I recently purchased two SSDs and I am looking for advice on the best way to use them to increase performance on my TrueNAS system.
I am mainly using the system as a Plex Media Server. I've been researching this for several days and I believe I found 4 good uses for the SSDs but I do not know which option would be best.
Current setup:
Boot: 128GB mSata SSD
Storage:
mirror0
-6TB Sata
-4TB Sata
mirror1
-5TB Sata
-5TB Sata
mirror2
-4TB Sata
-4TB Sata
spare
-10TB SAS
special
mirror3
-16GB m.2 Sata
-16GB m.2 Sata
The 2 new SSDs are 200GB SAS SSDs (MZ6ER200HAGM)
Option #1:
Upgrade my current Fusion Pool
My m.2 SSDs are older and they are only 16GB each. If I replaced them with the SAS SSDs, I believe I could configure them to store small files as well as the ZFS metadata
Option #2:
Create a new SSD only pool, move Plex metadata
As I understand it, I have two sets of metadata. ZFS metadata which information about the files in the pool and Plex metadata which are things like posters, thumbnails, intro sound bites, etc. Moving the Plex metadata to SSDs should make navigating the Plex app faster (more responsive, snappier?)
Option #3:
Create a new SSD only pool, move entire Plex jail
Instead of only moving Plex metadata, perhaps moving the entire Plex jail would be better. This sounds more complicated than option #2, but others on this forum have done it from what I've read.
Option #4:
Add L2ARC
I am maxed out at 32GB of RAM. I don't know how much benefit I would see from adding an L2ARC, but maybe it would help? Or maybe I combine this with option #1 above, use the new SSDs for the Fusion upgrade and then use the 16GB m.2s for L2ARC.
I don't feel like this is the best option, but you guys are the experts here so I would love to hear your thoughts. If you have any other ideas not covered above, I would love to hear those too.
Thanks!
I am mainly using the system as a Plex Media Server. I've been researching this for several days and I believe I found 4 good uses for the SSDs but I do not know which option would be best.
Current setup:
Boot: 128GB mSata SSD
Storage:
mirror0
-6TB Sata
-4TB Sata
mirror1
-5TB Sata
-5TB Sata
mirror2
-4TB Sata
-4TB Sata
spare
-10TB SAS
special
mirror3
-16GB m.2 Sata
-16GB m.2 Sata
The 2 new SSDs are 200GB SAS SSDs (MZ6ER200HAGM)
Option #1:
Upgrade my current Fusion Pool
My m.2 SSDs are older and they are only 16GB each. If I replaced them with the SAS SSDs, I believe I could configure them to store small files as well as the ZFS metadata
Option #2:
Create a new SSD only pool, move Plex metadata
As I understand it, I have two sets of metadata. ZFS metadata which information about the files in the pool and Plex metadata which are things like posters, thumbnails, intro sound bites, etc. Moving the Plex metadata to SSDs should make navigating the Plex app faster (more responsive, snappier?)
Option #3:
Create a new SSD only pool, move entire Plex jail
Instead of only moving Plex metadata, perhaps moving the entire Plex jail would be better. This sounds more complicated than option #2, but others on this forum have done it from what I've read.
Option #4:
Add L2ARC
I am maxed out at 32GB of RAM. I don't know how much benefit I would see from adding an L2ARC, but maybe it would help? Or maybe I combine this with option #1 above, use the new SSDs for the Fusion upgrade and then use the 16GB m.2s for L2ARC.
I don't feel like this is the best option, but you guys are the experts here so I would love to hear your thoughts. If you have any other ideas not covered above, I would love to hear those too.
Thanks!