On TrueNAS, the process to create a storage pool is a straightforward process, and in this guide, you will how. A storage pool describes the logical grouping of physical hard drives to present the storage as a single entity to the TrueNAS server, which then you will use to set up the ZFS volumes (vdevs) that will host the folders to share in the network.
Before you can proceed with the creation of the pool, you have to choose the level of redundancy, including Stripe, Mirror, RAIDZ1, RAIDZ2, and RAIDZ3. The “Stripe” level is the best choice for storage performance since it will stripe the data evenly across the drives. It requires at least one drive, but if one of the drives in the array fails, you will lose all the data.
The “Mirror” level requires at least two drives and replicates the data on one of the drives to the other. If one of the drives fails, you will still have access to data from the other drive.
The “RAIDZ1” level creates a storage pool with at least three drives and you can lose up to one drive. However, if you lose a drive while rebuilding the array, you will lose all the data. The “RAID2” level is perhaps the best option for most situations since up to two drives can fail without losing the data. However, this array level requires at least four drives, and the total amount of storage will be reduced by the number of two hard drives. Finally, you can also choose the “RAIDZ3” level which works the same as the “RAIDZ2” level with the difference that requires at least five drives and you can lose up to three drives.
This guide will teach you the steps to create a RAIDZ2 storage pool on your TrueNAS server, but the steps will be similar for the other redundancy levels.
Create storage pool on TrueNAS
To create a storage pool (RAIDZ2) on TrueNAS, use these steps:
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Open TrueNAS (web).
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Click on Storage from the left pane.
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Click on Pools.
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Under the “Pools” section, click the Add button.
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Select the “Create new pool” option (if applicable).
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Click the Create Pool button.
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Confirm a name for the storage pool (for example, MyPoolOne).
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(Optional) Check the Encryption option.
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Check the Confirm option.
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Click the “I Understand” button.
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Under the “Available Disks” section, select the drives to include in the pool. Quick note: To create a RAIDZ2 configuration you’ll need at least four hard drives.
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Click the Right arrow button to add the drives to the “Data VDevs” section.
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Under the “Data VDevs” section, choose the Raid-z2 option to create a storage pool.
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Click the Create button.
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Click the Confirm option.
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Click the Create Pool button.
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Click the Download Recovery Key button (if encryption was enabled)
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Click the Done button.
Once you complete the steps, the storage pool will be created in the TrueNAS server. After the process, you can create a TrueNAS dataset to store the folders to share in the network.
When using a “RAID-Z2” storage configuration on TrueNAS, the system will use two drives for parity (like on a RAID6 setup), which means that up to two drives can fail on the server without losing your files.