Can You Add a ZFS Cache Drive to an Existing ZFS RAID-Z2 Volume?

[Yellowbeard]

I have an existing FreeNAS setup updated to 8.3 tonight, hardware is listed below. I have a single RAID-Z2 volume using 6 Hitachi 2TB HHDs. The ICH10-R controller on the MOBO has only 6 SATA ports but the onboard Marvell controller has 2 open SATA-2 ports.

In general, if I have room for it assuming FreeNAS plays nice with the Marvell controller, can I add a caching drive to the existing volume or, does that have to be done at the initial configuration? Would I have to delete and rebuild the array and assign the cache drive then?

The server is primarily a home media server where I also store duplicate copies of work and other stuff. The workload is not high by any means so, there may not even be a need for a caching drive. I do have a spare SATA2 SSD laying around though so it's doing nothing and can be used if there is any gain to be had.

Thanks in advance.

ASUS P5Q Pro
Core 2 Duo 6300 CPU
4 x 4GB DDR2-800 Corsair
6 x Hitachi ????? 2TB HDDs
OS resides on an 8GB Flash Drive
Intel NIC and Network is all Gigabit

 

[ProtoSD]

Don't post questions in the HowTo section of the forums, it is for tutorials only!

 

[Yellowbeard]

Don't post questions in the HowTo section of the forums, it is for tutorials only!

Ooops, sorry. I was searching that other section, trying to find my answer before posting and forgot to go back to the Help n Support area. Thanks for moving it.