Moving from RAIDZ1 to RAIDZ2, is it possible to create a RAIDZ2 array with three drives?

[MrHands]

probably a noob question, but i cant seem to find a concrete answer on this.

I have a three 4TB RAIDZ1 array in my server, i planned on going to RAIDZ2 and now have the extra drive to run four 4TB drives.

Problem is, i have around 3,7TB of data on my server right now and the only spare drives i have large enough to move the data off the array so i can rebuild it in RADIZ2, are the drives i'm using in the server.

Is it possible to create RAIDZ2 using the existing three drives (1 drive in operation, and 2 redundant), so that i can use the new drive i purchased to backup the 3,7TB of data i have? then once the RAIDZ2 array has been created, i could copy all the data to the array, format the 4th drive and then add it to the array so its running with four drives as recommended?

 

[indy]

Nope not possible, you cant change a vdev once it is created.
One of the big downfalls of ZFS for home-usage.

 

[Stux]

you can do some disk shuffling to solve the problem.

Burnin the new drive. Backup/replicate your data to the new drive.

Format two of the old drives, split them into 2TB partitions. Create a 4x2TB Raidz2 out of the partitions.

(The above requires the command line)

Restore the data to the new pool. Then replace two of the partitions on one of the disks with the other 4TB disks.

Then replace one of the remaining partitions with the now freed 4TB disk.

Then offline the last partition. Wipe the last disk, and replace the offlined partition.

Voilá