Finally, it’s time to put together a new zpool for r730-01 (the storage information at that URL is already out of date; once this new zpool is created, another post will replace it).
In this post:
- FreeBSD 14.3
I just realized, that my previous post on the zpools for this host revealed there is already a zpool with 2x 4TB NVMe: data02:
[20:17 r730-01 dvl ~] % zpool list data02 NAME SIZE ALLOC FREE CKPOINT EXPANDSZ FRAG CAP DEDUP HEALTH ALTROOT data02 3.62T 703G 2.94T - - 32% 18% 1.00x ONLINE - [20:19 r730-01 dvl ~] % zpool status data02 pool: data02 state: ONLINE scan: scrub repaired 0B in 00:12:09 with 0 errors on Thu Nov 20 04:22:47 2025 config: NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM data02 ONLINE 0 0 0 mirror-0 ONLINE 0 0 0 gpt/Samsung_990_S7U8NJ0Y716854P ONLINE 0 0 0 gpt/Samsung_990_S7U8NJ0Y716801F ONLINE 0 0 0 errors: No known data errors [20:19 r730-01 dvl ~] %
I know I have these NVMe devices:
[20:10 r730-01 dvl ~] % sudo nvmecontrol devlist
nvme0: Samsung SSD 990 PRO 4TB
nvme0ns1 (3815447MB)
nvme1: Samsung SSD 990 PRO 4TB
nvme1ns1 (3815447MB)
nvme2: Samsung SSD 990 PRO 4TB
nvme2ns1 (3815447MB)
nvme3: Samsung SSD 990 PRO 4TB
nvme3ns1 (3815447MB)
nvme4: WDC WDS250G2B0C-00PXH0
nvme4ns1 (238475MB)
nvme5: Samsung SSD 990 EVO Plus 4TB
nvme5ns1 (3815447MB)
nvme6: Samsung SSD 980 PRO with Heatsink 1TB
nvme6ns1 (953869MB)
nvme7: Samsung SSD 980 PRO with Heatsink 1TB
nvme7ns1 (953869MB)
nvme8: Samsung SSD 990 EVO Plus 4TB
nvme8ns1 (3815447MB)
Looking at gpart show -l (below) and comparing against the zpool status data02 output, I see nda5 and nda8 are part of that zpool. They correspond to nvme5 and nvme8 listed above.
I am sure the 1TB devices (nvme6 & nvme7) are unused.
That tells me I have these NVMe devices ready to use:
nvme0 nvme1 nvme2 nvme3 – that quantity matches up with recent purchases. I’m sure these four on on the new NVMe board I bought.
nvme4 is 250G – I can remove that – it’s not much use here.
I also have 2x 4TB SSDs, da12 and da13
Here’s that gpart information I mentioned above. In the next section, I’ll assemble the list of free drives and think about what to do next.
[20:44 r730-01 dvl ~] % gpart show -l
=> 40 488397088 nda4 GPT (233G)
40 1024 1 gptboot0 (512K)
1064 984 - free - (492K)
2048 4194304 2 swap0 (2.0G)
4196352 484200448 3 zfs0 (231G)
488396800 328 - free - (164K)
=> 40 7814037088 nda5 GPT (3.6T)
40 7814036000 1 Samsung_990_S7U8NJ0Y716854P (3.6T)
7814036040 1088 - free - (544K)
=> 34 7814037101 nda8 GPT (3.6T)
34 6 - free - (3.0K)
40 7814036000 1 Samsung_990_S7U8NJ0Y716801F (3.6T)
7814036040 1095 - free - (548K)
=> 40 242255584 ada0 GPT (116G)
40 2008 - free - (1.0M)
2048 409600 1 efi0_20170718AA0000185556 (200M)
411648 16777216 2 swap0 (8.0G)
17188864 225066760 3 zfs0_20170718AA0000185556 (107G)
=> 40 242255584 ada1 GPT (116G)
40 2008 - free - (1.0M)
2048 409600 1 efi1_20170719AA1178164201 (200M)
411648 16777216 2 swap1 (8.0G)
17188864 225066760 3 zfs1_20170719AA1178164201 (107G)
=> 40 1562824288 da2 GPT (745G)
40 1562824288 1 Y7P0A033TEVE (745G)
=> 40 1562824288 da1 GPT (745G)
40 1562824288 1 Y7P0A02MTEVE (745G)
=> 40 1562824288 da3 GPT (745G)
40 1562824288 1 Y7P0A022TEVE (745G)
=> 40 1562824288 da4 GPT (745G)
40 1562824288 1 Y7P0A02QTEVE (745G)
=> 40 1562824288 da5 GPT (745G)
40 1562824288 1 Y7P0A02ATEVE (745G)
=> 40 1562824288 da6 GPT (745G)
40 1562824288 1 Y7P0A02GTEVE (745G)
=> 40 1562824288 da7 GPT (745G)
40 1562824288 1 Y7P0A02DTEVE (745G)
=> 40 7814037088 da11 GPT (3.6T)
40 7814037088 1 WD_230151800473 (3.6T)
=> 40 7814037088 da8 GPT (3.6T)
40 7814037088 1 WD_230151801478 (3.6T)
=> 40 7814037088 da9 GPT (3.6T)
40 7814037088 1 WD_230151801284 (3.6T)
=> 40 7814037088 da10 GPT (3.6T)
40 7814037088 1 WD_22492H800867 (3.6T)
=> 40 1562824288 da0 GPT (745G)
40 1562824288 1 Y7P0A02LTEVE (745G)
=> 34 7814037101 da12 GPT (3.6T)
34 6 - free - (3.0K)
40 532480 1 (null) (260M)
532520 2008 - free - (1.0M)
534528 16777216 2 (null) (8.0G)
17311744 1936213384 3 (null) (923G)
1953525128 5860512007 - free - (2.7T)
[20:44 r730-01 dvl ~] %
Free drives
The free drives are:
- nvme0 nvme1 nvme2 nvme3 – 4TB NVMe
- da12 and da13 – 4TB SSDs
There is an existing 4TB mirror, data02 – I could add the above 6 devices and get a 16TB mirror. Well. That might do me for a while.
Expanding an existing zpool starts with some devices fuller than the newly added drives. As time goes on, that levels out.
This next bit is something I’m unlikely to do. It sounds like way more work than is required. That existing zpool (data02) contains only 703G of data. Now I could move that all over to something else (like those 1TB NVME devices), then create a brand new zpool and copy the data base in.
I might also want to consider smaller zpools… but really, should I do that? Why not have a 16TB zpool, based on 8x 4TB SSDs? vs 2 zpools of 8TB, for example.
