Rebuild zpool, keep config+jails+data

[DataMover]

Hi there,

I'm wondering, how I can recreate my zpool, volume, ...everything... and get my FreeNas config including Active Directory, all jails, shares and data back.

To explain: after purchasing some new disks, I would like to reassign disks to pools, so that I can take advantage of different disk sizes to maximize capacity (e.g. group all 2 TB disks together and all 4 TB disks together). Also I would like to spread old data, which now sits only on disks that once constituted the pool, over all disks now available, in a certain time frame (doing it over the weekend) instead of waiting for it to spread automagically.

Doing this I would like to keep my configuration, of course! ;-)

My FreeNAS box is an Active Directory server, all my computers are bound to it and users on my clients are AD users. FreeNAS box holds volumes, datasets and shares with permissions on shares and files granted mostly to AD users and groups. Also a couple of jails are running and services within using certain user accounts (FreeNAS accounts, not AD - effectively meaning a certain account exists with the same name and uid / gid in different jails and also on the FreeNAS box itself).

Any advise or help appreciated. Maybe this has been discussed before and someone has a link handy?
BTW: I should say, that I have external USB disks available to copy things from FreeNAS. So not exactly a full blown backup system-

Kind regards
DM

 

[DataMover]

Thinking further about it, I could feel comfortable by just getting my general FreeNAS system config (Network config, certificates, etc.), Active Directory and jails back. I wouldn't mind rebuilding volume, datasets and shares. Even re-applying permissions would be fine. So I would have the chance to change a bit or two

Ah: all my jails are plain vanilla - no plugins used.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I would like to reassign disks to pools

This will inevitably involve destroying your existing pool(s). You may be able to keep your shares by turning off the relevant services during reconfiguration, then turning them back on after building new pool(s) and recreating the corresponding datasets.

To preserve data and Jails, take snapshots and replicate them to backup storage.