Best bets for storing multiple data types

[TravisT]

I'm about knee deep in trying to get my new freenas box setup so I can migrate over my data from my current VMWare-hosted NAS. I currently have ZFS (raidZ) running on 3x 2TB drives, and it's about 600GB from being filled. My new box will be capable of 15 disks, and have the following hardware on-hand:

4x 1TB Drives
1x 1TB Drive *
3x 2TB Drives *

* Currently being used, but will be migrated over to the new server once data is migrated.

My plans for the new server are:

iSCSI for 4-5 very low demand servers running on ESXi
Storage of documents/files
Storage of Media
-Movies/Television
-Pictures
-Home Videos
Software (ISOs, etc).

I'm trying to figure out the best way to set up my ZFS with what I have, while leaving room for expand-ability in the future. I would imagine that my media drive will grow the fastest, but will not be as important as my files, pictures, and home videos. Of course, any important data will be backed up regularly.

Just curious if recommendations are to create separate zpools for each "type" of data (at the very least for the iSCSI pool), or if I should just dump it onto one pool and call it good. Just curious to see how others are setup - if anyone cares to share.

 

[paleoN]

Just curious if recommendations are to create separate zpools for each "type" of data (at the very least for the iSCSI pool), or if I should just dump it onto one pool and call it good. Just curious to see how others are setup - if anyone cares to share.

I would definitely have the VMs on a separate pool. It's fine to have your documents and media in the same pool. I would probably have them in different datasets though.