I've been following for quite some time peripherally and slowly learning mistakes with my build before any catastrophes thus far. My current build is an Asrock C2550d4i, 32gb ECC ram, 5x3tb RAIDZ.
Now...i've read cyberjock's thread of things not to do...and I've adapted accordingly. I think it's funny to read his responses to people who didn't listen and suffered problems. I also think a fair amount of those people may have not done so intentionally, but likely due to not having unlimited funds/resources to have the most optimal system specs.
With that said....I valued storage over redundancy and therefore used RAIDZ1 with 5 disks. Although I don't have any issues with that thus far, I'm getting increasingly more nervous about failures. I understand I cannot increase parity by adding another drive. My box only has 6 slots and so I now would like to convert to RAIDZ2 (4x3TB) after getting another disk. My questions are related to this process. Any help would be appreciated!
1. I know I must rebuild the entire system to get RAIDZ2. What is the best way to clone/replicate my entire zfs pool (including datasets, jails, and settings)? I've heard of people using CrashPlan, external HDDs, or another freenas box. I won't be able to get another freenas box thats for sure. Will CrashPlan work? If so, any tutorials?
2. Are there any tutorials/guides for this kind of "migration" or upgrade?
3. I dont have a backup of the freenas box (beyond snapshots) which are obviously stored on the freenas. What are the typical/optimal offsite backup methods for the freenas box?
Now...i've read cyberjock's thread of things not to do...and I've adapted accordingly. I think it's funny to read his responses to people who didn't listen and suffered problems. I also think a fair amount of those people may have not done so intentionally, but likely due to not having unlimited funds/resources to have the most optimal system specs.
With that said....I valued storage over redundancy and therefore used RAIDZ1 with 5 disks. Although I don't have any issues with that thus far, I'm getting increasingly more nervous about failures. I understand I cannot increase parity by adding another drive. My box only has 6 slots and so I now would like to convert to RAIDZ2 (4x3TB) after getting another disk. My questions are related to this process. Any help would be appreciated!
1. I know I must rebuild the entire system to get RAIDZ2. What is the best way to clone/replicate my entire zfs pool (including datasets, jails, and settings)? I've heard of people using CrashPlan, external HDDs, or another freenas box. I won't be able to get another freenas box thats for sure. Will CrashPlan work? If so, any tutorials?
2. Are there any tutorials/guides for this kind of "migration" or upgrade?
3. I dont have a backup of the freenas box (beyond snapshots) which are obviously stored on the freenas. What are the typical/optimal offsite backup methods for the freenas box?
