Raid1 Dell Optiplex 745 (2 X 1TB) Data Migration to Raid1 Dell Poweredge T100 (2 X 2TB)

[Ethan Tran]

Hi FreeNAS community,

I am a novice at FreeNAS but am familiar with the environment and have followed numerous guides to successfully created plex servers, openvpn & owncloud. I need some help in migrating my current Raid1 data & setup to a completely new raid1 setup and hardware. The data that I am trying to migrate is mainly media (about 600GB for plex) and a CIF directory with my personal backup data.

The breakdown:
I would like to migrate my existing Raid1 data to an entirely new Raid1 setup while keeping all of my existing data:
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FreeNAS-9.2.1.7-RELEASE-x64 (fdbe9a0)

OLD SETUP:
Dell Optiplex 745
Intel Core2duo 6700 2.66GHz
8GB DDR2 RAM
2 x 1TB (HITACHI HUA721010KLA330) (ada0 & ada1)
1 X USB Flash for FreeNAS (Kingston Datatraveler 2.0)

NEW SETUP:
Dell Poweredge T110
Intel Xeon X3430 2.40GHz
12GB DDR3 RAM
2 x 2TB (SAMSUNG HD204UI)
1 x USB Flash for FreeNAS (I will use old kingston datatraveler)

I have read on some similar scenarios but have not found one exactly for FreeNAS.

1) An example that I don't know will work will to purposely degrade 1 drive from the existing setup (Hitachi 1 x 1TB) and replace it with 1 newer drive (Samsung 1 x 2TB) and rebuild it to mirror that of the now 1 existing Hitachi 1 x 1TB, then remove the 1 Hitachi 1 x 1TB & replace it with the other Samsung 1 x 2TB drive and begin the rebuilding process again. Then move all hardware to the new setup.

2) Another scenario is migrate the hardware from the existing to the new setup using all of the old hard drives along with the new Samsung 2TB resulting in 4 drives in the new Dell T100. Then go in and create a new raid1 setup with the new 2TB drives and manually copying the data from the old 1TB raid1 setup to the new 2TB raid1 setup.

Please correct me if I am wrong as I am a novice and willing to take on any suggestions and alternative routes. If you need any other information from me and I can have it posted. Thanks in advance!!

Ethan

 

[Ethan Tran]

Sorry the Dell Poweredge model number is T110, not T100. Please excuse the title.

 

[danb35]

I believe scenario 1 will work, although you should be able to refine it a bit to avoid degrading the existing mirror. Install one new 2 TB disk in the machine, go to the volume status page, and replace one of the 1 TB disks with the 2 TB disk. Once that finishes resilvering, that 1 TB disk will drop out of the mirror. Once that's done, remove that disk, install the other 2 TB disk, and replace the other 1 TB disk with the second 2 TB disk. Once that finishes resilvering, you should be left with a 2 x 2 TB mirror.

 

[danb35]

The other option would be to set up a new pool with the new disks, and use ZFS replication to move everything from the old pool to the new one. You could do that by having both pools in the old server, both pools in the new server, or one pool in each (and replicating over the network). It would probably be fastest if both pools were in the new server. Here's a post of mine discussing a similar process: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/mirror-to-raidz2.25908/#post-163322

 

[Ethan Tran]

I believe scenario 1 will work, although you should be able to refine it a bit to avoid degrading the existing mirror. Install one new 2 TB disk in the machine, go to the volume status page, and replace one of the 1 TB disks with the 2 TB disk. Once that finishes resilvering, that 1 TB disk will drop out of the mirror. Once that's done, remove that disk, install the other 2 TB disk, and replace the other 1 TB disk with the second 2 TB disk. Once that finishes resilvering, you should be left with a 2 x 2 TB mirror.

Thank you for the quick reply dan. So basically I should shutdown the system and remove 1 of the 1TB and replace it with the new 2TB, then go to the volume status to replace one of the 1TB disks and will it automatically resilver? After thats done, I basically repeat the the same thing with the other disk?

Do I need to offline the first 1TB before replacing it with the new 2TB? Also do I need to detach the old drive a requirement after the resilver process?

I was looking at this guide here where the author replaces 1 drive from his zpool although not exact but can it be used for this same scenario you think? Thanks again.

http://blog.henrikandersen.se/2013/03/13/replacing-a-harddrive-in-a-zfs-pool-on-freenas/

 

[Ethan Tran]

The other option would be to set up a new pool with the new disks, and use ZFS replication to move everything from the old pool to the new one. You could do that by having both pools in the old server, both pools in the new server, or one pool in each (and replicating over the network). It would probably be fastest if both pools were in the new server. Here's a post of mine discussing a similar process: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/mirror-to-raidz2.25908/#post-163322

Thanks again Dan! As for moving drives & using the same flash usb to the new setup, can I just poweroff the old setup, take the existing drives and usb and plug it into the new setup or do I have to reinstall the FreeNAS?
Will the new setup pickup all of my configuration and settings or do I have to export my configuration file and import it? Also will I have to import the volumes once it is sitting in the new hardware?

Thanks.

 

[danb35]

Thank you for the quick reply dan. So basically I should shutdown the system and remove 1 of the 1TB and replace it with the new 2TB, then go to the volume status to replace one of the 1TB disks and will it automatically resilver?

Not exactly. I'm suggesting you keep both of the original disks in place until the resilver to the first 2 TB disk is complete. Let's call your current disks disk1 and disk2, and the new ones disk3 and disk4.

1. Shut down your server and install disk3
2. Boot the server
3. Go to the volume status page (storage, click on your pool, status button at the bottom)
4. Click on disk1, click the replace button at the bottom, and select disk3 from the drop-down.
5. Allow the disk replacement/resilvering to complete. Once it does, disk1 shouldn't appear in the list any more.
6. Shut down the server, remove disk1, and install disk4.
7. Repeat 2-5, replacing disk2 with disk4.
8. Shut down the server and remove disk2.

This way, your mirror remains online at all times with at least two disks active.

You should be just fine to move your existing USB stick and disks to the new server. If it picks up its IP address via DHCP, it will probably pick up a different one.

 

[Ethan Tran]

Not exactly. I'm suggesting you keep both of the original disks in place until the resilver to the first 2 TB disk is complete. Let's call your current disks disk1 and disk2, and the new ones disk3 and disk4.

1. Shut down your server and install disk3
2. Boot the server
3. Go to the volume status page (storage, click on your pool, status button at the bottom)
4. Click on disk1, click the replace button at the bottom, and select disk3 from the drop-down.
5. Allow the disk replacement/resilvering to complete. Once it does, disk1 shouldn't appear in the list any more.
6. Shut down the server, remove disk1, and install disk4.
7. Repeat 2-5, replacing disk2 with disk4.
8. Shut down the server and remove disk2.

This way, your mirror remains online at all times with at least two disks active.

You should be just fine to move your existing USB stick and disks to the new server. If it picks up its IP address via DHCP, it will probably pick up a different one.

Wow that sounds simple enough. It will also save a lot of time. I didn't know there was an option to just simply replace a disk. Thanks again dan! I will give a shot at this when I get home from the office, until then, happy holidays!

 

[danb35]

I ran through that process in a VM before I posted, so it should work for you. The VM is running 9.3, though, so there could be some minor differences in the process.