Migrating from FreeNAS (ZFS Array)

[faulknerm]

Evening,

I'm currently running FreeNAS 0.7.2 on a box which I wish to migrate over to Amahi.

I currently have 3 disks in the FreeNAS box, 1 x 2TB and 2 x 250GB. These are configured as 2 ZFS Array's (1 x 2TB and 1 x 500GB) - containing a total of 585GB of data currently.

I also have a brand new 2TB disk.


The plan is to use the same hardware for the Amahi box, which obviously means I need to get my 585GB of data stored outside of the current ZFA arrays, in a format with Amahi will recognise. Immediate thoughts are to install the spare 2TB disk into the current FreeNAS box, format it as EXT2 or FAT32 (will Amahi recognise these formats?) and then copy all of the data from the current arrays over. I could then install Amahi, using one of the 250GB disks as my system disk, and have the 2 x 2TB + remaining 250GB as a greyhole storage pool - does this sound like the correct way to go?

Would appreciate any input.

Cheers,

Marc

[faulknerm]

Also just had a thought about this - even if Amahi will recognise an EXT formatted disk, will I be able to incorporate such a disk into the greyhole pool without loss of data?

Otherwise I'll be in a situation where I have to create a pool with 2 x 2TB disk + the 250GB disks, then copy the data into the pool, then manually add the other 2TB disk into the pool...

[faulknerm]

Nobody any idea on this? Hoping to make a start this evening if I can get my head around moving/preserving the data.

[bigfoot65]

Please understand it takes time to get replies to your questions. We try our best to reply but it often could take a day or so, depending on who reads the post.

To answer your question, Amahi will recognize both formats. I recommend you go with ext2 or ext4 and stay away from Windows files system formats. They do not play well with Greyhole.

You should be able to incorporate any drive with data into the pool providing its in one of those formats. If you use any other file system or an array, it might take some manual configuration to make it all work.

[faulknerm]

Thanks for your reply, and apologies for pestering!

I come from a couple of particularly active forums, so I've been spoilt in terms of response speed etc. in the past - of course, they have millions of pounds of backing and a team of full time staff, so it's to be expected.

Great news that I should be able to add my disk, complete with data, into the pool. I'll do as I proposed, and format the spare disk as ext, to save complications trying to import the ZFS array.

One last, quick question. Will greyhole automatically divide the data on this disk across the rest of the pool once I've added it?

Cheers,

[bigfoot65]

No problem, I can understand your eagerness to get Amahi installed.

Greyhole will balance. You can also choose number of file copies to spread across your disks as well. You can check out the wiki for additional info on Greyhole.

http://wiki.amahi.org