Paravirtual
Dabbler
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2020
- Messages
- 13
I'm putting together a system based around an HP Microserver running TrueNAS. I've Two other Microservers and have used ZFS-on-Linux before but this is my first time looking at FreeNAS or TrueNAS.
The System will have a meagre CPU, but won't do much besides Fileserving so it doesn't matter (I have other systems for virtualisation and applications), 8GB ECC RAM, and while I could probably cram 5x 3.5" disks in (as I've done with other boxes) I've more-or-less settled on using 4x 14TB Disks (already purchased, shucked WD Elements drives from amazon specials) as 2x Mirrored Vdevs in the same pool, sort of RAID-10 esque.
(RZ2 instead of 2 mirrored vdevs was also considered, but for just 4 disks I wasn't sure this was worthwhile)
What I'm having trouble deciding on is the SSD config for use with Boot, Cache or some kind, and/or Special device.
I can cram up to 3x SSDs in the space without much problem (There's a lovely little Lycom PCIe card with 2x mSATA slots that helps with this), I could even add in up 7 SSDs at a push with the available space and maxing out expansion cards that will fit in the little Microserver.
What I'm wondering about is whether I can just use a pair of SSDs (240-256GB ish) and partition them, create vdev mirrors of matching partition pairs across the pair of SSDs and use these vdevs for different things, for example;
sda1 + sdb1 = Boot Device
sda2 + sdb2 = Special vdev attached to main pool for metadata/small files
(and well, maybe a 3rd partition for ZIL/L2ARC but tbh I'm not sure either is really needed, as this server will be for Archival data only and won't be written to often or need writes to be quick, I have another box for that.)
I've done similar in Linux before but that was where the installer allowed me to partition the boot device rather than using the entire device.
Does the TrueNAS Installer GUI allow for this, or if not, is there a CLI method of partitioning and creating the boot vdev mirror?
I've zero experience of anything BSD based and have no idea how the bootloader works, and whether it can be on both physical devices such that the system could boot from either (in the event one half of the boot mirror dying)
The System will have a meagre CPU, but won't do much besides Fileserving so it doesn't matter (I have other systems for virtualisation and applications), 8GB ECC RAM, and while I could probably cram 5x 3.5" disks in (as I've done with other boxes) I've more-or-less settled on using 4x 14TB Disks (already purchased, shucked WD Elements drives from amazon specials) as 2x Mirrored Vdevs in the same pool, sort of RAID-10 esque.
(RZ2 instead of 2 mirrored vdevs was also considered, but for just 4 disks I wasn't sure this was worthwhile)
What I'm having trouble deciding on is the SSD config for use with Boot, Cache or some kind, and/or Special device.
I can cram up to 3x SSDs in the space without much problem (There's a lovely little Lycom PCIe card with 2x mSATA slots that helps with this), I could even add in up 7 SSDs at a push with the available space and maxing out expansion cards that will fit in the little Microserver.
What I'm wondering about is whether I can just use a pair of SSDs (240-256GB ish) and partition them, create vdev mirrors of matching partition pairs across the pair of SSDs and use these vdevs for different things, for example;
sda1 + sdb1 = Boot Device
sda2 + sdb2 = Special vdev attached to main pool for metadata/small files
(and well, maybe a 3rd partition for ZIL/L2ARC but tbh I'm not sure either is really needed, as this server will be for Archival data only and won't be written to often or need writes to be quick, I have another box for that.)
I've done similar in Linux before but that was where the installer allowed me to partition the boot device rather than using the entire device.
Does the TrueNAS Installer GUI allow for this, or if not, is there a CLI method of partitioning and creating the boot vdev mirror?
I've zero experience of anything BSD based and have no idea how the bootloader works, and whether it can be on both physical devices such that the system could boot from either (in the event one half of the boot mirror dying)
