[SOLVED] Adding Raidz2 Pool

[CaseyRyback]

Hey Guys,
I am completely new to nas4free, zfs, and home storage in general so bare with me. I decided to setup a 6 drive (2tb drives) pool. I created a Raidz2 vdev and then tried to create a pool with that. It currently says "Initializing" across all fields except "Name". I also have the message "The configuration has been changed. You must apply the changes in order for them to take affect." I was wondering if I click apply Apply Changes or wait until the pool is no longer Initializing? If I wait, is there anyway to estimate how long it will take to initialize. Thank you in advance for any help and I apologize if I have left important information out.

[ChriZathens]

Please wait for someone to confirm my post, because I am not 100% sure: If I remember correctly, you actually need to click apply in order to pass the "initializing" phase. Until you click on it, nothing has actually been done...
But as mentioned, please wait for someone to confirm this.

[CaseyRyback]

Please wait for someone to confirm my post, because I am not 100% sure: If I remember correctly, you actually need to click apply in order to pass the "initializing" phase. Until you click on it, nothing has actually been done...
But as mentioned, please wait for someone to confirm this.

Hello,
Thanks for taking the time to reply to my question. I will definitely wait but that was my concern. I don't want to wake up tomorrow and see it still initializing only to find out I have to apply the changes. Thanks again.

[CaseyRyback]

I found the following...
http://www.bsmdevelopment.com/Reference ... n-1.4.html

It states, "Click the "Add" button at the bottom of the page. The virtual device will
show up as "Initializing". Click the "Apply changes" button to make the virutal device available."

I did so and I received an error code 1.

[raulfg3]

search forum about "error code 1" .

resumen: you probably re-use disk, so you need to wipe fist and last sector to avoid the problem: http://wiki.nas4free.org/doku.php?id=faq:0129

or label it using Glabel to delete old metadata info that is the last cause of the problem:


viewtopic.php?f=66&t=1859&p=8509

[CaseyRyback]

search forum about "error code 1" .

resumen: you probably re-use disk, so you need to wipe fist and last sector to avoid the problem: http://wiki.nas4free.org/doku.php?id=faq:0129

or label it using Glabel to delete old metadata info that is the last cause of the problem:


viewtopic.php?f=66&t=1859&p=8509

Hey,
Thanks for the information. I don't know what is wrong but nothing happens when I type those commands in. I am sure it is probably user error though. I don't have any experience with the command line. The WebGUI of nas4free is the reason I decided to give a home nas a try. I guess I will have to try again tomorrow.

[Tomsk]

If you're not too sure about using the command line to wipe the HD, get UBCD (Ultimate Boot CD) and use one of the utilities on there.
I usually use Disk Shredder and stop the process after a few seconds.

[CaseyRyback]

If you're not too sure about using the command line to wipe the HD, get UBCD (Ultimate Boot CD) and use one of the utilities on there.
I usually use Disk Shredder and stop the process after a few seconds.

I apologize for taking so long to get back but I have been doing exactly what you said. I downloaded UBCD and put it on a USB flash drive since I left out the CD drive in my nas build. I know you said you stop the process after a few seconds but just to be thorough I have been running the disks through one full pass. Doing so, I found what I thought was a problem with one of the disks. It sat for 22 hours and did not make it past 0%. The parts of the disk that were processed had write errors all over the place. I originally figured there was a problem with the drive. Just to be thorough I plugged that drive into another sata port. As I type this it is 5% complete after 13 minutes. My motherboard is an ASUS P8B75-V. It appears that the sata 6Gb/s port is not working properly. I am currently kicking around the idea of running a raidz1 vdev and keeping the other drive for a replacement. I guess I am now wondering what everyone's thoughts are on raidz1 vs 2. I understand that there is a double parity with raidz2 and if you lose one drive in raidz1 then you are at risk while the raid rebuilds. I guess I am wondering how big that risk is. I really don't want to tear out and return this motherboard. If I still want raidz2 I will probably just pick up one of the following cards as I originally planned...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6816117157

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6816118182

Then I can always use the extra ports for another vdev later on.

I guess I should also point out that I plan to back up all my stuff on external HDDs and that I plan in the future to setup a nas box at my sister's house to back up this nas box. The hope there being to have a little redundancy along with some offsite storage in the event that my house burns down or something.

[raulfg3]

check compatibility in this page: http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=10

[CaseyRyback]

check compatibility in this page: http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=10

I guess I should have done that. I pulled the trigger on the LSI card already. I found it a bit expensive especially for what it is but I received my Christmas bonus last week and figured what the heck. It says that Free BSD is supported so I am hoping it works. Thanks again though for your input you guys have been helpful. The card should be here tomorrow so I will let you know how things turn out when I get home from work. Hopefully all goes well.

[CaseyRyback]

Well, I failed again. I ran all the drives through disk shredder and picked up the lsi card linked to above. The drives are recognized but I run into the same error and the zpool hangs at initializing. Just to double check things here is how I have been setting things up.

I first add the drives.
Then I format the drives for ZFS storage pool.
I create a raidz2 vdev.
Finally, I try and create the pool with that vdev.

I am currently trying to clear the drives with Killdisk, but it is taking approximately 20 hours a drive. I am on the third drive now. I am not really sure what I am doing wrong.

I also am getting a warning that there is no DNS setting found. Would this in anyway affect the creation of zpools?

[fsbruva]

The DNS shouldn't be affecting ZFS at all. To double check, add one of google's open dns servers (8.8.8.8) on the networking tab, and see if you can clear the error. However, this will likely not fix the ZFS errors.

What are you attempting to name the vdevs and pool? Zfs is VERY picky about naming conventions. No spaces or underscores, I think.

Can you attempt some other troubleshooting? Also, can you try removing half the drives, and make a vdev with just three drives, raidz1? Try it with various disks and combinations of sata controller(s), and see if it will let you create the pool.

Lastly, I think the "error code 1" is a message back from the attempt to create the zpool. That is, the "zpool create ..." command did not complete successfully, and in fact, returned a 1. I think this points to a problem with the configuration (that the webGUI doesn't catch) that is not noticeable until you attempt to create the pool.

[CaseyRyback]

Woohoo! I literally just got my Raidz2 pool up and running. I am not sure really what the problem was since I didn't try all the suggestions systematically. I still have to set everything else up but I just wanted to thank everyone again and post the good news. The reason it took so long to report was because I was running all the drives through one pass of diskkill or killdisk I cannot remember what it is called. That took about 20 HOURS a drive. Following that I also re-wrote the nas4free img file to a new usb flash drive. I also took fsbruva's recommendation on naming conventions. I made sure to eliminate all spaces (I previously had a couple). I am sure I will be back on the forum again with more questions but I hope I will also hang around once I get everything figured out. See you soon...
Josh

[fsbruva]

I am almost positive that it was the naming that caused it to puke. Since you confirmed that your names had spaces, I am not convinced that's what caused it.

[CaseyRyback]

I am almost positive that it was the naming that caused it to puke. Since you confirmed that your names had spaces, I am not convinced that's what caused it.

Yea, you are probably right. Thanks again for your help. I am currently trying to figure out which services I need and how to set them up. This is all a bit overwhelming for me. I know I need CIFS/SMB, probably FTP, SSH, and RSYNC. Not really sure but even setting up CIFS was confusing me. My problem is that this is all fairly new to me and as a result I find myself not knowing the definition of words etc. I end up looking up a word kind of figuring it out and then trying to figure out how it applies in the directions. Should I set up Local Users and Groups first? I should probably start a new thread but I guess I will see if I get any opinions here. I basically want to have a server where everyone on the network can download and upload files but not delete or modify existing ones. I also want to be able to download and upload files from outside my network. Similarly to that, I want to be able to allow my relatives to download pictures, movies, etc. off the server. This will make things a lot easier in terms of sharing. I would also like to backup my desktop to the nas and eventually backup this nas box to another at my sister's house. I am probably setting my goals a little high but the idea of having a central location where I an others can access files is very appealing. I guess my question is, what is everyone's opinions on how to approach the above goals? Is there any particular order to follow? Any help would be appreciated. If I should start another thread under another category say the word. Thanks.