USB Data pool problem

TrueNAS General
1

Hello everyone,

I am a French IT retiree and I installed Truenas in my home. I’m very happy it works very well, it’s the best NAS software I’ve found. Truenas is installed on an SSD disk. I also have two 4To disks in RAID1 in a box connected by USB for the DATA pool. Yesterday I had a problem with this box. I needed to reboot the PC and it took at least 15 minutes to do so, it indicated a ZFS problem. Once in Truenas he launched a procedure, perhaps for repair I don’t know? At the end of the procedure I rebooted the PC and since then everything is OK.
I have read here and there that connecting USB drives is not best for Truenas.
On the back of my Dell PC I have an eSata connector connected directly to the motherboard.
Question: Is it a good idea to change the USB box to an eSata connected box ? Will it work straight away or will it be necessary to do a migration procedure, is it possible and what are the risks?
This message is translated from French by Google translator, I hope you understand.
Thank you for your help and have a good end year.

2

Bonjour,

That is a mirror in zfs terms. RaidZ1 would be three disk, unless you fiddle around with the cli.

eSata should be more reliable that USB, not sure if it is possible to connect two drives to a single eSata port?

Maybe add some more information about the hardware you are using and you are planning to use would be helpful/necessary.

3

Hi prez02 thank you for your help.

RAID1 is managed by the USB box and not by Truenas.

My equipment:
-Dell OptiPlex 3060
-Intel Core i5-8500 (6 Cores/9 MB cache/6 Threads/up to 4.1 GHz/65W);
-32 GB memory UDIMM DDR4 non-ECC
-NVMe SSD 256 GB for Truenas Scale
-LC-POWER USB 3.0 RAID1 external box with 2 x 4TB Seagate drives for the DATA pool
-Seagate USB 3.0 4TB external drive for DATA pool replication

I’m thinking of buying an esata box for 2 disks but I don’t know which one yet, maybe some suggestions… It’s for use at home so no expensive equipment.

4

This is a BAD idea - TrueNAS (ZFS) needs direct control of the disks - also see: Why you should avoid USB attached drives for data pool disks - Resources - TrueNAS Community Forums

EDIT: Consider the possibility of adding an HBA to your machine to control disks directly
What’s all the noise about HBAs, and why can’t I use a RAID controller? | TrueNAS Community

5

That then just shows up as one “normal” USB device, right?

As said, truenas does need direct access to disks, via a HBA in IT mode or a SATA controller. USB connected always cause trouble, as you are experiencing know.

I guess, in this case it would be worse if those two drives would be passed through individually via the raid controller (if possible at all) and then have truenas created a mirror of those drives.

That is probably the one exception that is more or less ok, using a temporarily connected USB drive as a cold backup.

6

My guess is it’s a Dell Optiplex 3060 SFF, due to the lack of internal hdds…

7

Yes Dell OptiPlex 3060 Small Form Factor.

1 x M.2 Connector - 2230/2280 (2280 for storage)
1 x M.2 Connector - 2230 (keyed to support Integrated or Discrete WiFi)
1 x Serial ATA (SATA) connector 1 - Support Standard Rev 2.0
1 x PCIe X16 slot 1 - Support Standard Rev 3.0
1 x PCIe X1 slot 1

8

If I buy an IT mode PCIe HBA card, I connect my 2 disks directly to this card, Truenas/ZFS will see the disks as separate, right ? So will Truenas/ZFS be able to handle redundancy (RAID1) ?

9

Yes truenas uses zfs software raid. And a raid1 in zfs terminology would be a mirror.

10

Thanks everyone, it’s clear to me at this point. I’m going to look for a pcie HBA IT card for my Dell Optiplex.

11

Okay, but you have to connect the drives separately! Do they fit in the case? Does the Powersuppy is powerful enough?

12

Yes, that’s the way to go. You’ll need to get a 2-disk enclosure with a power supply (HBA is only data) and the shortest possible data cables from the HBA to the drives themselves.

Lots of references to HBA in the Resources category here, also to cross-flashing in the event you get one that needs it. Don’t hesitate to come back here with questions if you are uncertain.

13

When I find the material I will come back here. Thanks for the support.

14

Cables like these CABLEDECONN 0,75M Internal SFF8087 Mini SAS 36pin mâle W/Latch to SATA 7Pin Female (X4) Forward Breakout Cable (8087 to 4sata 0,75m) : Amazon.fr: Informatique

1M is the longest I have seen, but the shorter the better.

15

Thanks for the cables.
The difficulty is finding a case for two 3.5 Sata drives with only a power supply.
There are tons of 2-disk enclosures with USB output, but that’s not what I’m looking for now.

16

something like this Chieftec Universal SAS / SATA Backplanes - CMR-3141SAS should work

17

Is this a good choice?

https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005004901931744.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.3.7f6e560dayafUg&algo_pvid=4bb6c286-1eb3-4f28-8ac6-192662487ba2&algo_exp_id=4bb6c286-1eb3-4f28-8ac6-192662487ba2-1&pdp_npi=4%40dis!EUR!41.45!39.79!!!309.79!297.38!%40210391a017345413708387424eb9e0!12000030959628162!sea!FR!183352703!X&curPageLogUid=mhmob1790USw&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch|query_from%3A

18

Thats the right type of card.
Of course you sometimes don’t get quite what you paid for from China

19

It’s true, if I find it on Amazon I prefer.

20

EDIT: I think you’ll find some on Amazon.fr today - this was in answer to claude’s post.