Author name: Dan Langille

I've been playing with computers since I read an Elementary Electronics magazine way back in the 1970s. I started contributing to open source projects in 1998. After that, I gradually moved from being a software developer to being a systems administrator.

zfs: setting compression and adding new vdevs

If you read my recent posts, I’m replacing an existing zpool with new devices. At first, I went to copy the old zpool to a new zpool. I then decided instead of copying, to replace. I’m also going to see about compression. I’m sure it won’t take effect, because replace is a block-by-block copy, or so I think. We’ll confirm. Before Here is the zpool, really, just the top-level filesystem. Notice how compression […]

zfs: setting compression and adding new vdevs Read More »

Moving a zpool to new devices – after the syncoid copy – oh wait, zfs replace

This morning, as I was typing the subject of this blog post, I realized I don’t have to do this copying. The new devices are staying in this host. It is better for me to add the new devices to the zpool and remove the old devices. That is so much easier. The existing zpool can stay in use and there is no interruption in service. NOTE: after publishing this entry, I realized

Moving a zpool to new devices – after the syncoid copy – oh wait, zfs replace Read More »

Creating the new zpools

I have 4 new storage devices to create 2 new zpools, each a two-vdev mirror. Let’s go. In this post: FreeBSD 14.3 These are the drives I have. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. The 4TB NVMe cards are Samsung 990 EVO Plus SSD 4TB, PCIe Gen 4×4 | Gen 5×2 M.2 The 4TB SSDs are SAMSUNG 870 EVO 4TB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-77E4T0B/AM) The new data02

Creating the new zpools Read More »

ETCDIR for sysutils/mqttwarn is not as expected

I modified my mqttwarn scripts today to ignore some messages. When restarting it, it wouldn’t. No output whatsoever. [20:07 mqtt01 dvl ~] % sudo service mqttwarn restart mqttwarn not running? (check /var/run/mqttwarn/mqttwarn.pid). Starting mqttwarn. [20:07 mqtt01 dvl ~] % sudo ps auwwx | grep warn dvl 4191 0.0 0.0 13836 2408 1 S+J 20:07 0:00.00 grep warn Eventually, I tried running it by hand: [20:08 mqtt01 dvl ~] % sudo /usr/local/bin/mqttwarn Traceback (most

ETCDIR for sysutils/mqttwarn is not as expected Read More »

Compression results

Let’s tally up. For reference, this is one of a series of posts regarding compression testing on zpools: Experimenting with compression off Experimenting with compression=lz4 Experimenting with compression=zstd Compression results – you are here Samsung-SSD-870 4TB SSD For the Samsung-SSD-870 4TB SSD no compression we had: 2:34 = 154s 2:32 = 152s 2:30 = 150s 3:52 = 238s 4:46 = 286s 4:16 = 256s 4:15 = 255s 4:15 = 255s 4:49 = 289s

Compression results Read More »

GEOM: nda1: the primary GPT table is corrupt or invalid

When I destroyed the zpools when I was done with zstd compression testing, these errors appeared in /var/log/messages: You’d be shocked to learn these messages appear when creating a zpool with those devices: [12:21 r730-01 dvl ~/tmp] % sudo zpool create Samsung-SSD-980-PRO-geom-issues mirror /dev/nda1 /dev/nda2 re: Background: these two devices were part of a zpool before I started playing with them. They had partitions on them. Recovery and destroy There may be a

GEOM: nda1: the primary GPT table is corrupt or invalid Read More »

Experimenting with compression=zstd

Following on from my previous post where I tested lz4, let’s try compression=zstd. Experimenting with compression off Experimenting with compression=lz4 Experimenting with compression=zstd – you are here Compression results First, we delete the old: [21:19 r730-01 dvl ~/tmp] % sudo zpool destroy Samsung-SSD-870-compression-lz4 [21:19 r730-01 dvl ~/tmp] % sudo zpool destroy Samsung-SSD-980-PRO-compression-lz4 [21:19 r730-01 dvl ~/tmp] % sudo zpool destroy Samsung-SSD-990-EVO-compression-lz4 Then create the new: [21:19 r730-01 dvl ~/tmp] % sudo zpool create

Experimenting with compression=zstd Read More »

Experimenting with compression=lz4

Following on from my previous post where I tested with compress off, let’s try compression=lz4. Experimenting with compression off Experimenting with compression=lz4 – you are here Experimenting with compression=zstd Compression results First, we delete the old: [19:45 r730-01 dvl ~] % sudo zpool destroy Samsung-SSD-870-no-compression [19:45 r730-01 dvl ~] % sudo zpool destroy Samsung-SSD-980-PRO-no-compression [19:46 r730-01 dvl ~] % sudo zpool destroy Samsung-SSD-990-EVO-no-compression [19:46 r730-01 dvl ~] % Then create the new: [19:47

Experimenting with compression=lz4 Read More »

Experimenting with compression off

Now that the new storage is in place, I thought to test with compression on and off. Perhaps also use both lz4 and zstd. For reference, this is one of a series of posts regarding compression testing on zpools: Experimenting with compression off – you are here Experimenting with compression=lz4 Experimenting with compression=zstd Compression results My plan: create three zpools of two mirrored devices and test. There will be three posts: compression off,

Experimenting with compression off Read More »

Adding in new NVMe cards and sticks – and replacing two SSDs

I notice I also worked with some SSDs at the end of this post – I have since amended the title of this post. In this post: FreeBSD 14.3 Today I removed two existing NVMe cards, each with a 1TB stick on it. Those sticks were added to these cards: If you want the same hardware, you can use these links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. These are all

Adding in new NVMe cards and sticks – and replacing two SSDs Read More »

Scroll to Top