I have a previous backup on a 8Tb USB-drive that I want to copy to the TrueNas server. I started over the network from my desktop computer - but it estimated to take about 9 days(!). But there should be a way for me to connect it directly to the TrueNas-server and copy the content, right? But I cannot find a way to copy files from it to the server. Does it require a seperate app for such a simple operation? I am the worst prompt-person, so prefer WYSIWYG.
That seems way too long, even if the 8-TiB drive was completely full. If you sustain ideal gigabit speeds over the network, the transfer could get done in about 24 hours (about one day).
Are you using rsync? cp? the Windows File Explorer, click and drag?
“Read 8TiB of large media files or ISOs” is an entirely different ask for a spinning hard drive than “read 8TiB of small files that are a few dozen KB each” - add in the network back-and-forth and acknowledgement.
Divide them and you get 10.78MB/s … which is suspiciously close to the limits of 100Mbps networking … @Idus are you certain your computer is connected to your TrueNAS system via a gigabit network, and not using a wireless or other low-bandwidth solution?
FYI - it stated between 4-8Mb/s at the time - and I concur that it seemed very slow. I know the probable cause - and would do well with optimizing my network with an expert. But that is not the case this time. I am still grateful that you spend your time and effort to ask me things outside the conversation and question though. But the question if I could connect an USB-drive and do a direct copy was answered to be no, so I´ve spent some extra time and it is going faster via the net now.
@HoneyBadger Please tell me if this is a bad idea or unsafe way to move data onto my pool. I created a directory in the /mnt/ folder called “USB_Storage” (through the shell sudo mkdir USB_Storage). Then I mounted my external USB drive to that folder (my drive was formatted in exFAT but extfs4 also worked just fine). Then I installed the File Browser app and allowed it to see one of the datasets in my main storage pool. I also allowed it to see my “USB_Storage” directory (which my external USB was mounted to). Then I spun up the application and was able to read the files on the external USB drive and copy the contents over to the dataset all through the File Browser GUI (It through a couple of errors but it all seemed to work).
It’s definitely “unsupported” - and you might not be able to do it with an NTFS volume, but it “works” to a degree of working.
If you have files that have critical information (metadata) stored in alternate data streams, they may not be supported by the filesystem drivers so it could be lost during the copy. (Think “file color tags” in MacOS, and similar.) But the files themselves should copy over.
My initial reaction/thought would be to use udev. …?
EDIT: I suppose I should expand on that.
You “could” use udev (or in BSD lingo: devd) to automount that usb when it’s plugged in and copy those files. Now whether or not that is a good idea is outside the scope of this thought but defiantly better to listen to someone more qualified than I am (hence the question mark).
Okay, I’ve moved to using rsync through the CLI to transfer files from the mounted usb to my main pool (I assume this is better/supported, correct me if I’m wrong?).
I’ve also undone all the things from my last post about the File Browser app. Would you recommend doing a fresh/clean install of TrueNAS scale to ensure nothing is messed up from doing this all in the first place?
Now I’m deciding if it’s a bad idea to mount the usb to share media files with the jellyfin app.
Thanks!
P.S. A feature to accomplish this in the future would be awesome!
But that is not the case this time. I am still grateful that you spend your time and effort to ask me things outside the conversation and question though. But the question if I could connect an USB-drive and do a direct copy was answered to be no, so I´ve spent some extra time and it is going faster via the net now.