I recently installed 6 SSDs into an R710. In this post, I will describe what I did to the empty SSDs before I started using them. short test I ran a short test on each one of the drives. I already had smartctl. $ sudo smartctl -t short /dev/da0 smartctl 6.6 2017-11-05 r4594 [FreeBSD 11.1-RELEASE-p1 […]
R710 – getting the drives ready Read More »
If you’ve read even a little of what I’ve written, the following points will not come as a surprise: I like FreeBSD I’m a fan of backups I use Bacula I like ZFS I have tape libraries In this post, I will cover all of the above and more. Photos will be included. New gear
Converting a Dell R710 into a ZFS-based FreeBSD 11.1 tape library bacula-sd Read More »
NOTE: this post has been replaced by a newer version. The older post is still available This is x8dtu (named after the SuperMicro motherboard). This is the new FreshPorts server. In short: FreeBSD 11 booting off a mirrored pair of zfsroot SSDs 4.5TB of mirrored ZFS 196612 MB of RAM (yeah, that’s 196GB of RAM)
I’ve been having boot issues with a server containing 20 HDD, all behind HBAs. I have decided to start booting off SSDs. In that previous blog post, there was much speculation about where to mount the new drives, etc. In the meantime, I came up with a solution which did not involve magnets and used
Moving boot from one zpool to another Read More »
For future reference, this is the knew server. It runs a few jails, including Bacula regression testing services. This recent post outlines the modifications so it boots off a mirror of SSDs. File systems Paritions zpools /var/run/dmesg.boot
Please also see Moving boot from one zpool to another and Adding a zroot pool to an existing system. On my 20x HDD system at home (also known as knew), I am having a recurring problem with booting. This is also the same system mentioned in my FreeBSD Forums thread about some CAM errors. Side
Moving from zroot from one zpool to another Read More »
For future reference, this is the knew server. It runs a few jails, including Bacula regression testing services. File systems Paritions zpools /var/run/dmesg.boot
This is about FreeBSD 11.1 on my knew server. I recently replaced the 3TB drives with 5TB drives. Along the way, it didn’t boot, the swap was adjusted, I got concerned about power, and there was a brief CAM status: SCSI Status Error scare. Then today, the planned reboot, I started asking questions on Reddit
Booting off the new 5TB drives Read More »
I started replacing 3TB drives with 5TB drives in a 10 drive raidz3 array on a FreeBSD 10.3 box. I was not sure which drive tray to pull, so I powered off the server, and, one by one, pulled the drive tray, photographed it, and reinserted the drive tray. No changes were made. The first
After replacing 3TB drive with 5TB drive, FreeBSD 10.3 system did not reboot Read More »
In this power, the server is running FreeBSD 10.3. I am completely and unreasonably biased: ZFS is the best filesystem out there. Do not take my word for it. Ask around. Today, I started a process I’ve been waiting to do for a while. I am replacing the 3TB drives in a 10-drive raidz2 array
Swapping 5TB in, 3TB out Read More »