2x 1 TB HDD (one VDEV pool - STRIPE) [Full of files for 1,5 TB]
In this moment I don’t have any spare SATA ports left on the motherboard.
I want to make a larger pool with two new disk 2x 2TB WD, replacing the 2x1TB. How can I do that safely?
I prefer not buying new expansion card for new sata port, case is very tiny and It’s a mess already (ANTEC ISK 300-150) I’m planning to modify the case for the hdd and maybe adding a fan.
Your only choice may be to attach the 2TB using a powered USB cage and performing the replacement of a single drive. Powering down and physically replacing the 1TB with the 2TB drive you just used and then performing another replacement for your second 1TB with a 2TB drive.
Make sure to track all drives by serial numbers as the positions can change at boot time. SDA could be SDB on the next boot for the same drives.
You would really be better off moving off of a pool of two striped vdevs and migrating to a mirror pair VDEV. If you lose either drive in your current setup, the entire pool is lost.
You run a stripe, but care about safety?
Short answer: You can’t.
Long answer: you could move the boot to a USB and boot from there. That way you would get a free SATA port and than could replace one drive at a time. Everything totally unsafe, since you have no redundancy.
I suggest you pass on the USB attached disk for a permanent solution, if you wanna stay safe.
It’s advised against according to the TrueNAS official hardware guide (https://www.truenas.com/docs/scale/g), reason being that it can easily lead to unexpected disconnects and issues with stat reporting. Chances depend on the controller software/hardware support that is in place.
Better option is to use eSATA port on the back of the motherboard, which can provide a single reliable SATA disk data connection with just a cable (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10).
Unfortunately, eSATA port can reliable only provide 1 additional disk, and using port multipliers is also not recommended as per TrueNAS official hardware guide.
Please reconsider using PCIe x16 port on the motherboard for additional sata ports.
Great option would be any reputable low-profile LSI, HP, Dell etc. that provides SAS/SATA ports. I’m currently using “LSI SAS9207-8i” with a single miniSAS adapter cable to 4x SATA ports (https://www.aliexpress.com/item) . It gives my HPE Microserver gen10 additional 4x SATA ports, but I can double it with an additional mentioned miniSAS adapter cable.
I think we were both suggesting temp solutions of using USB. If permanent, boot pool using a USB adapter to a SSD or NVMe is a valid recommendation and probably a better idea as it sees less usage and is easily replaced under TrueNAS, as long as you have a current System Configuration download.
Adding a HBA to a case with poor cooling to begin with not be a good idea. Manufacturer docs spec 150-200 linear feet per minute of airlflow over the heatsinks.
Keep it simple - make a backup of the data over the network (couple of hours) then restore once you get drives in (another couple of hours). No worry about USB issues / eSATA / or adding HBA.
IMHO better move the boot SSD over USB, then data disk.
For long term, i would avoid USB at all, but you really should start thinking about a bit of redundancy… Also a raidz1, using all the 3 SATA available.
A tricky way can be add the NVME firmware to your BIOS, so with a cheap adapter and a small cheap NVME you will have the capability to boot from It, keeping all SATA available for disks, spending about 15€ (adapter, disk and flash programmer)
2.5" HDD only, meaning that any increase in capacity will involve SMR drives… if that’s not already the case
You really are in need of hardware upgrades: Case first, then 3.5" drives, and eventually the motherboard (more than 3 SATA ports and no Realtec NIC, please).
