Help. Newbie Mistake

[Karl]

I am very new to zfs. I hope I haven't lost 1.3T of data...

I created vdev POOL1 (stripe) and created pool NAS41. Loaded it up with data. All is well.

In attempting to grow the pool size, to the best that I know how through Google, I created vdev POOL2 with new hard drive. And then attempted to create using the same pool name NAS41. Resulting in two pool entries with the same NAS41 name. ZFS didn't like that and gave me errors (cannot create or something like that).

I then delete the NAS41 entry created with vdev POOL2. And now the original NAS41 entry with vdev POOL1 is in unkown state.

Then I deleted the original pool with vdev POOL1, and recreated again, and NAS4FREE is showing it as a fresh drive with no data.

I attempted the import command but no luck (probably because I never exported). Restore NAS4FREE to earlier known state did nothing.

I searched forums, Googled forever, and still find no solution to recover the data in vdev POOL1.

Your timely help is very appreciated.
Karl

[misterredman]

I attempted the import command but no luck

What was the result of the import command?

[Karl]

I attempted the import command but no luck

What was the result of the import command?

Result of the import command was "no pool found".

After more reading, I issued the import -D command. This time it showed my two NAS41 entries! I picked the one which had data in it, and recovered using the import -Df flags. So I got my pool back, except it shows an empty drive

So closer, but not quite there yet...

[misterredman]

I picked the one which had data in it

Are you sure you picked the right one? How did you know the one you choose had data in it?

To avoid confusion I'd remove the "new" drive physically (they are empty) and retry the import.

[daoyama]

Then I deleted the original pool with vdev POOL1, and recreated again, and NAS4FREE is showing it as a fresh drive with no data.

I attempted the import command but no luck (probably because I never exported). Restore NAS4FREE to earlier known state did nothing.

Did you try import -D like this?

# zpool import -D 8139102782145167403 newpool

It import old pool as "newpool" to the system.
(Replace 8139102782145167403 with your pool id)

Regards,
Daisuke Aoyama

[Karl]

I picked the one which had data in it

Are you sure you picked the right one? How did you know the one you choose had data in it?

To avoid confusion I'd remove the "new" drive physically (they are empty) and retry the import.

Yes I am sure. vdev POOL1 consists of 2 drives (1.0TB and 0.5TB) whereas POOL2 (the"new" drive) consist of 1 drive (1.5TB).

I did physically remove the "new" drive (my POOL2) and retry import with no luck.

I wonder by recreating POOL NAS41, did I reformatted the ZFS file system? From all my reading it seems that I may not need to format a ZFS drive, by creating a POOL the formatting automatically done? (I know, this may be a newbie question).

[Karl]

Then I deleted the original pool with vdev POOL1, and recreated again, and NAS4FREE is showing it as a fresh drive with no data.

I attempted the import command but no luck (probably because I never exported). Restore NAS4FREE to earlier known state did nothing.

Did you try import -D like this?

# zpool import -D 8139102782145167403 newpool

It import old pool as "newpool" to the system.
(Replace 8139102782145167403 with your pool id)

Regards,
Daisuke Aoyama

That is very close, I issued the import command like this:

# zpool import -Df 8139102782145167403 NAS41

Obviously I replaced your numeric string with my own ID, and NAS41 was my original POOL name.