¶ Storage
This is where you'll find your pools, drives and handle storage related tasks.
This screen allows you to
- Create new pools.
- Swap drives.
- Fix problems related to storage.
¶ Creating storage pools
When first setting up your server, you likely created at least one storage pool. Pools are groups of drives that will work together as one, allowing a larger amount of storage space than a single drive and may also give additional “redundancy” in case of drive failure.
If you have unused drives, you can create a new pool by clicking the create pool button.
It’s important to create pools with an appropriate number of drives. Any pools with fewer than three drives cannot be expanded with additional drives.
Read more about drives and pools here
¶ Replacing drives
Eventually every drive will fail. Storage pools with parity, like the ones that HexOS suggests, allow for failing drives to be replaced without losing the data.
The storage interface will show an alert when there are problems relating to your pools and drives. When drives start showing errors on SMART tests, having I/O problems, or go missing entirely, you'll see visual indicators right in the interface.
When a drive needs replacement, HexOS will look at your available unused drives and suggest suitable replacements.
If you don't yet have a replacement drive, check out our guide before buying selecting drives.
¶ How to replace a drive
- First install the drive in the machine
- Next go to deck.hexos.com and open the Storage screen
- Then click on your storage pool
Storage pool
- Click the View Drives button
View Drives button
- Then click on the drive you want to replace
Drive selection in pool
- Next click the Replace button
Replace button
¶ Growing your storage
As your server usage grows, you might need more storage capacity. HexOS gives you options to expand your storage.
¶ Extending drives
This is how you can add more drives to your existing pool for more storage space.
To add another drive to your pool:
- First install the drive in the machine
- Then go to deck.hexos.com and open the Storage screen.
- You should see the drive appear under Unused Drives
- Click on the pool
Storage pool
- Click Add drive
Add drive button
¶ Expanding drives
This is how you can upgrade individual drives one at a time. The process for this is the same as replacing individual drives that have failed.
¶ Critical errors
Sometimes storage issues are more serious than a single drive failure. Before assuming the worst, try restarting your server and checking if any of the errors go away.
If the errors persist, here's a quick overview of what you may see.
Pool degradation: Your pool is running in a weakened state. Check if all drives are properly connected and look for drive errors. Usually this means a drive needs replacement, but your data is still safe.
Pool offline: Your pool isn't accessible right now. This often happens when too many drives fail at once or there's a connection issue. Check drive connections first, then look for multiple drive failures.
Multiple drive problems: If you lose more drives than your redundancy can handle, by default 1 drive, you are at risk of data loss. Stop using the system immediately and consider professional data recovery if the data is critical.
The key is acting quickly when you see alerts. Most pool problems start small and get worse if ignored.
¶ Understanding capacity usage
When copying data to a system, some users will notice a discrepancy between the size of the files they are copying and the capacity in use on the given storage pool/folder. This is due to ZFS compression, which reduces the total space needed to store some files. This is a completely normal observation. Example: Storage pool with one 700MB file in it could report back only 300MB of capacity in use. This means that ZFS compression conserved 400MB of capacity for you automatically. Just another silent benefit of ZFS and HexOS!