April 25, 20242 yr Hello everyone, I'm currently using Unraid for my setups and I have a question about managing ZFS formatted disks across different Unraid systems. I have a hard drive that was formatted in one Unraid system with a ZFS filesystem and is part of an array. I'm considering moving this disk to another computer that also runs Unraid, also using ZFS formatted disks in an array configuration. My question is: Can I directly add this formatted disk into the new Unraid system's array without needing to reformat or configure it extensively? Here are some specifics: Both systems are running Unraid with ZFS filesystems. The disk was functioning properly and has no known issues. I'm looking to maintain the data on the disk if possible. I'm concerned about compatibility between the systems, especially with regard to Unraid versions, ZFS configurations, and filesystem integrity. Any advice on how to handle this transition smoothly would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance for your insights and help.
April 25, 20242 yr Community Expert You do not mention if the arrays have parity protection? If they do then you would have to use the New Config tool to add the drive and then rebuild parity. As far as I know there should be no ZFS compatibility issues. I believe you could also add it as a single-drive pool directly. I have not actually tried this myself so if you go that route would like confirmation I am right.
April 25, 20242 yr Community Expert 1 hour ago, itimpi said: I believe you could also add it as a single-drive pool directly. Yes, that's fine.
April 26, 20242 yr Author On 4/25/2024 at 10:46 PM, itimpi said: You do not mention if the arrays have parity protection? If they do then you would have to use the New Config tool to add the drive and then rebuild parity. As far as I know there should be no ZFS compatibility issues. I believe you could also add it as a single-drive pool directly. I have not actually tried this myself so if you go that route would like confirmation I am right. Is there any guide about rebuild the parity? I do not want to lose data in the process..
April 26, 20242 yr Community Expert 2 hours ago, chilled-alphabet6399 said: Is there any guide about rebuild the parity? I do not want to lose data in the process.. There is no user data on the parity drive, just enough information to rebuild a failed disk (in conjunction with all the other non-failed data drives. There is a good write-up on how Unraid parity works in the online documentation. As long as you do not have any disabled disks (marked with a red ‘x’) then rebuilding parity is zero risk to your data and is in fact necessary to protect it against future Fisk failures.
April 28, 20242 yr Community Expert can be done by manul import of the zfs pool via zfs commands. You will need to install the zfs plugins first! https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19253-01/819-5461/gazuf/index.html
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