Can and isci volume and EXT3 (NTFS) volume sit in the same RAID setup?

[mr_melvis]

If this has been queried before (I could not find it), then please point me to the right area and accept my apologies.

I have been a Openfiler user for several years, but looking for an alternative, due to it's lack of DLNA support. I run vSphere in a home lab, and currently have Openfiler with (4) 2TB drives in a RAID 6 setup. The RAID contains an isci volume for a VM datastore, and the rest is a EXT3/NTFS volume used for home data storage. Can FreeNAS utilize that same type of configuration (meaning can I set up a RAID in FreeNAS with 2 volumes on it, each in a different format)?

Any feedback is welcomed and appreciated!

mr_melvis

 

[dlavigne]

Different formats, no, as it's ZFS-only. Multiple volumes (i.e. multiple ZFS pools), yes. In your case, you could create a ZFS pool for your data and within that pool create a zvol to use for iSCSI. 9.3 iSCSI integrates nicely with VMware.

 

[mr_melvis]

Thank you for the reply - I do appreciate it!! Just so I am sure I understand - I create a ZFS pool utilizing the entire area of the RAID, then carve out a zvol that vSphere would use. Again, sorry if this is common knowledge here, but when I carve out that zvol, am I given the choice to make that zvol isci, and the remaining part of the pool gets carved into a zvol of NTFS? (this is a diff concept than Openfiler, so it's new to me - sorry for the newbie stuff...).

 

[depasseg]

Yes, you can do exactly that. Put all storage into 1 raid group. Carve out a zvol for iSCSI. Then you can create 1 or more datasets and share via 1 or more methods (CIFS, NFS, AFP, WebDAV).

 

[mr_melvis]

Thank you both very much for your input - that helps greatly. I imagine I'll build it one or twice before I get it right (like when I was learning Openfiler...), but this helps tremendously! ;-)

 

[depasseg]

Since you have a home vsphere setup, I'd suggest setting up a VM and keeping it for testing. I've found it to be very helpful to have a box to try things out on. Good luck!