Upgrade 3 x 3tb raidz to 6 x 3tb raidz2

[tfast500]

The Question: I currently have 3 x 3tb HDD in a raidz1 configuration and with 3 more drives coming this week I want to upgrade to 6 x 3tb raidz2. I would like to retain my plugins/jails, data, shares, etc... with all the same permissions. I really would rather not rebuild everything from scratch. What is the best method for doing this? Is it possible via the cloud?

Solutions:
I have researched this and came up with these methods so far:

• Manual backup of the data + rebuild the plugins/ jails manually then transfer data back. (I want to avoid this as I have spent many hours/days/weeks building it to its current state)
• Use the replication feature to replicate to another FreeNAS server... (I don't have another server)

• Question: Is there another option to do this via the cloud? I don't care if it will take a week to migrate. (60Mb download 5Mb upload). I do not have an external drive large enough especially after buying 3 more 3tb drives. I was thinking with Amazon cloud... unlimited space... (I think they have file size restrictions so nvm)

Current Plan: I have a dropbox account~50gb space, 320gb external, 2 laptops, 1 windows tablet, and 3 PCs with a little bit of storage space left on each. I am willing copy as much data from my FreeNAS as I can to the devices temporarily just in-case since I have no real backup solution yet :(

Background: As mentioned above I have put a lot of work into my FreeNAS to get to get it to its current state and working the way I want it to. I have had it for over a year and currently on the stable release train.

• Hardware: i5 2500k, 24GB ram, 3 x 3tb wd reds (soon 6 x 3tb wd reds)

At it current state:

• Full fledge AMP server
• Plex Media Server
• Cruciblewds (PXE boot)
• CIFS Shares / Data + Media
• PHPVirtualBox with 8 Virutal test environments (not all running simultaneously :p)
• Transmission client

 

[DrKK]

I'm going to ignore the fact that you are not using ECC RAM, and I will try not to yell at you.

Wait a second.

I think you're overthinking this, or I'm mis-reading you.

You want your current 3x3TB pool, which also contains your jails, migrating to a 3x6TB pool? This is a piece of cake. If you offline and replace each drive, one at a time, allow each to resilver, then, after you have done this to the third drive, everything will be just as you left it, and you will auto-expand to double your pool.

This procedure is clearly spelled out in the documentation sir?

 

[tfast500]

I'm going to ignore the fact that you are not using ECC RAM, and I will try not to yell at you.

Wait a second.

I think you're overthinking this, or I'm mis-reading you.

You want your current 3x3TB pool, which also contains your jails, migrating to a 3x6TB pool? This is a piece of cake. If you offline and replace each drive, one at a time, allow each to resilver, then, after you have done this to the third drive, everything will be just as you left it, and you will auto-expand to double your pool.

This procedure is clearly spelled out in the documentation sir?

:/ Ya I know but I had the mobo and cpu from my gaming rig that I upgraded. I couldn't justify buying all new hardware for my NAS... Someday I plan to get the proper hardware and ECC ram... :)

I believe you have miss understood. I am adding 3 more 3tb drives to my current setup of 3 x 3tb drives. I will have a total of 6 drives they are each 3tb WD Reds.

 

[DrKK]

:/ Ya I know but I had the mobo and cpu from my gaming rig that I upgraded. I couldn't justify buying all new hardware for my NAS... Someday I plan to get the proper hardware and ECC ram... :)

I believe you have miss understood. I am adding 3 more 3tb drives to my current setup of 3 x 3tb drives. I will have a total of 6 drives they are each 3tb WD Reds.

Yes sir, you're right. I misunderstood. But now I understand.

You can't expand a 3x3TB vdev to 6x3TB. Can't be done.

You have two choices, the way I see it:

1) Figure out some way to copy all the data off, then blow away your pool, and reconstitute it as a 6x3TB RAID-Z2
2) Make a second vdev of 3x3TB with the new drives, and stripe the two vdev's together. It's not QUITE RAID-Z2, since you can lose one drive *PER VDEV*, instead of any two drives, but, you wouldn't have to do anything at all. You wouldn't have to backup, move, or do anything to anything already in the pool.

 

[tfast500]

Well, I ended up buying a 5tb external drive. Hopefully it does the job.I am thinking about hooking it up directly via sata to bypass USB. I am going to just rebuild the entire NAS... I have confidence that it will go much quicker and easier since I have set it up before. I just know I ran into a couple caveats that I will need to research again... In a way it will be nice to get a refresher to doing this again. Plus I can rename my naming conventions and re organize/clean up my NAS in the process.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

thinking about hooking it up directly via sata to bypass USB

Yes, use SATA or eSATA in preference to USB if possible.

 

[DrKK]

I was actually thinking of doing the same thing---getting one of those external 5TB drives that are dirt cheap.

 

[tfast500]

I was actually thinking of doing the same thing---getting one of those external 5TB drives that are dirt cheap.

I was able to get a 5TB external for $130.00 The price was pretty nice and so far its been doing its job :)

 

[TheDubiousDubber]

Can I ask which one you have? From my understanding a lot of the larger capacity externals have a raid 0 setup inside their enclosure so it is typically a dual drive external meaning its USB or nothing.

 

[tfast500]

Seagate model SRD0NF2
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TKFEEBW/?tag=ozlp-20