Question about freeNAS/filesystem

[Tyrius]

I'm planning on building a freeNAS box with ZFS, raidz2 setup or so.

While researching on the subject a question came to my mind that I hope someone on here can clarify for me: How secure is it to trust raidz2/zfs with my data?

 

I know that the filesystem has redundancy to be able to recover from 1/2 drives failing, but what if not the hardware, but the software defects?

 

Lets say I have freeNAS on a usb device plugged into the motherboard, if that fails or somehow the installation corrupts (could happen the same on a harddisk), can I reinstall freeNAS plug my drives up to the new installation in the same configuration and have my data read?

Or is the array and therefore all my data tied to the freeNAS installation it was created from?

 

Please shed some light into my mind

Tyrius

[Godlygamer23]

You can run ZFS Scrubs on the volumes to check for errors. You can restore your config after putting the new installation onto the flash drive.

[leadeater]

Yes you can import existing FreeNAS/ZFS configurations in to a new installation and be up and running again.

[Tyrius]

So can I just plug the drives into a new installation and it will be able to handle the already existing ZFS filesystem and data?

Or do I have to save and export my configuration somehow to be able to import and restore it later?

Thanks for the super fast responses

[Godlygamer23]

Just now, Tyrius said:

So can I just plug the drives into a new installation and it will be able to handle the already existing ZFS filesystem and data?

Or do I have to save and export my configuration somehow to be able to import and restore it later?

Thanks for the super fast responses

The config is a very small file that's a few KB in size. Once you get FreeNAS running again, you'll restore the file using the WebUI, the server will reboot, and you should have everything back.

 

And it works as I've had to use it before after my flash drive died trying to update to the latest revision. 

[Tyrius]

So am I understanding it right that this configuration file is stored on the harddrives? Or do I have to back it up myself? Sorry for being so annoying abut it, I just don't ever want to be in a situation where shit went downhill and I could have it all back if I had saved a few KB of configuration data

 

The fact that you've been there already shows me that it might indeed happen to me as well, and the fact that you could get you stuff backafter that kind of failure tells me that this is the way I want to go with my data.

[Godlygamer23]

1 minute ago, Tyrius said:

So am I understanding it right that this configuration file is stored on the harddrives? Or do I have to back it up myself? Sorry for being so annoying abut it, I just don't ever want to be in a situation where shit went downhill and I could have it all back if I had saved a few KB of configuration data

 

The fact that you've been there already shows me that it might indeed happen to me as well, and the fact that you could get you stuff backafter that kind of failure tells me that this is the way I want to go with my data.

The config file is stored on the flash drive I believe. There's a button in the WebUI that allows you to save the config file.

Spoiler

Above shows the buttons. Once you hit Save Config, you'll get some sort of response from your browser to download it. Once it's downloaded, it'll look like this on your desktop:

Spoiler

 

[Tyrius]

Alright thanks a lot! I'll make sure to have this file on a second stick that isn't used for anything else.

And there is only one config to save that includes settings/volumes etc? So I'm not only saving settings or something. Is there any way I can export a config that does NOT include the information required to restore the array? Or is it one config to rule them all? This will be the last annoyance, everything else I think I will be able to figure out when I've actually set up the box. Thanks for you help, I know it's annoying to get questions from someone who hasn't even dealt with the software yet, but I want to do things right from the very beginning.

[Godlygamer23]

Just now, Tyrius said:

Alright thanks a lot! I'll make sure to have this file on a second stick that isn't used for anything else.

And there is only one config to save that includes settings/volumes etc? So I'm not only saving settings or something. Is there any way I can export a config that does NOT include the information required to restore the array? Or is it one config to rule them all? This will be the last annoyance, everything else I think I will be able to figure out when I've actually set up the box. Thanks for you help, I know it's annoying to get questions from someone who hasn't even dealt with the software yet, but I want to do things right from the very beginning.

It's one config to rule them all that I know of, which includes the array, users, passwords, etc. 

[Tyrius]

Great. Thanks again