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I need some advice on configuring ZFS. Here is what I have:

Physical Disks:

  • 4x 3 TB
  • 2x 2 TB
  • 2x 1 TB

What is the best configuration for my Vdevs and storage pool. I want to maximaze space but still maintain redundancy.

Should I just get 2 more 3TB's and just create 2x 3-3TB raid2z storage pools? Create a 1x 4-3TB raidz2 vdev?

Can I put redundancy at the pool level and create individual vdevs for each drive and then add 2x 1TB+2TB striped vdevs to keep all vdevs the same size.

Keep in mind I do need to migrate data from the smaller drives and am planning on adding more 3tb drives later on.

What do you think?

notpeter
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bobloblaw
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  • What operating system are you using? What type of hardware, controller and server setup is in place? – ewwhite Oct 25 '12 at 15:30
  • AMD Quad core processor - IBM M1015 SAS controllers with SAS to SATA cables- 16GB ram - Have 128GB SSD that can be used for caching - 2x Intel Pro Gbit NIC's - Will aggragte nics. (not like this part matters) Unsure of OS at the moment. Will Prob be Solaris 11. Goal is quick network access for network users, at the same time good redundancy. as only critical user files will be backed up. Using commodity drives. – bobloblaw Oct 25 '12 at 15:32
  • Consider [NexentaStor](http://nexenta.com/corp/products/what-is-openstorage/nexentastor)... I'll answer below. – ewwhite Oct 25 '12 at 15:38
  • Considering. Looks nice. Do not like how the community edition is limited to 18 TB tho! Guessing it would be easy to migrate to Solaris 11 or 11 express if I needed more then that at a later date? – bobloblaw Oct 25 '12 at 15:45
  • 18TB is a pretty good free tier... Just saying. You'd be able to move to another OS by exporting/reimporting your pools, though. ZFS is portable in that way. – ewwhite Oct 25 '12 at 15:56
  • @rbarrette Solaris 11 is not free either unless all you do is *developing, testing, prototyping and demonstrating your applications* (ref: OTN license agreement). – the-wabbit Oct 25 '12 at 15:56
  • @ewwhite Yea. 18tb is prob more then will be used. Thanks for the advice! This will be my first zfs build. Looking forward to the challenge! :). – bobloblaw Oct 26 '12 at 04:32
  • @syneticon no way; That's crazy! Oracle wants to make money off of Solaris 11? – bobloblaw Oct 26 '12 at 04:33
  • @rbarrette just as Nexenta wants to make Money off OpenSolaris. – the-wabbit Oct 26 '12 at 06:25

1 Answers1

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Given what you have, I'd create three pools... Mirrors for the 3TB array, and single mirrors for the 2TB and 1TB disks. I tend to stay away from RAIDZ or RAIDZ2 with large drives, due to resilver times and performance.

If you use mirrors, especially with the 3TB disks, you can grow the zpool by adding additional 3TB disks in pairs.

In terms of general zpool layout and ZFS setup, please check out this reference.

ewwhite
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