How best to configure FreeNAS for my needs

[JimPhreak]

I'm in the process of parting out a new FreeNAS box that I want to use as the main storage device on my home network. The bulk of the storage will be media storage that will need to be made available to many local and remote devices (Rokus, TV's, PS3s, Phones, Tablets, etc) through a Media Server virtual machine that will be running on another server. I will also have another torrent VM that will need to read and write to the same location where all my media is stored. Therefore both VM's will need read access and at least 1 of them (torrent VM) will need write access.

I also want to store VM's on it for testing live migration/high availability with Hyper-V/ESXi. And lastly I would like to do backups for the local computers on my network.

Here's where I'm a little confused as to how best to configure my FreeNAS box once it's up and running. Can I combine the functionality of a NAS (filesystem sharing) and a SAN (block level storage, ie. iSCSI connections to VMs) from this one box? If so I assume I'd have to set up separate VDev's for my different purposes (media storage and sharing, VM storage, backups, etc.).

 

[pirateghost]

You don't need separate VDevs for that. You can utilize datasets and volumes for that purpose. Do yourself a favor and dont use iSCSI. just share out your storage in normal methods (NFS, CIFS) and connect your vms/esxi to that.

I tried going the route of all iSCSI one time and it just turned into a management nightmare. Using NFS and CIFS in FreeNAS allowed for one point of management. All of my servers and VMs talk back to my FreeNAS boxes using those protocols (aside from 2 iSCSI volumes configured for crashplan backups).

 

[JimPhreak]

You don't need separate VDevs for that. You can utilize datasets and volumes for that purpose. Do yourself a favor and dont use iSCSI. just share out your storage in normal methods (NFS, CIFS) and connect your vms/esxi to that.

I tried going the route of all iSCSI one time and it just turned into a management nightmare. Using NFS and CIFS in FreeNAS allowed for one point of management. All of my servers and VMs talk back to my FreeNAS boxes using those protocols (aside from 2 iSCSI volumes configured for crashplan backups).

Wow. Thank you very much for that reply that was exactly the kind of insight I was looking for. Will there be any noticable drop-off in the speed of NFS for example compared to iSCSI? I'm guessing the only place where the speed will be at a premium is for VM clustering with failover which I do want to test.

 

[cyberjock]

If you plan to use FreeNAS as a storage location for ESXi datastores, you ARE looking at needing a more modern system than what you described in the other thread. You need more RAM, probably 32GB(minimum), a more powerful processor, and be ready to tune ZFS(which is so far from trivial you'll want to rip out your hair). You may also need a slog(and some people use an L2ARC). So you are talking about much more money invested in this.

 

[JimPhreak]

Which thread are you referring to? I have indeed decided to go with a server chassis instead of a smaller case if that's what you're referring to. However I haven't decided 100% to use my server to store VM data stores. At this point I'm leaning towards putting SSDs into my VM servers for local VM storage (and replicate between the two) and just use my FreeNAS box for snapshot backups.

 

[JimPhreak]

Ok so my FreeNAS box is finally installed and ready to be configured. I've given the manual a read through twice now (my eyes hurt). However the guide certainly doesn't give recommendations on how best to configure storage based on needs (nor should it) so before I start creating datasets I want to map it all out before I do something irreversible.

I have 6x3TB drives in a RAIDz2 volume (10.7TB usable). I'd say at least 60-70% of that space I'd like to dedicate to my media storage as I already have 2.5TB of media ready to copied over and this amount will grow quickly over the next 1-2 years. I also would like to have at least 1-2TB of space for VM snapshots. I've abandoned the notion of using HAVMs because it's just not needed for my home network. My most important VM (Media server) will need multiple shares (one for access to all my media and one for snapshot backup). I will also want to store my personal files (H Drive redirection) from 2-3 Windows PCs and was thinking I could either create a separate dataset for that or store those files in the same dataset as my media. All systems that will be accessing my FreeNAS box are Windows operating systems.

So to summarize I'll be using FreeNAS for the following:

1. Media storage access to VMs (Media Server VM, Torrent VM)
2. Personal documents storage (folder redirection of H Drives from 2-3 Windows PCs)
3. VM snapshot backups
4. Windows Image backups


I'm open to suggests for how best to setup my datasets and shares as this is the first time I'll be using VMware in a production type setup and I'm not 100% sure as to how to set this all up in the most efficient way.

 

[jms703]

I'm in the process of parting out a new FreeNAS box

What kind of hardware did you end up getting?

 

[JimPhreak]

What kind of hardware did you end up getting?

i3-4130
SuperMicro X10SLM-F-O
16GB Kingston ECC RAM
6x3TB WD Reds
M1015 HBA
Fractal Design Arc Mini

 

[Yatti420]

Why did you choose to add a M1015 HBA? You have 6 ports on the motherboard? Is this for extra redundancy etc?

I thought this type of addition was generally frowned upon and can make setup very complicated and possibly dangerous for data..

 

[JimPhreak]

Why did you choose to add a M1015 HBA? You have 6 ports on the motherboard? Is this for extra redundancy etc?

I thought this type of addition was generally frowned upon and can make setup very complicated and possibly dangerous for data..

Because at the time I bought 8 * 3TB WD Reds and was going to go with an 8-drive RAIDz2 pool. But instead I decided to go with a 6 drive pool and have two cold spares. As long as the card is flashed to IT-mode (meaning it presents the disks to the OS as JBODs) there is no problem.

 

[Yatti420]

Ok thanks for the info..