Nas4Free or FreeNAS

[bechau]

I have been running 0.7.3 for 4+ years now. Recently, there has been some access problem, i.e., slow or sometimes I cannot access the drives at all and have to reboot. Status console shows CF Card error while the disks are all marked as "PASSED". My Hardware specs are show in the uploaded file.

I'm now considering fixing the hardware and migrating to a newer platform.

My NAS usage is mainly for home, i.e., media file storage and streaming to WD TV Live boxes and Bittorrent. The choice of building my own NAS was speed. I was able to achieve writing speed of 50MB/s compared to sub 10MB/s from my Buffalo Lin Station Pro Quad.

My questions are:
1. For my basic use, is FreeNAS or Nas4Free more suitable
2. If FreeNAS, do I have to manually back up all my files from 0.7? Any fast way to do this as I have almost 7TB of data

[crowi]

Hi bechau,

1. For my basic use, is FreeNAS or Nas4Free more suitable

I think both can be used, but Freenas has been forking more to professional business NAS and also changed the GUI.
If you want to continue with what you currently have, take NAS4free.

You can try out NAS4free with LIveCD /LiveUSB, to see if you basically like it.

2. If FreeNAS, do I have to manually back up all my files from 0.7? Any fast way to do this as I have almost 7TB of data

A backup is not the worst thing to consider anyway.
But actually (in NAS4free) you just import the disks (Disk|Management -> "clear config and import disks" or "clear config and import software raid disks", depending on your installation)

Cheers,
Crowi

[b0ssman]

nas4free is actually the continuation of freenas 0.7. freenas 9 is not. confusing. yes.

you can actually upgrade the freenas 0.7 to nas4free using the same config.
see
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1522

[bechau]

Thanks scrowi and b0ssman,

Nas4Free seems like a better choice then.

Have you guys by any chance looked at my attachements? My current system is acting strange and I'm sensing that I should repair/upgrade the hardware first before moving onto Nas4Free.

1. Can the error status of the CF Card be the source of my problem? I have trouble accessing the drives, i.e., slow or cannot access at all until reboot.
2. Once fixed, when I import the disks (my current setup is ZFS) will everything be deleted?
3. I have also attached more system log here. Please see.

[crowi]

Hi bechau,

you can
a) backup your configuration, detach the CF card and boot N4F from LiveCD/LiveUSB and then resote the configuration (this is not permanent, just until the next reboot)
b) backup your configuration, detach the CF card use a new CF card, install n4f from live CD to the new one.

Clear config and import disks is exactly the function to NOT destroy any data (used if e.g. a mainboard is changed etc.) so no worries here unless your RAID is functional.

Cheers,
Crowi

[b0ssman]

cf cards generally dont have smart support. so that would be expected.

[bechau]

Thanks on the installing N4F.

However, I think the more serious problem now is fixing the current system. After doing some research, I now have "GEOM: adn: GPT rejected -- may not be recoverable." problem.
How do I save my data? I tried transferring it to another NAS but the system would just stop working after awhile. These are family pictures and videos. Please help.

[b0ssman]

zfs does not use the gpt table. those messages can be ignored.


have you run a memtest on your machine?

[bechau]

What is a memtest? Please let me know how to run it?

My drives are acting more and more strange, slow access and freeze to work as I'm trying to back it up. Something is definitely wrong. Can you by any chance take a look at it via remote?

[b0ssman]

http://www.memtest.org/

let it run at least over night

[bechau]

Thanks b0ssman....just before I run the memtest.

1. Can memory be the cause of my problem? If so, after the test, what will I see and how will I fix it?
2. If it's not the memory, what are other possible causes?


Does anyone know Michael Zoon or bubulein? They both have helped me setting up my system 4 years ago.

[b0ssman]

yes it could.
but with older hardware it could be anything.
but capacitors on the mainboard/psu.
i had broken 2nd lvl cache on my cpu once.

if you memory fails the memtest screen will go red. to fix it buy new memory or buy a new computer.

[bechau]

If I have to buy new memory or computer, what about the data on my drives?

[b0ssman]

with zfs you just put the drives in the new machines and import the pool from the web gui

[crowi]

There is a Zoon at members page
memberlist.php

[bechau]

While doing memory test, how do I check my HDD?

Just in case there's a problem with one or more of my HDD, how do I save my data and fix it?

[crowi]

Just in case there's a problem with one or more of my HDD, how do I save my data and fix it?

Then hopefully you have a recent backup.

At RAID / ZFS Raid the files are spread all over the number of disks, you can rebuild / resilver the data of RAIDZ1 in case of one broken HDD, RAIDZ2 even with two broken HDDs on mirror you could recover one faulty drive.

[bechau]

I think my set up is zfs as there's nothing under the raid setup.

1. Is zfs the same as raidz?
2. If my total capacity is about the same of each hdd's capacity added together, is my raidz 0?
3. How do I check what kind of raidz 1/2/3.... I have?
4. If my raidz is 0, how do i check which hdd is broken? Diagnostic gui shows them as healthy.
5. How do you rebuild raidz 0 from one broken hdd?

[crowi]

1) ZFS is the filesystem, RAIDZ is the RAID system you can build of it
2) - 5) All other information can be checked here:

Go to Disks|ZFS|Pools|Information
and post here what is displayed.
it should look like:
pool: Pool5x3TB
state: ONLINE
scan: scrub repaired 0 in 4h23m with 0 errors on Mon Apr 14 13:56:56 2014
config:

NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
Pool5x3TB ONLINE 0 0 0
raidz1-0 ONLINE 0 0 0
ada3 ONLINE 0 0 0
ada4 ONLINE 0 0 0
ada1 ONLINE 0 0 0
ada2 ONLINE 0 0 0
ada5 ONLINE 0 0 0
logs
ada0p1 ONLINE 0 0 0
cache
ada0p2 ONLINE 0 0 0

errors: No known data errors

In case of disk errors you get a DEGRADED state output

[bechau]

Thanks crowi.

I have attached the ZFS information screen for you below.

As shown, ad8 is OFFLINE and there's something strange with ad14.
ad8 was ONLINE last night before I turned off the box, transport it to my office and restarted again this morning. The cable might be loosen. I will check again tomorrow.

What's important is that ad8 was listed as ONLINE last night when the box was already acting strange. Therefore, the problem might be ad14.

Now, from the information, it seems that my setup is raidz1. Doesn't that mean that I can still rebuild if one hdd is broken?

[crowi]

First try to backup your data, resilvering is stressing your system and if you loose another HDD during this process everything is gone.
After backup, you can rebuild / resilver with a new replacement drive.

[bechau]

What is the best way to back up my data?
I tried to copy them onto another HDD but the box just froze after awhile and had to reboot again.

[crowi]

That's bad, seems disk ada14 has some problems, right. What does SMART say? Diagnostics |Information |SMART
It looks like you did not take much care about your pool, you should start scrub once/month
(And you should use ECC RAM when working with ZFS.)

First you have to get your pool online by re-attaching ada8. Then copy small portions of files.

[bechau]

I will attach the SMART screen in a bit.

Once I reattached ad8, what do you mean by copy small portions of files?

[crowi]

Hi bechau,

I mean to backup your data, don't copy the whole disk at once to your backup drive. Copy the files folder by folder instead.
This makes it probable that you can localizec corrupted files/parts and save as much as possible of your data. Hopefully...
Cheers,
Crowi

[lux]

There is a Zoon at members page
memberlist.php

Michael Zoon (zoon01) is one of the Dev's...