importing hdd with data to new freeNAS 11.2 U5

[PhiloEpisteme]

external USB or something similar so I can save my sata ports for my data hdd =) and thanks

I do not recommend that. USB enclosures etc are unreliable at times and can cause a headache. If you need more data ports pick up a cheap 40 SAS HBA which can run SATA disks as well. You can even find

 

[fannlow]

Hi , not that i have an option, but the company doesn't want to spend that kind of money... so I can opt to go for a single internal ssd, to run the freenas OS, and have 3 other WD red 2TB hdd for data. which I think should be ok.

but right now, I need to get the data from the 5 current HDD that are starting to fail. and with this motherboard, i only have 5 sata ports (4 normal sata and 1 eSata)

hence, I can only do the USB os at this moment, get all the data to another external hdd as a safe keep, then kill the 5 HDD and also do the sata OS setup.

so I am guessing for now, all i can do is buy a usb stick, re-perform the freenas OS install, setup and copy all data out first.

by the way, what brand and size of the internal SSD would you recommend that I use for the freenas OS?

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

Hi , not that i have an option, but the company doesn't want to spend that kind of money... so I can opt to go for a single internal ssd, to run the freenas OS, and have 3 other WD red 2TB hdd for data. which I think should be ok.

Interesting, that is a bummer. Here is an example of an HBA that costs significantly less than a single HDD that will itself give you support for an additional 8 drives. Slightly more expensive at ~$65 once you add shipping and you'll need two cables but the reliability may be well worth the time.

but right now, I need to get the data from the 5 current HDD that are starting to fail. and with this motherboard, i only have 5 sata ports (4 normal sata and 1 eSata)

Totally understand. In this case I would use USB sticks to get the system booting then. Whether you buy new sticks or try to use the ones you have still give UEFI a shot on a fresh install.

by the way, what brand and size of the internal SSD would you recommend that I use for the freenas OS?

My backup server uses TOSHIBA-TR200, 64GB ought to be plenty of space for the boot pool. I'm no expert on them, they just work for me.

 

[fannlow]

bought a new USB drive @16GB, installed freenas 11.2 U5 using UEFI, go to BIOS change UEFI to enable.
freenas started up as normal, i went to pool creation, but it went RED on me, when trying to import pools.

so i hit restart and I am in for a wait. the hdd red led from my box is staring back at me, and on the screen it says some processes would not die; ps axl advised.

however al buffers synced. and it halted

by the way, i found the old freenas boot, when i was trying to import the pool.
the freenas boot wasn't there with the previous install of freenas when i also tried to import the pool.

means anything?
hence, i chose to import freenas when i get the *pool for importing.
it showed me

freenas-boot
freenas

so i chose freenas, and it didn't seems to import anything for me... should i just import both the pools?
as in import freenas-boot then import freenas?

or is it ok, if i just import freenas by itself since I do not need any data from the freenas-boot?

thanks

 

[fannlow]

My backup server uses TOSHIBA-TR200, 64GB ought to be plenty of space for the boot pool. I'm no expert on them, they just work for me.

i bought a Kingston A400 120GB SSD for about USD30.00, comes with a 3 yr warranty...

 

[fannlow]

or is it ok, if i just import freenas by itself since I do not need any data from the freenas-boot?

i think it is ok after the reboot. maybe a 1TB of dataset, so pool import takes a bit of time.
but after resetting, the freenas is imported and pool created.

proceeding to create group -> user -> edit pool permission (to allow my created user to have full read/write access) -> start sharing "recursively" on windows shares.

we'll see what happens, as the current harddisks are not that stable

thanks

 

[fannlow]

Hi, after creating a group "boss", I also created a user "boss".
and going to pools -> edit permission -> and setting those values, and apply permission recursively...
i get a super long wait, after which my windows explorer shuts, maybe due to time out...

then i come back into freeNAS, then i login, and do sharing for windows (SMB)
which i point back to the whole pool of "freenas"
check browsable to network clients, allow guests, show hidden files.

then back to windows networking, i am able to see freenas online. but unable to access.

any ideas? something i did wrong, but what is it?

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

by the way, i found the old freenas boot, when i was trying to import the pool.
the freenas boot wasn't there with the previous install of freenas when i also tried to import the pool.

means anything?
hence, i chose to import freenas when i get the *pool for importing.
it showed me

freenas-boot
freenas

so i chose freenas, and it didn't seems to import anything for me... should i just import both the pools?
as in import freenas-boot then import freenas?

or is it ok, if i just import freenas by itself since I do not need any data from the freenas-boot?

Unless there is something on the old partition I would recommend you not import the old freenas-boot.

Hi, after creating a group "boss", I also created a user "boss".
and going to pools -> edit permission -> and setting those values, and apply permission recursively...
i get a super long wait, after which my windows explorer shuts, maybe due to time out...

then i come back into freeNAS, then i login, and do sharing for windows (SMB)
which i point back to the whole pool of "freenas"
check browsable to network clients, allow guests, show hidden files.

then back to windows networking, i am able to see freenas online. but unable to access.

any ideas? something i did wrong, but what is it?

It could be a permission issue. If I understand correctly your data is on drives which are partitioned to contain a boot partition and a data partition. My recommendation is that, if you can, you pull all data off of these drives, destroy the pool and rebuild it using only a single partition for the data. Basically don't do any manual partitioning whatsoever and when you rebuild the pool let FreeNAS handle everything. From there you can put your data back in your pool. If you choose to go this route for this first pass I don't think you should worry too much about groups etc. If you can make the share and the drives able to be read by anyone and then pull the data off.

 

[fannlow]

this is what i have for SMB sharing
let me know if other information is needed to help me out?

cuz currently my windows is unable to detect freenas... >.<"

 

[fannlow]

My recommendation is that, if you can, you pull all data off of these drives, destroy the pool and rebuild it using only a single partition for the data.

this is also my same thoughts, whoever did that partition thing previously did not read about the system and its management.

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

this is what i have for SMB sharing
let me know if other information is needed to help me out?

cuz currently my windows is unable to detect freenas... >.<"

I am not super familiar with SMB share permissions so I can't offer specific advice beyond reading the manual and browsing for other folks having the same issue. I will say that often you need to make sure that your pool AND the share have the correct permissions. If your pool is owned by and only viewable by a specific user and your share is not set to allow clients to connect as that user then you're going to have issues with access. This is why I suggested make things as generic as possible.

 

[fannlow]

This is why I suggested make things as generic as possible.

did that and its working... hahaha.. am copying all my data off these disks... pray and good luck and blessings.. not sure when these harddrives will fail..
super slow accessing data... not sure if its harddrive issues, but on the console side of freenas, i get alot of (ada4:ahcich4:0:0:0): timeout

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

I'd expect it to be slow going over SMB through your network. If you had additional drives and places to hook them up I'd say you could do zfs send|receive. That would require that you had disks large enough to store the data, that you had space to hook them up, and that either they were the disks you want to use in the end or spare disks that can just hold your data in the mean time.

Edit: Happy to hear you're getting your data off though!

 

[fannlow]

I have a USB 2TB that I can link to the back of the freenas to do a ZFS send|receive, but only if you can teach me how to do it...

and no... i have yet to get any data off :(

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

I have a USB 2TB that I can link to the back of the freenas to do a ZFS send|receive, but only if you can teach me how to do it...

I don't know if I would trust an external usb device for send|receive. Probably not the absolute best solution but you could try just copying the data from your pool directly the drive. I'd be sure to perform the copy in a way such that a network outage or logging off the machine won't interrupt the copy. I use tmux for this type of thing, you can find plenty of guides online for how to use it and install it.

and no... i have yet to get any data off :(

super slow accessing data... not sure if its harddrive issues, but on the console side of freenas, i get a lot of (ada4:ahcich4:0:0:0): timeout

I suppose I misunderstood you. What is the output of zpool status?

 

[fannlow]

I don't know if I would trust an external usb device for send|receive. Probably not the absolute best solution but you could try just copying the data from your pool directly the drive. I'd be sure to perform the copy in a way such that a network outage or logging off the machine won't interrupt the copy. I use tmux for this type of thing, you can find plenty of guides online for how to use it and install it.




I suppose I misunderstood you. What is the output of zpool status?

hi sorry for the very late reply

i haven't got any data off my pool... because i have a lot of write errors from the console of freenas, saying that my ada4 isn't readble/writable and so on... so now i just have the time to redo it on the ssd drive that I got the other day.

let me try to see if I can get anything off. but first, I want to setup the pool with 3x 2TB WD red harddisk. and as you suggested, put them into a single pool.