Hello, how can I access data (mount?) on a single disk within a pool without removing them from the pool or stopping the array?

 

I have an "ssdpool" which is a secondary pool to my primary. I have two old, nasty disks and I wanted to replaced them. I wanted to first mount them and move the contents off so that when I insert the replacement I can move the data back. I was hoping to be able to browse the data on these specific devices while the array was still on but I cannot figure out how to do this. 

What is the configuration of that current pool? RAID0 or single? It makes no sense to have that many drives in a btrfs pool if it isn't one of those, and neither allows removing any drives.

It's in RAID5 config. I used btrfs because I wanted the contents encrypted.

So you should be able to replace one drive at a time and have it be rebuilt, if you're lucky because btrfs RAID5/6 are still considered "experimental" and not reliable.

There is no "mounting a single disk to move its contents" since all data is spread across all drives.

 

You don't need brtfs for encryption either.

Edited June 13, 20242 yr by Kilrah

that makes sense, honestly -- I forgot it was RAID5 until you asked the question.

 

I'm trying to replace 2 drives with 1 larger drive. Those two vertex drives out and one 2tb ssd in. I get the replacing of one drive at a time but how to rebuild it after I permanently remove the second drive? Thanks again for your help.

That I don't know. Not much experience with btrfs raid5/6 around here since the general recommendation is to never use them...

ok, so if I take this opportunity to rebuild the pool in the "recommended way" what is that recommended way if I want encryption? The data stored on this pool is not critical if there are failures as all the critical data is regularly backed up to the array...if there's a safe, recommended way to create an encrypted ssd drive pool I'd love to implement it.

Use zfs raidz