Making an internal swappable Windows compatible drive

[MortenBN1988]

Hi guys!
I have 6x MILDEF ST301 NAS's with 6x 1TB SSDs each, i need to configure identically. Each NAS server is running in its own separate network.

Drive 1-5 are for archiving and i created a pool and a windows SMB share. This works flawlessly.

What i can't figure out:
I need the 6th drive to be its own pool and also SMB shared on the network.
It has to be swappable (while the NAS is off) with other "number 6" drives from the other NAS servers.
The file system has to be windows compatible so I can plug it straight into a standard PC.

This is in order to be able to move data between the different local networks but also to external stand alone PCs.
It is not an option to cross-connect the different networks or to use USB (security reasons).

Is it possible to format the 6th drive to NTFS, share it on the network, and switch it out with another disk without having to do any reconfiguration (plug and play)?

Hope you can help, and thanks in advance!
/Morten

 

[1kokies]

Drive 1-5 are for archiving and i created a pool and a windows SMB share. This works flawlessly.

FreeNAS version ? for info only

I need the 6th drive to be its own pool and also SMB shared on the network.

in FreeNAS, yes can SMB but 1 drive only has no redundancy

It has to be swappable (while the NAS is off) with other "number 6" drives from the other NAS servers.

best to power down and swap

The file system has to be windows compatible so I can plug it straight into a standard PC.

you are referring to FreeNAS ZFS file system plugged into a Windows PC and it can read ? Nope

Is it possible to format the 6th drive to NTFS, share it on the network, and switch it out with another disk without having to do any reconfiguration (plug and play)?

not really clear here but format to NTFS and plug into FreeNAS ? Nope

Remember to include 'solved' when it is satisfied so that others will benefit from it

 

[HoneyBadger]

The only officially supported filesystem on FreeNAS is ZFS. You might be able to bodge something together using ntfs-3g but it will require some scripting and likely manual intervention every time a drive is "swapped." Passing the device through to a jail or bhyve VM might be another option.

But whatever's done will be wholly unsupported for sure.

 

[MortenBN1988]

FreeNAS version ? for info only

FreeNAS-11.2-U6

in FreeNAS, yes can SMB but 1 drive only has no redundancy

I know. Redundancy doesn't matter for this drive as files are copied (not moved) from the archive to this drive only for transport.

best to power down and swap

That's why i specifically wrote "while the NAS is off".

you are referring to FreeNAS ZFS file system plugged into a Windows PC and it can read ? Nope

No. What i'm saying is, that it needs to be compatible with both. What ever file system able to handle that, will suite.

not really clear here but format to NTFS and plug into FreeNAS ? Nope

I know FreeNAS is some what "compatible" with NTFS external drives so i figured there might be a way to use a NTFS formatted internal drive as well.

This drive is not intended to be 110% reliable and "best practice". Its purpose is strictly transporting files from the archive (the other 5 drives) to another FreeNAS network or a stand alone PC. Basically like any other "dumb" external drive, but just mounted internally and with the need of being able to SMB share the drive (like the archive pool is).

The reason why i'm not just using an external drive or network transferring, is that its separate local networks with no access to USB. In other words, the only way to transfer between networks, is by physically changing between internal drives.

But okay. Let's say i only need to transfer drives between other FreeNAS systems (and not the stand alone windows PC). Then i can use the ZFS file system. Could that work in any way ?

 

[sretalla]

Let's say i only need to transfer drives between other FreeNAS systems (and not the stand alone windows PC). Then i can use the ZFS file system. Could that work in any way ?

We see folks around the forum using a removable disk for offsite backup.

The trick is to export the pool and offline the disk before ejecting it physically. (so before shutdown in your case)

Importing the pool on the other side and again when it returns should be fairly simple if pool names are unique.