SOLVED usb drive configured as backup pool with no redundancy - how to read from another computer

[jordanthompson]

Hi all,
I have a USB drive setup as a backup for my core TrueNAS. I have rsync tasks that update my "normal" pools to it. This all works fine and I can view the data from the TrueNAS instance.
What if I want to remove the USB drive and read it from another (Mac or Window) machine? Is this possible? How can I accomplish this concept?

thanks in advance.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

You can install OpenZFS for Mac OS. Runs stable for me. I don't know if OpenZFS for Windows is production quality, yet.

OpenZFS on OS X

openzfsonosx.org

 

[jordanthompson]

I'm trying to make this as easy as possible for the user... Can I mount the USB drive as a SMB share to the TrueNAS CORE and run rsync tasks to it? This way I can simply unplug the drive from TrueNAS and plug it into anything else.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

TrueNAS does not work as any filesharing client, only as a server. What is your use case?

 

[jordanthompson]

I want to be able to grab all of the data that is backed up in the case of emergency (I live in Florida and we have hurricanes ;-). I'm also thinking about upgrading to TrueNAS Scale in the near future and I'd like to be ablt to easily put the files back on the new instance.

 

[winnielinnie]

Any modern Linux distro supports ZFS.

It's best to use a "version" distro (such as the latest Ubuntu), rather than a "rolling release" (such as Arch Linux).

You don't even need to install it. Just boot from the live USB, and install the zfs packages.

Or like @Patrick M. Hausen said, you can use OpenZFS on macOS as well.

 

[Whattteva]

Just have a spare USB stick installed with TrueNAS with the same config and boot off it on the other computer. It's your best "in case of emergency" in my opinion, rather than trying to fiddle with other OS's and it'll be a lot more plug and play and painless (no worries about ZFS versions) though you may run into issues if your other computer only has WiFi connection. This is one of the principal advantages of TrueNAS being designed as a "firmware".

 

[winnielinnie]

It's your best "in case of emergency" in my opinion

I believe their emergency is a "grab and run" where you need to evacuate your city during a hurricane.

They want to be able to quickly grab a USB drive (which holds all of their data) and have the option to pop it into someone's computer to read the files.

You can't just grab a NAS server and toss it into your car as easily as you could with a USB drive.

EDIT: Nevermind. I misunderstood your post when I first read it:

Just have a spare USB stick installed with TrueNAS with the same config and boot off it on the other computer.

That definitely works too.

 

[Whattteva]

EDIT: Nevermind. I misunderstood your post when I first read it:

That definitely works too.

Right, basically he can just grab (USB stick + USB drive) and run. I don't think an extra USB stick is all that hard to make extra space for =) cause if it is.... well he probably has bigger things to worry about and probably shouldn't even grab that USB drive in the first place.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

I want to be able to grab all of the data that is backed up in the case of emergency (I live in Florida and we have hurricanes ;-). I'm also thinking about upgrading to TrueNAS Scale in the near future and I'd like to be ablt to easily put the files back on the new instance.

SCALE will be able to import your USB drive just as well as CORE. In case of emergency others have already suggested suitable options.

 

[jordanthompson]

So I removed the USB drive from TrueNAS. I haven't gotten to the point of importing into a windows or Mac environment yet, but I did try to reattach it to TrueNAS to no avail so far.

What is the "right" way to remove the USB drive from TrueNAS and reinstall it? Nothing I'm trying allows me to reinstall it.

 

[sretalla]

What is the "right" way to remove the USB drive from TrueNAS and reinstall it? Nothing I'm trying allows me to reinstall it.

Export/disconnect the pool, power off the disk, physically disconnect.

Then later, connect the disk, power on, import the pool.

 

[jordanthompson]

So, I thought I exported/imported it correctly, but now the pool is showing online/unhealthy.

 

[sretalla]

zpool status -v poolname ?

 

[jordanthompson]

Sorry. Here is the output from a few commands:

zpool status -v Backup
pool: Backup
state: ONLINE
status: One or more devices are faulted in response to IO failures.
action: Make sure the affected devices are connected, then run 'zpool clear'.
see: https://openzfs.github.io/openzfs-docs/msg/ZFS-8000-JQ
config:
NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
Backup ONLINE 0 0 0
gptid/97819a40-146e-11ee-b080-14dae9124c74 ONLINE 77 107 0
errors: List of errors unavailable: pool I/O is currently suspended

sudo zpool clear Backup
cannot clear errors for Backup: I/O error

zpool list
NAME SIZE ALLOC FREE CKPOINT EXPANDSZ FRAG CAP DEDUP HEALTH ALTROOT
Backup 9.08T 3.61T 5.47T - - 0% 39% 1.00x UNAVAIL /mnt
boot-pool 39.5G 9.62G 29.9G - 55.5G 3% 24% 1.00x ONLINE -
plex 7.27T 2.79T 4.48T - - 0% 38% 1.00x ONLINE /mnt
pool 14.5T 4.64T 9.90T - - 8% 31% 1.00x ONLINE /mnt

zpool status -v Backup
pool: Backup
state: UNAVAIL
status: One or more devices are faulted in response to IO failures.
action: Make sure the affected devices are connected, then run 'zpool clear'.
see: https://openzfs.github.io/openzfs-docs/msg/ZFS-8000-JQ
config:
NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
Backup UNAVAIL 0 0 0 insufficient replicas
gptid/97819a40-146e-11ee-b080-14dae9124c74 FAULTED 3 0 0 too many errors
errors: List of errors unavailable: pool I/O is currently suspended

 

[sretalla]

Well, this is one of the caveats/warnings about using USB attachment... looks like either the connection isn't stable or the disk has actually failed (but with USB, it may be difficult to get smartctl to run and check, that).

You might have a look at dmesg | tail -n 100 and see if there are USB related messages going on there giving some kind of indication.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

I'd start with

- clean shutdown of the NAS
- power down USB drive
- let it rest a minute, check all cables
- power up USB drive
- power up NAS
- retry import

 

[winnielinnie]

So I removed the USB drive from TrueNAS.

Did you unplug the USB drive before completely exporting the pool?

 

[jordanthompson]

Did you unplug the USB drive before completely exporting the pool?

I honestly don't remember at this point

 

[jordanthompson]

I'd start with

- clean shutdown of the NAS
- power down USB drive
- let it rest a minute, check all cables
- power up USB drive
- power up NAS
- retry import

This worked without importing! Thank you so much for your help!