Issues with pool creation in Scale

Hi,
I’ve recently had issues with my pools being offline after in-place upgrade from Core to Scale. I’ve restored data from those disks using data recovery software and I’m now trying to build a new pool using those drives on a fresh Scale installation, but I’m encountering some issues.

When I create the pool from the GUI I get the following:

 Error: Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/middlewared/job.py", line 515, in run
    await self.future
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/middlewared/job.py", line 560, in __run_body
    rv = await self.method(*args)
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/middlewared/service/crud_service.py", line 287, in nf
    rv = await func(*args, **kwargs)
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/middlewared/schema/processor.py", line 48, in nf
    res = await f(*args, **kwargs)
          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/middlewared/schema/processor.py", line 174, in nf
    return await func(*args, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/middlewared/plugins/pool_/pool.py", line 582, in do_create
    await self.middleware.call('pool.format_disks', job, disks, 0, 30)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/middlewared/main.py", line 977, in call
    return await self._call(
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/middlewared/main.py", line 692, in _call
    return await methodobj(*prepared_call.args)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/middlewared/plugins/pool_/format_disks.py", line 34, in format_disks
    devname = await self.middleware.call('disk.gptid_from_part_type', disk, zfs_part_type)
              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/middlewared/main.py", line 977, in call
    return await self._call(
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/middlewared/main.py", line 703, in _call
    return await self.run_in_executor(prepared_call.executor, methodobj, *prepared_call.args)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/middlewared/main.py", line 596, in run_in_executor
    return await loop.run_in_executor(pool, functools.partial(method, *args, **kwargs))
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.11/concurrent/futures/thread.py", line 58, in run
    result = self.fn(*self.args, **self.kwargs)
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/middlewared/plugins/disk_/disk_info.py", line 173, in gptid_from_part_type
    raise CallError(f'Partition type {part_type} not found on {disk}')
middlewared.service_exception.CallError: [EFAULT] Partition type 6a898cc3-1dd2-11b2-99a6-080020736631 not found on sda

I’ve already wiped the disks, zeroed them, etc.
This is what I’ve already done for both disks:

wipefs -a /dev/sda 
sgdisk --zap-all /dev/sda
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M count=100 status=progress

I can create the pool from the CLI, but then it’s not showing in the GUI.
It’s all very confusing to me.
I also have imported one of my non-mirrored pools, it’s also showing in the CLI, I can access the data via CLI, but still nothing in the GUI.

1 Like

OK, I managed to get my unmirrored pool back online, but it’s mounting one of the datasets in the wrong path, which breaks SMB sharing.

truenas_admin@truenas[~]$ sudo zfs get mountpoint temp-share/data

NAME             PROPERTY    VALUE                     SOURCE
temp-share/data  mountpoint  /mnt/mnt/temp-share/data  local
truenas_admin@truenas[~]$ sudo umount /mnt/mnt/temp-share/data                        

truenas_admin@truenas[~]$ mount | grep temp-share                                     

temp-share on /mnt/temp-share type zfs (rw,relatime,xattr,nfs4acl,casesensitive)
truenas_admin@truenas[~]$ sudo zfs set canmount=off temp-share/data

truenas_admin@truenas[~]$ sudo zfs set mountpoint=/mnt/temp-share/data temp-share/data

truenas_admin@truenas[~]$ zfs get mountpoint temp-share/data

zsh: command not found: zfs
truenas_admin@truenas[~]$ sudo zfs get mountpoint temp-share/data

NAME             PROPERTY    VALUE                     SOURCE
temp-share/data  mountpoint  /mnt/mnt/temp-share/data  local
truenas_admin@truenas[~]$

Fixed! Thanks!

Now I only have the issue of being unable to create a new pool from the old disks that failed in the Core to Scale update. I think there might be some remnants of old labels or any other weird stuff that the data recovery software might have left. I’m doing a full low level format and will try again after the disks are fully zeroed.

Have you tried wiping them from the GUI?

Yes, from the GUI, CLI, in any way that I knew how. Nothing works. When I create the pool from the CLI, it doesn’t give any error, it shows the pool as created, but no labels are written to the disks so the pool does not work.
I’ll try after the disks are zeroed.

1 Like

I would be shocked if creation via the command line did not create ZFS labels on the disks. What creation via command line does not do is create the configuration data in TrueNAS, which is why you are not supposed to do it that way. You can always examine ZFS labels with /sbin/zdb -l <device name>, for example /sbin/zdb -l /dev/sda. What does this show for each drive and partition on each drive? There should be four labels per device, 2 at the start and 2 at the end. If there are partial or corrupt labels then TrueNAS will not do the correct thing with the devices.

Have you tried, after creating the zpool from the command line export the zpool. Then try to import it from the GUI.

truenas_admin@truenas[~] sudo zpool create −f main−share mirror /dev/sda /dev/sdb 

truenas_admin@truenas[~] sudo zpool status
pool: boot-pool
state: ONLINE
config:

NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
    boot-pool   ONLINE       0     0     0
      sdd3      ONLINE       0     0     0
IGNORE_WHEN_COPYING_START
content_copy
download
Use code with caution.
IGNORE_WHEN_COPYING_END

errors: No known data errors

pool: main-share
state: ONLINE
config:

NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
    main-share  ONLINE       0     0     0
      mirror-0  ONLINE       0     0     0
        sda     ONLINE       0     0     0
        sdb     ONLINE       0     0     0
IGNORE_WHEN_COPYING_START
content_copy
download
Use code with caution.
IGNORE_WHEN_COPYING_END

errors: No known data errors

pool: temp-share
state: ONLINE
status: Some supported and requested features are not enabled on the pool.
The pool can still be used, but some features are unavailable.
action: Enable all features using 'zpool upgrade'. Once this is done,
the pool may no longer be accessible by software that does not support
the features. See zpool-features(7) for details.
scan: scrub repaired 0B in 01:48:32 with 0 errors on Sun May 11 01:48:32 2025
config:

NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
    temp-share  ONLINE       0     0     0
      sdc2      ONLINE       0     0     0
IGNORE_WHEN_COPYING_START
content_copy
download
Use code with caution.
IGNORE_WHEN_COPYING_END

errors: No known data errors
truenas_admin@truenas[~] sudo zdb -l /dev/sda 
failed to unpack label 0
failed to unpack label 1
failed to unpack label 2
failed to unpack label 3
truenas_admin@truenas[~] sudo zdb -l /dev/sdb 
failed to unpack label 0
failed to unpack label 1
failed to unpack label 2
failed to unpack label 3
1 Like

Which version of SCALE is this?

Newest one from Download TrueNAS Community Edition - Data Storage Software - 25.04

How are the drives connected?

General hardware information also.

Normal SATA HDD drives.
It’s my old home server:
MB: Gigabyte 970A-DS3P
CPU: AMD FX-8320
16GB RAM

Which drives? I’m not trying to be annoying, and this likely has nothing to do with it. It’s just good to eliminate certain things that could be overlooked.

You mentioned “low level formatting”. Did you use the vendor’s tool or standard Linux commands?

What is the sector size and other specs of one of these drives?

sudo smartctl -q noserial -i /dev/sda

Model Family: Seagate BarraCuda 3.5 (SMR)
Device Model: ST4000DM004-2CV104

Model Family: Western Digital Blue (SMR)
Device Model: WDC WD40EZAZ-00SF3B0

Both 4TB, basically what I had lying around.
I yanked them both from the TrueNAS machine and I’m using https://hddguru.com/software/HDD-LLF-Low-Level-Format-Tool/ to zero one of them on my Windows machine. It will take at least 7 more hours until it’s done and I’m away for the weekend, on Monday I’ll plug it into TrueNAS again and check if I can create a pool and get proper labels on that drive.

smartctl 7.4 2023-08-01 r5530 [x86_64-linux-6.12.15-production+truenas] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-23, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Western Digital Blue (SMR)
Device Model:     WDC WD40EZAZ-00SF3B0
Serial Number:    WD-WX42D61ANURT
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 269ac4dcf
Firmware Version: 80.00A80
User Capacity:    4,000,787,030,016 bytes [4.00 TB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:    5400 rpm
Form Factor:      3.5 inches
TRIM Command:     Available, deterministic, zeroed
Device is:        In smartctl database 7.3/5528
ATA Version is:   ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 5
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Fri May 23 02:59:28 2025 PDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x00) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection:                (34544) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:                    (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:        ( 251) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   2) minutes.
SCT capabilities:              (0x3031) SCT Status supported.
SCT Feature Control supported.
SCT Data Table supported.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   196   194   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       3175
4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   010   010   000    Old_age   Always       -       90015
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   093   093   000    Old_age   Always       -       5644
10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   010   010   000    Old_age   Always       -       90006
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   081   081   000    Old_age   Always       -       89977
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       118
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   114   106   000    Old_age   Always       -       33
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged.  [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1        0        0  Not_testing
2        0        0  Not_testing
3        0        0  Not_testing
4        0        0  Not_testing
5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
The above only provides legacy SMART information - try 'smartctl -x' for more
smartctl 7.4 2023-08-01 r5530 [x86_64-linux-6.12.15-production+truenas] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-23, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Seagate BarraCuda 3.5 (SMR)
Device Model:     ST4000DM004-2CV104
Serial Number:    WFN1ZYHR
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 0c1209fb6
Firmware Version: 0001
User Capacity:    4,000,787,030,016 bytes [4.00 TB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:    5425 rpm
Form Factor:      3.5 inches
Device is:        In smartctl database 7.3/5528
ATA Version is:   ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 5
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Fri May 23 02:59:28 2025 PDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x00) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection:                (    0) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:                    (0x73) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
No Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:        ( 489) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   2) minutes.
SCT capabilities:              (0x30a5) SCT Status supported.
SCT Data Table supported.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000f   100   064   006    Pre-fail  Always       -       2124949
3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0003   096   096   000    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       549
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000f   089   060   045    Pre-fail  Always       -       830392086
9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   075   075   000    Old_age   Always       -       21940h+22m+17.067s
10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   097    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       413
183 Runtime_Bad_Block       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
184 End-to-End_Error        0x0032   100   100   099    Old_age   Always       -       0
187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
188 Command_Timeout         0x0032   100   073   000    Old_age   Always       -       0 0 44
189 High_Fly_Writes         0x003a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022   065   056   040    Old_age   Always       -       35 (Min/Max 34/35)
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       744
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   095   095   000    Old_age   Always       -       10050
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   035   044   000    Old_age   Always       -       35 (0 11 0 0 0)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x001a   100   064   000    Old_age   Always       -       2124949
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x003e   200   196   000    Old_age   Always       -       31
240 Head_Flying_Hours       0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       20990h+56m+15.215s
241 Total_LBAs_Written      0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       20351283281
242 Total_LBAs_Read         0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       68581661931
SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged.  [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1        0        0  Not_testing
2        0        0  Not_testing
3        0        0  Not_testing
4        0        0  Not_testing
5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
The above only provides legacy SMART information - try 'smartctl -x' for more

I see you like pain.

Well, as I said, they were just sitting on my desk unused, so I chucked them into TrueNAS :smiley:
It’s not like I hold any critical data there, just 3TB of old photos :smiley:

You might not want to hear this, but I would not use those drives with TrueNAS or ZFS in general. Not even as spares.

Find another use for them that does not involve ZFS.

1 Like

Good to know, thanks.

Need a quick 4-TiB drive to temporarily dump stuff into, but you don’t care if the drive dies, underperforms, or you lose the data stored on it? You can fit them into a USB enclosure and use them only for the purpose of standard file storage for temporary or unimportant things.

Use a filesystem like XFS if you’ll only access them with Linux, or exFAT if you want them to be used across OSes.

1 Like

Still, SMR is no excuse for the issue with pool creation…
Something is rotten in the kingdom of Fangtooth.