SOLVED Are there any benefits to store jails in separate pool?

[Evertb1]

Here is my situation. I have a FreeNAS box with as main purpose acting as my file server and I have a NAS acting as my (somewhat off-site)backup device. I have always been of the opinion that a backup device should be not bothered wit other tasks. However, we had a need for streaming media and the NAS has been used for that task as well.

I have decided to give Plex a try on the FreeNAS box. It is better equipped in terms of CPU power and memory and most of my media files are there anyway. So that means that I have to toy around with jails and that kind of stuff. And with that comes the question where to put the jails. I have searched the forum and found a lot of discussions on this subject but did not find a clear answer to the question "Is there a real benefit for storing the jails on a separate volume?" At the moment I have only one pool/volume for storing data but with enough storage space for my needs the coming 2 to 3 years. But I have also a 120 GB SSD gathering dust. To put the jails on a pool without redundancy (on the SSD) would not bother me al that much, but as I said, there is plenty of space on my main volume. So I am inclined to store my jails there unless I am pointed at a clear benefit for keeping the jails separated (I am not bothered much with my disks spinning all the time). Any thoughts on this subject will be appreciated.

 

[SweetAndLow]

I don't see any benefit that would out weigh the extra complications.

Ssd's are faster but does that even do anything for your jails? For the most part it doesn't. There is no jail boot time to worry about and most applications are going to read data from your pool not the SSD.

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[Allan Wilmath]

I have 2 pools, one is a RAID5 like where my media is. Very large, not that fast. I then have a RAID 10 like set of drives the is fast, that is where I have my Plex data. Works very well this way. Plex stores transcoded data to buffer the stream. Using and SSD for that is purpose I would think is a great way to reduce the load on your main set of disks while making Plex more responsive. Plex has a database that benefits from faster access. You could also look at moving other features over the SSD like logging. You can also turn off atime on your media dataset to reduce meta data writes.

Plex has been much since I've moved the transcode and data directories away from the data pool.

 

[SweetAndLow]

I have 2 pools, one is a RAID5 like where my media is. Very large, not that fast. I then have a RAID 10 like set of drives the is fast, that is where I have my Plex data. Works very well this way. Plex stores transcoded data to buffer the stream. Using and SSD for that is purpose I would think is a great way to reduce the load on your main set of disks while making Plex more responsive. Plex has a database that benefits from faster access. You could also look at moving other features over the SSD like logging. You can also turn off atime on your media dataset to reduce meta data writes.

Plex has been much since I've moved the transcode and data directories away from the data pool.

Have any numbers or evidence that back this up? I'm a heavy Plex user and have zero problems except network bandwidth not being enough. I would be interested if someone can prove a SSD helps with the Plex workflow.

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[Jailer]

Have any numbers or evidence that back this up? I'm a heavy Plex user and have zero problems except network bandwidth not being enough. I would be interested if someone can prove a SSD helps with the Plex workflow.

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Same here.

 

[Evertb1]

I don't see any benefit that would out weigh the extra complications.
There is no jail boot time to worry about ...

I have no experience at all with jails but is this an issue? I had the impression that the Jails are started with the boot of FreeNAS and that is it (until the next boot). And if your FreeNAS box is booting it is not offering any service anyway.

 

[SweetAndLow]

I have no experience at all with jails but is this an issue? I had the impression that the Jails are started with the boot of Freenas and that is it (until the next boot). And if your Freenas box is booting it is not offering any service anyway.

No, there are no issues. That is exactly why I think a separate disk for jails is silly.

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[Evertb1]

After reading some things here and there and seeing the reactions on this thread I have come to the conclusion that putting the jails on a separate volume is often a matter of personal preference. To keep things simple I decided to let the Jails in the default dataset on my main volume. The SSD will find some use later on I am sure. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this subject guys.