Drive Erase

[Harold Roberts]

Will FreeNAS force me to erase all of my drives when I install them? I have data on a couple of drives, and I want to create a FreeNAS server with Raid and then copy all of the files over to it. And then add those disks into the server.

 

[melloa]

I think you need to take a look at: https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/ before you mess with your data. Maybe a better approach would be build your FreeNAS, copy the data over without erasing your disks from the computer you already have them installed, and keep them safe until you feel 100% comfortable with what you are doing. FreeNAS has never failed me, but I'm a firm believer of the Murphy's Law.

 

[NickB]

Yes, you'll need new drives. Depending on how you plan it out and the drive sizes, after making sure your data is ok and you're comfortable with FreeNAS, you potentially could add your original drives to make more available storage. But, definitely read over that PowerPoint and plan, and have backups of your data somewhere.

 

[joeschmuck]

Will FreeNAS force me to erase all of my drives when I install them? I have data on a couple of drives, and I want to create a FreeNAS server with Raid and then copy all of the files over to it. And then add those disks into the server.

Read the PPT. Understand what a ZFS RAIDZ1 and RAIDZ2 is. Realize these are not your typical RAID. If you have drives with data on them and you wish to use those drives in the FreeNAS server as part of your pool, copy all the data off the drives first because FreeNAS will erase those drives as you suspected. You really need to have all your drives up front for a typical home or small office system. If you tell us exactly what you want to do, list all the hardware and the use case of the system, we will be able to lend you some friendly advice.

 

[Harold Roberts]

Thanks for the info. The PC that I have the drives in is a Ubuntu PC that I currently have just been using as a file server. What I want to do is move that PC to a FreeNAS system. I installed a 4TB drive in the Ubuntu server, I then copied all of my files from an external 5 bay SATA cabinet (each containing 1TB drives in a RAID 5 Hardware config). I will then replace the 5 x 1TB with 5x8TB drives, and install FreeNAS onto a thumbdrive, with a few other HDD's in the system for other non critical files like an FTP site. The disk is in an EXT 4 format, and I really don't want to have to install Ubuntu onto another system (or use a live disk) and then move all of these files, but it sounds like that is what I will need to do.

I was hoping that there was a way for FreeNAS to import a drive without erasing it (feature request) for just this type of situation.

Does FreeNAS make me use RAIDZF1? From all of the reading I have done it is too much overhead and really not worth it, unless you are using a $50k server with high end processors, SSD's and you are replacing this server every 2 years at the most

 

[Ericloewe]

From all of the reading I have done it is too much overhead and really not worth it, unless you are using a $50k server with high end processsors, SSD's and you are replacing this server every 2 years at the most

Not at all.

 

[melloa]

$50k server with high end processsors, SSD's and you are replacing this server every 2 years at the most

I use Raidz2 and my FreeNAS is not even on the recommended hardware (don't tell anyone please).

ASRock motherboard, Intel i5, 32 GBRAM, SSD for boot, 10x4TiB WD Red, Intel NOC pulled from an old server ... Not a $50k system ... that will be 1/3 of my house price :)

 

[gpsguy]

FreeNAS does all one to import certain disk formats, for ease of copying data. See: http://doc.freenas.org/9.10/storage.html#import-disk

From the doc's -

Imports of EXT3 or EXT4 filesystems are possible in some cases, although neither is fully supported. EXT3 journaling is not supported, so those filesystems must have an external fsck utility, like the one provided by E2fsprogs utilities, run on them before import. EXT4 filesystems with extended attributes or inodes greater than 128 bytes are not supported. EXT4 filesystems with EXT3 journaling must have an fsck run on them before import, as described above.

.
I was hoping that there was a way for FREENAS to import a drive without erasing it (feature request) for just this type of situation.

 

[wblock]

I was hoping that there was a way for FreeNAS to import a drive without erasing it (feature request) for just this type of situation.

It does that. What you seem to want is a way to import the contents of a drive yet add that drive to the RAID, which is tricky while it is all running. Sort of like converting a bicycle into a motorcycle while you are riding it. But FreeNAS will import the contents of a drive and store it onto an existing array.

Does FreeNAS make me use RAIDZF1?

Yes. The data safety and abilities of ZFS are the whole point.

From all of the reading I have done it is too much overhead and really not worth it, unless you are using a $50k server with high end processors, SSD's and you are replacing this server every 2 years at the most

Very few people here have anything approaching that. My little NAS has 16GB, which used to seem like a lot, but not so much any more. RAM is cheap. Losing files is not.

 

[danb35]

Does FreeNAS make me use RAIDZF1?

No, but it does make you use ZFS. And if ZFS is what you meant when you wrote RAIDZF1, (1) your reading has you severely misinformed, and (2) it would be helpful for all concerned if you used terms more carefully.