Managing Pools

Use the Storage Dashboard widgets to manage a pool.

Select Storage on the main navigation panel, locate the ZFS Health widget for the pool, then click the Edit Auto TRIM. The Pool Options for poolname dialog opens.

Select Auto TRIM.

Click Save.

With Auto TRIM selected and active, TrueNAS periodically checks the pool disks for storage blocks it can reclaim. Auto TRIM can impact pool performance, so the default setting is disabled.

For more details about TRIM in ZFS, see the autotrim property description in zpool.8.

The Export/Disconnect button allows you to disconnect a pool and transfer drives to a new system where you can import the pool. It also lets you completely delete the pool and any data stored on it.

Click on Export/Disconnect on the Storage Dashboard.

A dialog displays showing any system services affected by exporting the pool.

To delete the pool and erase all the data on the pool, select Destroy data on this pool. The pool name field displays at the bottom of the window. Type the pool name into this field. To export the pool, do not select this option.

Select Delete configuration of shares that used this pool? to delete shares connected to the pool.

Select Confirm Export/Disconnect

Click Export/Disconnect. A confirmation dialog displays when the export/disconnect completes.

ZFS supports adding VDEVs to an existing ZFS pool to increase the capacity of the pool.

You cannot change the original encryption or data VDEV configuration.

To add a VDEV to a pool: Click Manage Devices on the Topology widget to open the Devices screen. Click Add VDEV on the Devices screen. The Add Vdevs to Pool version of the Pool Manager screen opens.

Click Add Vdev and select the type of VDEV to add from the list of options.

Select the disk checkbox(es), then then click the   to the left of the VDEV just added to move the disks to that VDEV.

Repeat for each type of VDEV you want to add to this pool.

Click Add Vdevs at the bottom of the screen to save the changes and close the Pool Manager screen. The Topology widget displays the newly added VDEVs.

You cannot add more drives to an existing data VDEV but you can stripe a new VDEV of the same type to increase the overall pool size. To extend a pool, you must add a data VDEV of the same type as existing VDEVs. For example, create another mirror, then stripe the new mirror VDEV to the existing mirror VDEV.

To make a hot spare for a VDEV, click Add VDev and select Hot Spare. Move the disk to use to the Spare VDev before you click Add VDevs to save the changes to the pool.

The L2ARC (cache) and SLOG (log) VDEVs can always be removed from an existing pool, regardless of topology or VDEV type. Removing these devices does not impact data integrity, but can significantly impact performance for reads and writes.

In addition, a data VDEV can be removed from an existing pool under specific circumstances. This process preserves data integrity but has multiple requirements:

• The pool must be upgraded to a ZFS version that includes the device_removal feature flag.
• All top-level VDEVs in the pool must be only mirrors or stripes.
• Special VDEVs cannot be removed when RAIDZ data VDEVs are present.
• All top-level VDEVs in the pool must use the same basic allocation unit size (ashift).
• The remaining data VDEVs must contain sufficient free space to hold all of the data from the removed VDEV.

When a RAIDZ data VDEV is present, device removal is generally not possible. The allocation unit size requirement might apply to pools upgraded from a legacy FreeNAS version, but is unlikely to impact pools created on TrueNAS 12 or later.

To remove a VDEV from a pool: Click Manage Devices on the Topology widget to open the Devices screen. Click the device or drive to remove, then click the Remove button in the ZFS Info pane. If the Remove button is not visible, check that all conditions for VDEV removal listed above are correct. Confirm the removal operation and click the Remove button.

The VDEV removal process status is visible in the Task Manager (or alternately with the zpool status command). Avoid physically removing or attempting to wipe the disks until the removal operation completes.

• To make a striped mirror, add the same number of drives to extend a ZFS mirror. For example, you start with ten available drives. Begin by creating a mirror of two drives, and then extending the mirror by adding another mirror of two drives. Repeat this three more times until you add all ten drives.
• To make a stripe of two RAIDZ1 VDEVs (similar to RAID 50 on a hardware controller), add another three drives to extend the three-drive RAIDZ1.
• To make a stripe of RAIDZ2 VDEVs (similar to RAID 60 on a hardware controller), add another four drives to extend the four-drive RAIDZ2.

Use Scrub on the ZFS Health pool widget to start a pool data integrity check.

Click Scrub to open the Scrub Pool dialog. Select Confirm, then click Start Scrub.

If TrueNAS detects problems during the scrub operation, it either corrects them or generates an alert in the web interface.

By default, TrueNAS automatically checks every pool on a reoccurring scrub schedule.

The ZFS Health widget displays the state of the last scrub or disks in the pool. To view scheduled scrub tasks, click View all Scrub Tasks on the ZFS Health widget.

The Storage Dashboard screen Disks button and the Manage Disks button on the Disk Health widget both open the Disks screen.

Manage Devices on the Topology widget opens the Devices screen. To manage disks in a pool, click on the VDEV to expand it and show the disks in that VDEV. Click on a disk to see the devices widgets for that disk. You can take a disk offline, detach it, replace it, manage the SED encryption password, and perform other disk management tasks from this screen.

See Replacing Disks for more information on the Offline, Replace and Online options.

Click Expand on the Storage Dashboard to increase the pool size to match all available disk space. An example is expanding a pool when resizing virtual disks apart from TrueNAS.

Storage pool upgrades are typically not required unless the new OpenZFS feature flags are deemed necessary for required or improved system operation.

Do not do a pool-wide ZFS upgrade until you are ready to commit to this SCALE major version and lose the ability to roll back to an earlier major version!

The Upgrade button displays on the Storage Dashboard for existing pools after an upgrade to a new TrueNAS major version includes new OpenZFS feature flags. Newly created pools are always up to date with the OpenZFS feature flags available in the installed TrueNAS version.

The upgrade itself only takes a few seconds and is non-disruptive. It is not necessary to stop any sharing services to upgrade the pool. However, it is best to upgrade when the pool is not in heavy use. The upgrade process suspends I/O for a short period, but is nearly instantaneous on a quiet pool.