I am looking for recommendations and/our thoughts on migrating RAID-Z arrays from one host to another. I currently have two NAS'es (both running NAS4Free) built and want to swap the drives in each. Would it be appropriate just to export/import from one box to another? Also worth noting that I'm not married to the configuration on either box. If appropriate or recommended, I'm willing to flip the the flash drive I'm booting from and reconfig'ing.
Interested in getting some perspective from others on the best way to tackle this. My main interest is doing this in the safest, most stable manner to ensure data integrity.
Thanks!
Chris
This is the old XigmaNAS forum in read only mode,
it will taken offline by the end of march 2021!
I like to aks Users and Admins to rewrite/take over important post from here into the new fresh main forum!
Its not possible for us to export from here and import it to the main forum!
it will taken offline by the end of march 2021!
I like to aks Users and Admins to rewrite/take over important post from here into the new fresh main forum!
Its not possible for us to export from here and import it to the main forum!
Recommendations for migrating Raid-Z arrays
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fsbruva
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Re: Recommendations for migrating Raid-Z arrays
Couple questions to help us answer the question.
What do you mean swap? Do you just mean move all drives from NAS A to NAS B, and vice versa? Do you have data on either pool that you want to keep? What is the purpose of the disk move?
What do you mean swap? Do you just mean move all drives from NAS A to NAS B, and vice versa? Do you have data on either pool that you want to keep? What is the purpose of the disk move?
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cchayre
- Status: Offline
Re: Recommendations for migrating Raid-Z arrays
Precisely---I want to move all drives from NAS A to NAS B. The data on both arrays are identical and should be kept. NAS A = the primary NAS I intend to use. NAS B is a box I built for offsite redundancy and DR purposes. I recently purchased new drives of much higher quality, placed them in NAS B, and replicated the data between NAS A and B. Now I'd very much like to use the disks from NAS B in NAS A because they are of higher quality.fsbruva wrote:Couple questions to help us answer the question.
What do you mean swap? Do you just mean move all drives from NAS A to NAS B, and vice versa? Do you have data on either pool that you want to keep? What is the purpose of the disk move?
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fsbruva
- Advanced User
- Posts: 378
- Joined: 21 Sep 2012 14:50
- Status: Offline
Re: Recommendations for migrating Raid-Z arrays
Your initial insight is correct. The easiest way to do this is to export the pool(s) from each NAS. Then, move the better drives (currently in NAS B) into the case of NAS A, and boot up. You will then import the pool. The importation of the pool will also allow you to rename the pool, if you so desire. Following the importation, run a scrub, and you're off! Then put the drives recently removed from NAS A into the NAS B case. Import the pool, and do a scrub. All is well!
Since you recently added drives, you should have some extra(s) laying around? If the drives that will end up in NAS B are genuinely of lower quality, I would also recommend adding one or two of your extras into the pool as a spare. This way, the pool can more quickly react to a failing disk.
Since you recently added drives, you should have some extra(s) laying around? If the drives that will end up in NAS B are genuinely of lower quality, I would also recommend adding one or two of your extras into the pool as a spare. This way, the pool can more quickly react to a failing disk.