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ZFS RAID-Z2 Recovery – Financial Services

We are thrilled to share a recent success story showcasing our expertise in data recovery. Our commitment to excellence and advanced technology allowed us to successfully recover critical data for one of our valued clients.

Client Information:

  • Industry: Accounting and Finance
  • Location: Tallahassee, Florida
  • Array Config: RAID-Z2 (6 x 10TB SATA Hard Drives)
  • Total Capacity: 40TB
  • Operating System: TrueNAS CORE (FreeBSD)
  • Use Case: File Server
System Specifications:

The client operated a TrueNAS CORE (FreeBSD) Storage with the following specifications:

  • Storage Devices: 6 x 10TB SATA Hard Drives
  • File System: ZFS
  • Primary Data: Financial data, client and investments records
Failure Incident:

The client’s primary file server, which was running on a ZFS pool with RAID-Z2, had become unresponsive. The client was unable to access any of their financial data, client records, or investment models. The ZFS pool was configured with RAID-Z2, which should have protected them from up to two drive failures. However, the system was reporting three offline drives, and the pool was in a “DEGRADED” state.

Technical Analysis:

Our engineers received the six hard drives from the client and began a detailed analysis. The investigation revealed a complex series of events:

  • Power Surge: A recent power surge had damaged the power supply unit in the server, which in turn had caused electrical damage to three of the six hard drives.
  • ZFS Pool Corruption: The sudden loss of three drives had caused the ZFS pool to become corrupted. The ZFS metadata, which is essential for accessing the data, was unreadable.
Recovery Methodology:
  1. Drive Repair: The first step was to repair the three damaged hard drives. Our engineers took the drives to our cleanroom and performed a complex electronic repair on each drive. This involved replacing the damaged circuit boards and, in one case, performing a head stack replacement.
  2. ZFS Pool Import: With all six drives now stable, our engineers attempted to import the ZFS pool. However, due to the corruption of the ZFS metadata, the import failed. This is a common problem in ZFS recovery cases, and it requires a deep understanding of the ZFS file system.
  3. ZFS Metadata Reconstruction: Our engineers used their proprietary tools to manually reconstruct the ZFS metadata. This involved scanning the raw data on each drive to find the ZFS labels and then using that information to rebuild the ZFS pool structure.
  4. Data Extraction: Once the ZFS pool was virtually rebuilt, we were able to extract the data to a new set of drives. We performed a thorough file system check to ensure the integrity of the recovered data.

Recovery Results and Client Impact

We successfully recovered 100% of the client’s data, including all of their financial records, client data, and investment models. The client was able to restore their server and resume their business operations with no data loss.

This case study demonstrates the power and complexity of the ZFS file system. While ZFS offers excellent data protection features, it can be very difficult to recover from a catastrophic failure. TheRAIDSpecialist has the expertise and proprietary tools to handle even the most challenging ZFS data recovery cases.

Lost Data on Your Storage Device? Act Immediately!

If your are experiencing data loss, DO NOT attempt to force-rebuild RAID, reinitialize drives, or operate the system, as this can lead to irreversible data loss. Power down the device(s) immediately and keep the drives in their original slots/order. Contact our experts.

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