Newbie need some help with disk replacement for napp-it AIO

[vjeko]

Hi,
Due to Lenovo TS140 psu power limitation, I'm being cautious and want to remove one SSD.
At the moment, the AIO looks like this:
2HDD (mirror) + 2SSD (mirror) + 1 local SSD for OmniOS & ESXI

I would appreciate if I could get some pointers on how to do the following (haven't grasped things yet):
- move ESXI from local SSD to USB stick (only OmniOS will be on local SSD),
- setup ESXI logging somewhere (don't know where this is done),
- copy what is on SSD mirror (ssdpool contents) -> HDD mirror,
- replace 2 SSD mirror with new larger single SSD
- copy HDD (ssdpool contents) back ->new SSD,

Also, as I don't have possibility to include SLOG or SIL, I guess I need to change sync on all drives to "always"?
Attached are screen prints of disk,pool and filesystem

 

[gea]

You could simply install ESXi newly on an USB Stick and import the OmniOS VM then (ESXi databrowser, right mouse click on the .vmx file)

BUT!!
ESXi no longer suggest a USB Stick setup. Up from next ESXi this is no longer supported. I would stay with the SSD and ESXi + OmniOS VM on it. More reliable and faster than a Stick. If the SSD fails, use a new one, install ESXi and OmniOS. Done within 30min. If you need best uptime, clone the SSD. If you want a ultrafast disaster recovery save the VM as a template. If you want a ongoing disaster backup, replicate the current BE to a backup pool. A recovery requires a minimal OmniOS setup, restore the BE and boot into.

About slog
Sync is a filesystem setting. Sync writes are then done to the datapool. On a slow pool a dedicated slog can massively improve performance. SSD should provide powerloss protection for sync write.

On ESXi you use mostly NFS. With NFS sync=default (client decides) means already sync enabled.

 

[vjeko]

I will leave ESXI and OmniOS as is then for now. What is "BE" ?
I'm afraid I haven't learnt enough to do the copying/replication and deleting in the following steps - if it's not too much trouble, could you
please indicate the steps ? I need to find a good tutorial on this

- copy what is on SSD mirror (ssdpool contents - one VM at the moment) -> HDD mirror (hddpool),
- delete ssdpool/SSD mirror disks & physically detach disks
- physically attach new single SSD , create ssdpool
- copy ssdpool contents from HDD back ->new SSD

 

[gea]

BE=Bootenvironment. A bootable ZFS Snap of a OS state

copy over data:
- either use midnight commander to copy VM folders locally (enter mc at console, Midnight Commander - Wikipedia) or use
- ZFS replication (simply create a replication job to copy a whole filesystem and then back later)

it is also possible but slowerv to share the NFS filesystems via SMB and copy over from Windows.
You may nwwd to reset to modify ACL afterwards to everyone=modify (Windows or napp-it)

 

[vjeko]

I looked at napp-it job-> replication, but I think I need to checkout the options in more detail before using it , so opted for mc instead.
I went to ESXI web console, clicked on OmniOS, gave mc command.
Looking at mc ,was wondering why in mc (attached screenshots) I can see what I think were top level "folder" names (pool names)
I used when playing with the system at the beginning like : /hdd, /hdd_mirror, /ssd, /ssd_mirror (they are empty) but they don't appear
at all via napp-it . Should these be deleted via mc ?

Are these the correct steps for the rest ?:
"ssdpool" is the pool in question on the two disks I want to replace by one disk.
You said to copy whole filesystem (ssdpool/ssdfs) , so
- via mc copy /ssdfs -> /hddpool.
- via mc delete ssdpool (or destroy pool via napp-it),
- via napp-it remove 2 disks
- physically remove old disks, install new disk
- via napp-it add disk, create ssdpool on that disk
- via mc copy ssdfs -> ssdpool

What do I do with disk " c1t0d0 " marked "removed" ?

In napp-it ->destroy pool ,what does the comment " Some supported features are not enabled on the pool. The pool can still be used,
but some features are unavailable. " refer to ?

 

[gea]

It seems you had created empty simple folders when you played around. They are not shown in napp-it as napp-it only shows ZFS pools and filesystems. You can delete them now.

With mc (does not know anything about ZFS) you can simply copy or move normal files within the filesystem. A ZFS filesytem is mounted by default as /pool/filesystem/.

To copy a whole ZFS filesystem from one ZFS filesystem to another with ZFS properties included you use ZFS replication. (care about the difference of a simple folder and a ZFS filesystem although they are shown identical within mc)

You cannot delete filesystems or pools from mc only simple files and folders. You can create or destroy ZFS pools and filesystems in napp-it.

To create a new pool on a new disk, use menu Pools. Then create a filesystem for your data and shares below the pool in menu ZFS filesystems.

Features: There is ongoing development with ZFS. Newer things are included in ZFS as a feature ex SSD trim or encryption. If you want to use newest features, update your pool in manu Pools (click on the pool in the listing)

Removed disks.
The disks are shown via iostat. This is sort of an inventory that remembers all disks since last bootup. If you unplug a disk it is shown as removed. This also apply to the dvd drive in ESXi. To clear listing you must reboot.