Need help with a migration plan to add redundancy

[yetanotherjake]

I didn't get any love on Reddit, so I figured I'd ask here.
Current setup:

• TS140 i3
• 16GB RAM
• 2x2TB (Stripe, RAID 0?) and 1x4TB (Nothing yet)

Hello FreeNAS community!

I have a problem, given the new Comcast data caps I now feel like I cannot replace my entire media library in a few days and feel like it’s time to add some redundancy. I would like to eventually get to a 2x4TB mirror and 1x4TB hot spare. My case only supports 3 drives, and I don’t see myself wanting to have more than 4 TBs of media at time (I’m open to other suggestions, RAIDz?). I may move some of my personal backups to the drive in the future to avoid paying google every month. Also crashplan doesn’t seem like an option now because of the Comcast cap.

My question is – what would be a good migration plan for moving my current pool to the 4TB drive, re -creating my z-pool as a mirrored 2x2TB, and then finally replacing one of the 2TB drives with the 4TB. I would like to replace one of the 2TB with the 4TB so I can eventually upgrade the pool to 2x4TB. I currently have about 1.5 TB of data in my Stipe(RAID0?) pool. Is this possible? Or even a good idea?

Thank you!

 

[gpsguy]

Since your case only supports 3 drives, I'd be tempted to migrate your current data to a new volume using the 4TB drive. Remove the volume containing the 2x2TB drives. If you don't have a backup, don't destroy the data (you could always go back to using these drives). Get a new 4TB drive and mirror it with the other one.

Since it's after the fact, you'll need to do it from the command line. Instructions for doing so, can be found on the forums.

 

[melloa]

@yetanotherjake - maybe you want to join this conversation: https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ut-formatting-reinstalling.47108/#post-323396

 

[yetanotherjake]

Thank you all for your responses. I'm currently following this: https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...te-data-from-one-pool-to-a-bigger-pool.40519/
in an attempt to get my data off of the striped pool onto the 4TB pool so I can then replace those drives.

Thank you!

 

[Stux]

I don't see much point in having a hot spare. You might as well just have a 3-way mirror.

Ie, a hot spare for a single vdev is just a waste of a drive, when you could have the drive providing actual redundancy.

zfs replicate your data to your single 4TB drive (which is already a zfs pool right?)

Remove the 2 2TB drives. You now have a backup.

Add another 4TB drive.

Add the 4TB drive as a mirror of the first. This requires command line.

Done

If you really want... buy another 4TB drive and add it into the chassis as extra redundancy.

But I would suggest you'd be better off with an actual backup plan (ie how are you going to mount those 2x2TB drives?

Technically... you can offline one of your 4TB, then put your 2x2TB back in... and refresh your backup, then take em out again, and restore/online the other 4TB again.

Sweet. Do that once a month ;)

 

[Stux]

So, you sure there isn't a place to shove a 4th drive?

;)

 

[Chris Moore]

I didn't get any love on Reddit, so I figured I'd ask here.
Current setup:

• TS140 i3
• 16GB RAM
• 2x2TB (Stripe, RAID 0?) and 1x4TB (Nothing yet)

Hello FreeNAS community!

I have a problem, given the new Comcast data caps I now feel like I cannot replace my entire media library in a few days and feel like it’s time to add some redundancy. I would like to eventually get to a 2x4TB mirror and 1x4TB hot spare. My case only supports 3 drives, and I don’t see myself wanting to have more than 4 TBs of media at time (I’m open to other suggestions, RAIDz?). I may move some of my personal backups to the drive in the future to avoid paying google every month. Also crashplan doesn’t seem like an option now because of the Comcast cap.

My question is – what would be a good migration plan for moving my current pool to the 4TB drive, re -creating my z-pool as a mirrored 2x2TB, and then finally replacing one of the 2TB drives with the 4TB. I would like to replace one of the 2TB with the 4TB so I can eventually upgrade the pool to 2x4TB. I currently have about 1.5 TB of data in my Stipe(RAID0?) pool. Is this possible? Or even a good idea?

Thank you!

My suggestion to you is that you need more drive bays and I know just how you can get them. I used this solution on my FreeNAS system before I moved to a new chassis and it worked reliably.
Here it is:
1st: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182327
2nd: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124063
That is a 4 bay external, hot swap enclosure and a eSATA card to connect it to the server.
With this, you can put 4 additional drives in your pool.

I actually have this exact hardware (still) even though I am not using it, but it works.

 

[pirateghost]

My suggestion to you is that you need more drive bays and I know just how you can get them. I used this solution on my FreeNAS system before I moved to a new chassis and it worked reliably.
Here it is:
1st: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182327
2nd: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124063
That is a 4 bay external, hot swap enclosure and a eSATA card to connect it to the server.
With this, you can put 4 additional drives in your pool.

I actually have this exact hardware (still) even though I am not using it, but it works.

With this setup, are all the drives in this box showing up as a single drive in FreeNAS? Or are they individual disks passed through? This seems like it wouldn't present all the disks to the OS properly.

 

[gpsguy]

I wondered if the Rosewill enclosure was using an internal port multiplier.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Chris Moore]

I wondered if the Rosewill enclosure was using an internal port multiplier.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes, it has a port multiplier in the enclosure, and the card you connect it to must be port multiplier compatible and BSD compatible. All of those reasons are the reasons that I selected the card I did. It worked with my system running version 9.2, but I have not used it lately.

 

[Chris Moore]

With this setup, are all the drives in this box showing up as a single drive in FreeNAS? Or are they individual disks passed through? This seems like it wouldn't present all the disks to the OS properly.

No, the drives show up as individual SATA drives. It is not a RAID enclosure and if you connect it to a eSATA port that does not support a port multiplier, only the first drive works. That is why I linked to that particular controller card. I know that works, it is the one I used.
This works great with FreeNAS, I used it for more than a year.

 

[gpsguy]

I'm glad it worked for you, but in general, we don't recommend SATA port mulitpliers. We've seen a lot of problems with them in the past.

Yes, it has a port multiplier in the enclosure, ...

 

[Ericloewe]

Yes, it has a port multiplier in the enclosure

Oh god, that's a recipe for a very bad day.

 

[Chris Moore]

I'm glad it worked for you, but in general, we don't recommend SATA port mulitpliers. We've seen a lot of problems with them in the past.

Well, this is my preferred solution

It would take a different controller card, but he could use this enclosure instead: http://www.ebay.com/itm/172315518085
$129.00 + shipping
Pair that with this controller (flashed to IT mode): http://www.ebay.com/itm/152297561810
$42.99 & free shipping
He could probably move the system board, memory and CPU he already has into this and be happy for ages.

 

[melloa]

Oh god, that's a recipe for a very bad day.

Was thinking the same.

 

[gpsguy]

I just re-read your opening message and I see you have a ThinkServer TS140. Looking at the specs, it looks like you should be able to put 4 x 3.5" hard disks in it.

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/servers/thinkserver/ts-series/ts140/#techspecs

What's limiting you to 3 drives?

My case only supports 3 drives