Upgrading Disks in Proxmox VM Running TrueNAS: A Comprehensive Guide

Start Your Upgrade Journey with Confidence

Ready to expand your TrueNAS storage capacity on Proxmox VM? Whether you’re tackling this for the first time or looking to refine your approach, our guide is designed to navigate you through the process with ease. From planning to execution, every step is detailed to ensure a smooth upgrade, minimizing downtime and maximizing system performance. Dive into our comprehensive guide below and begin your upgrade with confidence.

Introduction

Upgrading the storage capacity of your Proxmox VM running TrueNAS can be daunting, especially when replacing all disks with larger ones. This blog post provides a detailed step-by-step guide to help you navigate this process smoothly. Whether you’re a seasoned system administrator or a tech enthusiast, this guide will ensure you have all the necessary information to upgrade your disks without hassle.

In this blog, I’ll be referring to two of my TrueNAS VMs running on Proxmox VE, both utilizing an Asrock motherboard. These VMs are named Makewin and Asrock. There will be specific examples related to these systems later in this post.

For those interested in building their own NAS server, you might find my other blog post, Building a NAS Server with Intel Z370, quite helpful. It provides a comprehensive guide on setting up a NAS server from scratch using Intel Z370.

Prerequisites

Before you start the disk replacement process, make sure you have the following:

Backup Data: Always ensure you have a complete backup of your data.
Check Disk Health: Verify the health of your current disks and the new disks you plan to use.
Identify Disks: Note down the device IDs of the disks you intend to replace and their corresponding virtual machine assignments.

Step-by-Step Replacement Process

1. Replace Each Disk One by One

Identify the Disk to Replace: Use lshw and lsblk commands to list current disks.

apt-get update
apt install lshw
lshw -class disk -class storage
lsblk | awk 'NR==1{print $0" DEVICE-ID(S)"}NR>1{dev=$1;printf $0" ";system("find /dev/disk/by-id -lname \"*"dev"\" -printf \" %p\"");print "";}' | grep -v -E 'part|lvm'

Remove the Disk: Physically remove the disk you wish to replace from the system.
Insert the New Disk: Insert the new larger disk into the same slot.

2. Rescan for New Disk

Rescan the SCSI bus to detect the new disk.
```
echo "- - -" > /sys/class/scsi_host/host#/scan
```
Replace host# with the appropriate SCSI host number.

3. Add the New Disk to Proxmox

Identify the new disk and its device ID using the same lsblk and lshw commands.
Attach the new disk to the VM.
```
qm set 100 -scsiX /dev/disk/by-id/NEW_DISK_ID
```
Replace NEW_DISK_ID with the actual device ID of the new disk and adjust -scsiX according to your VM configuration.

4. Sync Data

Use zfs or rsync commands to sync data from the old disk to the new disk if necessary. For ZFS:
```
zpool replace pool_name old_disk new_disk
```
Monitor the sync process:
```
zpool status pool_name
```

5. Repeat for All Disks

Repeat steps 1-4 for each disk you need to replace.

Post-Replacement Steps

1. Expand ZFS Pool

Once all disks are replaced and synced, you can expand your ZFS pool to use the additional space.

zpool online -e pool_name new_disk

2. Verify Setup

Verify the configuration and ensure all disks are properly recognized and functioning.

zpool status lshw -class disk -class storage

3. Utilize Extra Space

Create new datasets or extend existing ones to use the extra space.

Example Replacement Commands

For MAKEWIN:

qm set 100 -scsi1 /dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_NEW_DISK_1

qm set 100 -scsi2 /dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_NEW_DISK_2

qm set 100 -scsi3 /dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_NEW_DISK_3

qm set 100 -scsi4 /dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_NEW_DISK_4

qm set 100 -scsi5 /dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_NEW_DISK_5

For ASROCK:

qm set 100 -scsi1 /dev/disk/by-id/ata-HGST_NEW_DISK_1

qm set 100 -scsi2 /dev/disk/by-id/ata-HGST_NEW_DISK_2

qm set 100 -scsi3 /dev/disk/by-id/ata-HGST_NEW_DISK_3

qm set 100 -scsi4 /dev/disk/by-id/ata-HGST_NEW_DISK_4

Final Considerations

Ensure Proxmox and TrueNAS are Up-to-Date: Verify both are up-to-date to benefit from recent bug fixes, performance improvements, and new features.
Backup Configurations: Besides data, back up Proxmox VM configurations and TrueNAS settings.
Monitor Disk Health: Use SMART monitoring to check the health of both old and new disks.

smartctl -a /dev/sdX

System Logs: Monitor system logs during the disk replacement process for any errors or warnings.

dmesg | tail
journalctl -xe

Conclusion

By following these detailed steps, you can successfully replace your disks with larger ones, ensuring minimal downtime and maintaining data integrity. Remember to always back up your data and configurations before starting the process. With careful monitoring and verification, you can seamlessly upgrade your storage capacity and continue to enjoy the robust performance of your Proxmox VM running TrueNAS.

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Upgrading Disks in Proxmox VM Running TrueNAS: A Comprehensive Guide

Start Your Upgrade Journey with Confidence

Table of Contents

Introduction

Prerequisites

Step-by-Step Replacement Process

Post-Replacement Steps

Example Replacement Commands

Final Considerations

Conclusion

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5. High-Speed Ethernet Cable (Cat 6a)

6. Network Performance Monitoring Tool

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