I'm looking at evaluating FreeNAS as a storage backend for XenServer via iSCSI. For storage, I have two nodes available as part of a SuperMicro Twin2 chassis. Each node has a single Xeon E5620 processor, 16GB ECC RAM and 6x gigabit Ethernet interfaces.
The intention is to iSCSI multipath over at least 4 of the interfaces - I read that this would be a better option than bonding the interfaces together via LACP.
The killer here though, is that each of the two nodes only has 3 drive bays. Currently these are configured with 1x 16GB SSD (boot) and 2x 2TB 7200RPM drives. Would I be best here to drop in a new SSD ~240GB (for L2ARC, or ZIL, or both if possible?) and move to a reliable USB flash drive to boot FreeNAS? The 2x 2TB drives (which I may replace for 4TB drives) should be presented as plain drives, which would then be mirrored in software as part of a VDev?
I guess there is always the option to add a PCIe card and external enclosure for expansion in the future.
Finally, the ultimate intent is to configure these two nodes and present them to XenServer so that in case either FreeNAS node fails, we can continue on from a recentish copy of each VM. One way to achieve this would be to keep both FreeNAS systems completely separate, using XenServer to periodically snapshot each VM, storing the snapshot on the second FreeNAS box, but I wonder if there is a better way someone could point me towards, using FreeNAS directly?
The intention is to iSCSI multipath over at least 4 of the interfaces - I read that this would be a better option than bonding the interfaces together via LACP.
The killer here though, is that each of the two nodes only has 3 drive bays. Currently these are configured with 1x 16GB SSD (boot) and 2x 2TB 7200RPM drives. Would I be best here to drop in a new SSD ~240GB (for L2ARC, or ZIL, or both if possible?) and move to a reliable USB flash drive to boot FreeNAS? The 2x 2TB drives (which I may replace for 4TB drives) should be presented as plain drives, which would then be mirrored in software as part of a VDev?
I guess there is always the option to add a PCIe card and external enclosure for expansion in the future.
Finally, the ultimate intent is to configure these two nodes and present them to XenServer so that in case either FreeNAS node fails, we can continue on from a recentish copy of each VM. One way to achieve this would be to keep both FreeNAS systems completely separate, using XenServer to periodically snapshot each VM, storing the snapshot on the second FreeNAS box, but I wonder if there is a better way someone could point me towards, using FreeNAS directly?
