best,
-a-

 

[asheenlevrai]

Update:

I took my 4 disks out and tried to format them on a linux ubuntu machine... unsuccessful, I got error messages.
I plugged the disks on a Mac and successfully reformatted them (GPT - 1 partition), just saying... ;)

I put the 4 disks back into my freenas 9.1.1 box and now I can use them :)

So, Since I wanted to create a RAID10 array, I checked a bit online how to do that. Google told me to create 2 RAID1 array and then make a RAID0 array with them...

I started by successfully creating 2 RAID1 arrays but then I couldn't find how to group them into a RAID0 array. So I decided to "detach" both RAID1 arrays and tried to create a single mirrored array using the 4 disks... Didn't work... I got back to the previous error messages...

I tried creating 2 RAID1 array again, just like before... No luck, still the same error messages... I tried wiping each disk individually... Guess what? Same error messages... It looks like I don't know what I am doing or FreeNAS is handling disks poorly (I'll go for the 1st hypothesis)

It looks like I am going to take my 4 disks out again and format them on my mac.... Any other suggestion?

How can I create a RAID10 array on FreeNAS 9.1.1 Goggle doesn't help me much there....

Best,
-a-

PS:
I am using UFS rather than ZFS since I have only 4GB of RAM... Google told me this was the way to go... Tell me if you think I should use ZFS

 

[asheenlevrai]

I'd like to rename this tread:
"how to create a RAID10 array in FreeNAS 9.1.1"
But I cannot find how to edit the title of my tread...
:s

 

[pirateghost]

http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/Volumes

Extending a ZFS Volume

The “Volume to extend” drop-down menu in Storage → Volumes → ZFS Volume Manager, shown in Figure 6.3g, can be used to add additional disks to an existing ZFS volume. This drop-down empty will be empty if an existing ZFS volume does not exist.
Figure 6.3g: Volume to Extend Field

NOTE: if the existing volume is encrypted, a warning message will remind you that the operation of extending a volume will reset the passphrase and recovery key. After extending the volume, you should immediately recreate both.
Once an existing volume has been selected from the drop-down menu, drag and drop the desired disk(s) and select the desired volume layout. For example you can:

• select an SSD or disk with a volume layout of Log (ZIL) to add a log device to the ZFS pool. Selecting 2 SSDs or disks will mirror the log device.

• select an SSD or disk with a volume layout of Cache (L2ARC) to add a cache device to the ZFS pool.

• add additional disks to increase the capacity of the ZFS pool. The caveats to doing this are described below.

When adding disks to increase the capacity of a volume, ZFS supports the addition of virtual devices, known as vdevs, to an existing ZFS pool. A vdev can be a single disk, a stripe, a mirror, a RAIDZ1, RAIDZ2, or a RAIDZ3. Once a vdev is created, you can not add more drives to that vdev; however, you can stripe a new vdev (and its disks) with the same type of existing vdev in order to increase the overall size of the ZFS pool. In other words, when you extend a ZFS volume, you are really striping similar vdevs. Here are some examples:

• to extend a ZFS stripe, add one or more disks. Since there is no redundancy, you do not have to add the same amount of disks as the existing stripe.

• to extend a ZFS mirror, add the same number of drives. The resulting striped mirror is a RAID 10.

• to extend a three drive RAIDZ1, add three additional drives. The result is a RAIDZ+0, similar to RAID 50 on a hardware controller.

• to extend a RAIDZ2 requires a minimum of four additional drives. The result is a RAIDZ2+0, similar to RAID 60 on a hardware controller.

If you try to add an incorrect number of disks to the existing vdev, an error message will appear, indicating the number of disks that are needed. You will need to select the correct number of disks in order to continue.

 

[asheenlevrai]

OK, didn't have to go back to my mac ;) "auto import volume" got me both the RAID1 arrays back :D

 

[asheenlevrai]

http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/Volumes

Thanks :)
Couldn't find an answer to my question though...
Do you recommend I use ZFS rather than UFS?
Best,
-a-

 

[asheenlevrai]

OK...
To be able to re-use the disks afterwards, check "mark disks as new" when detaching a RAID array ;)

Now I still didn't figure out how to create a RAID10 array. Selecting 4 drives and choosing "mirror" resulted in an array comprising 4 disks but having the capacity of only 1 disk... Some kind of 4-disk RAID1 array, kinda...

 

[asheenlevrai]

OK, I tried in ZFS and then it is really easy to setup 4 disks into something looking like a RAID10 array (I don't know if I can actually call this RAID10).
The final array is composed of 2 mirrored arrays and the total capacity is 2N (N being the size of 1 disk)...

Now, I don't know if going for ZFS is smart in my case... Should I use UFS? Is it even possible to create RAID10 array in UFS?

Best,
-a-

 

[Joseph Day]

Did you ever find out if this is in fact RAID 10 ? I have the same exact question.

 

[TheSmoker]

The ZFS equivalent of RAID10 is Striped Mirrored Vdevs.

How to create that from command line:
Zpool create tank mirror disk0 disk1
Zpool create tank mirror disk2 disk3

Double check with: zpool status

From the gui i think you need to create a mirror, then when you create the second mirror you put the same name for the volume. In the example above i used "tank".

Have fun!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Joseph Day]

So I have the following for my volume:
>Data_1

> mirror-1​

ada3p2​

ada2p2​

> mirror-2​

ada1p2​

ada0p2​

Is this a RAID 10. I apologize for the redundant questions but it is not at all clear is this is really a RAID 10

 

[cyberjock]

That's it.

 

[TheSmoker]

So I have the following for my volume:
>Data_1

> mirror-1​

ada3p2​

ada2p2​

> mirror-2​

ada1p2​

ada0p2​

Is this a RAID 10. I apologize for the redundant questions but it is not at all clear is this is really a RAID 10

Perfect.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[gcs8]

What if you have more disks?

ESXi 21.4G 1.07T 0 0 0 0
mirror 10.7G 545G 0 0 0 0
gptid/08fc0d21-99b7-11e3-a165-f46d0499e4e2 - - 0 0 0 0
gptid/096ac0e1-99b7-11e3-a165-f46d0499e4e2 - - 0 0 0 0
gptid/09d9aa2d-99b7-11e3-a165-f46d0499e4e2 - - 0 0 0 0
gptid/0a475501-99b7-11e3-a165-f46d0499e4e2 - - 0 0 0 0
gptid/0ac070b2-99b7-11e3-a165-f46d0499e4e2 - - 0 0 0 0
gptid/0b37ffab-99b7-11e3-a165-f46d0499e4e2 - - 0 0 0 0
mirror 10.7G 545G 0 0 0 0
gptid/28abfaac-99b7-11e3-a165-f46d0499e4e2 - - 0 0 0 0
gptid/291eaba4-99b7-11e3-a165-f46d0499e4e2 - - 0 0 0 0
gptid/298b638d-99b7-11e3-a165-f46d0499e4e2 - - 0 0 0 0
gptid/29f98452-99b7-11e3-a165-f46d0499e4e2 - - 0 0 0 0
gptid/2a6d21a1-99b7-11e3-a165-f46d0499e4e2 - - 0 0 0 0

gptid/2ae2c842-99b7-11e3-a165-f46d0499e4e2 - - 0 0 0 0