Newbie Seeking Pool Layout Advice

[mikestecker]

Sorry for the double post but I'm not sure if I posted in the wrong forum earlier, so re-posting here to maybe make some more traction.

I'm in the process of setting up my new FreeNAS build, here are the current specs for reference:

• Supermicro 4U Server Chassis BPN-SAS2-846EL1
• SuperMicro X9DRL-iF Motherboard
• Dual Intel Xeon 2620's
• 96gb ram (6x 16gb ECC RDIMM)
• LSI SAS9201-8i 6Gbps Raid Controller Card
• 47C8210 Quad-Port GbE Ethernet Adapter
• 2x 250gb WD Blue SSD (Boot + Boot Mirror)
• 1x ADATA SU800 256GB SSD
• 1x Samsung 860 QVO 1TB SSD
• 12x 4TB HGST HDD's
• 2x 4TB WD Red HDD's
• 4x 8TB WD Red HDD's (to be added later)

At the moment of writing this, I have everything setup and installed on the 2x 250gb WD SSD's listed above, but nothing else. All other SSD's and HDD's (except the 4x 8TB's listed above) are installed in the system, but no pools have been setup yet.

I'm seeking some advice on how to structure the pools to balance speed/efficiency and safety so that to minimize the chance of losing data in the event of failure. I've skimmed over many of the articles/URL's for beginners and while I understand how to actually set up a pool and all that, I haven't been able to get a took takeaway as to what the "right" way to do it is. How many pools, datasets, zvols or whatnot I need to setup. One thing I do understand however is that I should probably use RAIDZ2 for parity, but I could be wrong.

Here's what I'll be using this for:

• Plex -- I'm upgrading from a QNAP 4-bay with 21TB of data on it. The data is currently on the 4x 8TB's listed above. Once the 21TB of data transfers to this new FreeNAS build, I'll remove these drives from the QNAP and repurpose them in the FreeNAS build. I have a mix of 1080p content (10-25gb movies), 4K (for direct stream on local network only), and TV Shows, music, etc.
• Mac Time Machine Backups
• Docker VM's (linux) for web development/testing (NO live websites, just for in-house development/testing)
• Windows VM's (one or two) to use for browser testing
• Video editing storage -- I'm thinking about adding a 10GBe card to direct connect to my iMac Pro with 10GBe
• Photography storage (raw files, Lightroom library)
• NextCloud storage (to offset Dropbox costs)
• GitLab CE (want to setup internal CI process for above Docker VM's used in web dev
• Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, NZBGet, Hydra2, Home Assistant, Traefik, etc -- all in Docker.

Given the above mentioned, I'd appreciate any tips/tricks/suggestions! Thanks in advance!