Extend ZFS zpool Volume Size Without Any Data Loss
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Dear Team,
In customer using Freenas file server, they are using Zpool volume size is 800GB. They are asking for adding 2TB harddisk in existing zpool volumes. It is possible to add 2TB harddisk and increase the size of zpool volume with out existing data loss. Because all user information stored on freenas server. Kindly provide your suggestion for increase storage space on zpool volume without data loss.
Freenas server running on vmware virtual machines. we will plan to add harddisk on server and create raid. After add datastore on VMware Esxi and then will add virtual hard disks on freenas file server. And extend the existing zpool volumes size. please provide the support for without loss data.
Thanks in advance
ghanesan
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Yes, ZFS zpools can be grown without dataloss. But be careful, I've seen lots of people who use FreeNAS get this wrong and destroy their systems. Just because it "can" be done doesn't mean it's not risky. But this is a VM, so just snapshot before you make the attempt, you can roll back if you make a mistake.
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Ok.. i will take snapshots. But how many space need for snapshots the Freenas 800GB file server. ???
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@Ghani said in Extend ZFS zpool Volume Size Without Any Data Loss:
Ok.. i will take snapshots. But how many space need for snapshots the Freenas 800GB file server. ???
You should be snapshotting all of the time anyway for protection, right? Same amount as normal. How are they taking backups of this? Don't they snapshot before running updates?
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Have to run to the grocery store, but I'll try to get the commands to grow your pool once I'm back. Can you display your current status and devices while I am gone?
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In customer place they have 2 freenas server. One Freenas act as a primary and another one act as a secondary. Primary to secondary running rsync process for backup. I do not have any VM snapshots regularly. Based on your suggentions , before add the physical hard disks on vmware Esxi server. we will power off the freenas server and take snapshots for backup , if any problem occurs its help.
I do not have any current status and devices status of freenas server?
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@Ghani said in Extend ZFS zpool Volume Size Without Any Data Loss:
I do not have any current status and devices status of freenas server?
Not sure what you mean.
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@Ghani said in Extend ZFS zpool Volume Size Without Any Data Loss:
In customer place they have 2 freenas server. One Freenas act as a primary and another one act as a secondary. Primary to secondary running rsync process for backup.
So the secondary has much more data than the primary?
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Believe it or not, documentation on a ZFS span is effectively non-existent, partially because this should kind of never exist. It's not really how this is intended to be used.
However, I've got a ZFS admin sitting with me and we both feel that this is the right command...
zpool add zeepool c2t1d0 c2t2d0Where zeepool is your pool name and the devices are your device names.
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@Ghani said in Extend ZFS zpool Volume Size Without Any Data Loss:
In customer place they have 2 freenas server. One Freenas act as a primary and another one act as a secondary. Primary to secondary running rsync process for backup. I do not have any VM snapshots regularly. Based on your suggentions , before add the physical hard disks on vmware Esxi server. we will power off the freenas server and take snapshots for backup , if any problem occurs its help.
I do not have any current status and devices status of freenas server?
@scottalanmiller, this sounds like they are using the FreeNAS 1 to hold the VM datastore and that the RSYNC is their backup.
OMFG that just is scary if true.
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@JaredBusch said in Extend ZFS zpool Volume Size Without Any Data Loss:
@Ghani said in Extend ZFS zpool Volume Size Without Any Data Loss:
In customer place they have 2 freenas server. One Freenas act as a primary and another one act as a secondary. Primary to secondary running rsync process for backup. I do not have any VM snapshots regularly. Based on your suggentions , before add the physical hard disks on vmware Esxi server. we will power off the freenas server and take snapshots for backup , if any problem occurs its help.
I do not have any current status and devices status of freenas server?
@scottalanmiller, this sounds like they are using the FreeNAS 1 to hold the VM datastore and that the RSYNC is their backup.
OMFG that just is scary if true.
That's what I am afraid of. You CAN configure RSYNC to be a transport mechanism for backups, RBackup is based on it. But it's not what most people mean when they say that. I'm a bit worried.
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@scottalanmiller said in Extend ZFS zpool Volume Size Without Any Data Loss:
@JaredBusch said in Extend ZFS zpool Volume Size Without Any Data Loss:
@Ghani said in Extend ZFS zpool Volume Size Without Any Data Loss:
In customer place they have 2 freenas server. One Freenas act as a primary and another one act as a secondary. Primary to secondary running rsync process for backup. I do not have any VM snapshots regularly. Based on your suggentions , before add the physical hard disks on vmware Esxi server. we will power off the freenas server and take snapshots for backup , if any problem occurs its help.
I do not have any current status and devices status of freenas server?
@scottalanmiller, this sounds like they are using the FreeNAS 1 to hold the VM datastore and that the RSYNC is their backup.
OMFG that just is scary if true.
That's what I am afraid of. You CAN configure RSYNC to be a transport mechanism for backups, RBackup is based on it. But it's not what most people mean when they say that. I'm a bit worried.
Sure, you make a snapshop and then rsync the static disk. then merge. That is how RBackup works to my understanding. It watches the files system and grabs files when they have changed, but are in a valid state.
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Customer server was placed on branch location. we do not have any remote opitions for take screenshots and display to you
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No .. we enabled rsync with delete opitions. so primary and secordary space was common.
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yes rsync not a backup solutions
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@Ghani said in Extend ZFS zpool Volume Size Without Any Data Loss:
Customer server was placed on branch location. we do not have any remote opitions for take screenshots and display to you
Then how do you work on the machine?
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@Ghani said in Extend ZFS zpool Volume Size Without Any Data Loss:
No .. we enabled rsync with delete opitions. so primary and secordary space was common.
So NO backups. That's a replicant, not a backup. You actually deployed a big storage appliance without backups?
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@Ghani said in Extend ZFS zpool Volume Size Without Any Data Loss:
yes rsync not a backup solutions
So in a "read back" mode, this tells us that the data stored here isn't important so there isn't really anything to worry about. If you do the expansion and it causes data loss, they can't be upset as they don't see value in the data. This also tells us that the servers shouldn't be there, because if they aren't backed up and they aren't a caching system then you shouldn't have them at all.
So there is clearly something wrong.
