Is FreeNAS for me?

[djrkd]

I received all the hardware for my FreeNAS box but after reading some posts I am not sure if FreeNAS is for me.

My hardware meets the required specs, however my storage plan is as follows:
2x 4GB drives to be mirrored for media/file storage
1x 3GB to be a standalone for system backups from several machines
1x 2GB temp/misc file storage


I was planning on adding capacity as my needs increase, and do not see the need to mirror my backups as they are simply backups. Should I move forward with my build?

My plan is to add 2x more large drives once the media pool is filled up and also replace the smaller drives as needed but keeping them single.

My other option could be to purchase an additional and run them as:
2x4GB mirrored
2x3GB mirrored

Suggestions?
Thanks!

 

[willnx]

You mean TB drives, right? ;)

If your plan is a 'good idea' really comes down to use-case and workflow. A couple users max and basic home/ personal usage - it should be OK.

I'm sure you're already aware, but make individual volumes for your 3 different hard drive configurations.
Having separate zpools as part of the same volume for your HDD config = bad idea for many reasons.

Keep in mind when you want to upgrade one of the single drive volumes to a larger HDD that it's going to be a migration from the old volume
to the new volume, i.e. not a simple 'plug and play' operation and you'll likely have to troubleshoot some permission problem at some point.
(Might not be a bad idea to keep a text file at the root of the volume noting any/all configs you've done on the volume - makes life easier a
year from now when you're ready to move to the new volume).

Hope this was helpful.

 

[9C1 Newbee]

FreeNAS can do all of those things. What other options are you considering?

 

[djrkd]

lol yes I am talking about TB drives. I dont think my permissions will be that complex, as only a few users will have access, and probably fewer to the single drives as I will be the one administering the backups and the "temp drive" will be for me as well.

Lets say I decide to add another 3TB drive in - would it be relatively painless to set it up to mirror the drive with data already on it?

• if so - is having a drive that is not the same brand/speed an issue?

91C - I have not yet explored any alternatives.

 

[willnx]

Lets say I decide to add another 3TB drive in - would it be relatively painless to set it up to mirror the drive with data already on it?

You can't do that.
There's no mechanism to turn the single disk into a mirror of two disk, have the filesystem copy all the data to the new drive, then turn that mirror back into a single drive volume.
You'd have to set up a new volume with your new disk and copy all the data from the old volume over (along with setting up the shares/ exports for that new volume).

When you add a zpool to a volume, FreeNAS will (basically) write data across all zpools in that volume.
To better demonstrate what I mean consider the following diagrams:

What ZFS does when each zpool is a mirror of two disks:

What ZFS doesn't do:

When you add the 2nd drive, you'll be adding a new zpool. You cannot change an existing zpool to be a mirror within the that volume.

Hope this helps.

 

[Ericloewe]

You can't do that.
There's no mechanism to turn the single disk into a mirror of two disk, have the filesystem copy all the data to the new drive, then turn that mirror back into a single drive volume.
You'd have to set up a new volume with your new disk and copy all the data from the old volume over (along with setting up the shares/ exports for that new volume).

When you add a zpool to a volume, FreeNAS will (basically) write data across all zpools in that volume.
To better demonstrate what I mean consider the following diagrams:

What ZFS does when each zpool is a mirror of two disks:
View attachment 6054


What ZFS doesn't do:
View attachment 6055


When you add the 2nd drive, you'll be adding a new zpool. You cannot change an existing zpool to be a mirror within the that volume.

Hope this helps.

Actually, you can turn a single drive into a mirror, but it requires some CLI-fu. This is the only exception to the rule of vdev immutability. (more generally, you can add or remove mirrors)

Your nomenclature is a bit off, by the way: A pool is made up of one or more vdevs which are made up of one (god forbid) or more drives.

 

[willnx]

Actually, you can turn a single drive into a mirror, but it requires some CLI-fu. This is the only exception to the rule of vdev immutability. (more generally, you can add or remove mirrors)

Your nomenclature is a bit off, by the way: A pool is made up of one or more vdevs which are made up of one (god forbid) or more drives.

Thanks for info about the caveat when it comes to mirrors.

FMI, do you mean that my nomenclature was incomplete in that I wasn't explaining what makes up a zpool? If not, could you elaborate a bit more?
As I understand ZFS: vdev (group of: disk, disk partitions, or files) -> zpool (group of: vdevs) -> volume (group of: zpools).

 

[danb35]

A volume is a zpool; there is no concept in ZFS of a group of zpools.

 

[9C1 Newbee]

djrkd, in my opinion, this breaks it down best:

https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/