I have a NAS running Core still with 4 x 4TB in RAIDZ2. I’d like to move over to Scale and also expand the pool with 4 more 4TB drives. What’s the best order to do things? I was thinking maybe jump over to Scale first and then expand the pool. Thoughts? Also, is there a faster/safer way to expand the pool by 4 more drives?
Btw, if it matters, my pool is at 90%.
Are you talking about using RAID-Zx-expansion or adding a second 4 wide Raid-Z2 VDEV
If you’re thinking raidz expansion (with all its caveats), migrating to CE first is required.
But the safer way to enlarge the pool is to add a second 4-wide raidz2 vdev, which you can do even while staying with CORE.
And the better way would be to backup and restore to a new pool, either 8-wide raidz2 (8*4 TB) or n-way raidz2 with larger drives.
I didn’t want to complicate my original post but I’m actually building a second NAS that will be offsite. When it’s all said and done, it would end up with my onsite being 8 x 4TB (Z2) and the offsite being 4 x 8TB (Z1). Is it too risky having that Z1?
You decide. But Z1 is less resilient than Z2, and if the purpose is that each NAS could maintain its integrity locally without having to resort to a full restore from the other, yes, Z2 at each end would be better.
If I undertstand correctly that you currently have two NAS on site and 16 drives in total, my advice is definitely that you backup your data to a new 8-wide raidz2, delete the old pool and create a second 8-wide raidz2 pool.
