This post is exactly why I tend to stay away from forums. I came in here seeking out a specific answer to an issue I was having and now for whatever reason I'm being preached to by the know it all of the forum.
100% to me is having a fast backup of my main Freenas box. The rest is working fine and has been for 2 years roughly. I'm not worried about losing data. So please stop bringing that up.
The hardware is fine. It's not brand new but it is reliable. I've already explained what I'm running twice now, so I'm not sure why it's still being brought up. Yes, I read your requirements.
Again... I will ask.... If I install ZFS will it give me the transfer speeds I'm looking for between boxes? I will explain again what I'm looking for: I have multiple 1.5-2tb files that need to be copied to the second freenas box every Friday when a full backup is done. I need those files to be copied quickly. Bandwidth utilization is not an issue. Rsync is too slow. It takes days to move the files. I need a faster copy option.
Can I please get an answer to that question
Thank you
I don't claim as much expertise as I know some of the others who have responded to your question have, but I am finding it difficult to figure out just what your setup is. On the one hand you refer to your "2 freenas boxes," but on the other hand you ask, "
If I install ZFS,..." Do you mean that FreeNAS is running on these boxes but is not using the ZFS filesystem -- using UFS, which is now no longer supported by FreeNAS? If the answer to that is "Yes," then the only way to use ZFS is to start over with a new set of drives and disable the hardware RAID.
You said that the system was set up by a consultant. Is that consultant still available so you can find out exactly how the system was configured? Or did the consultant leave adequate documentation describing how it was set up? If the answer to those questions is "No," perhaps the system needs to be evaluated by a consultant who is familiar with FreeNAS. Or perhaps you should contact iXSystems, which sells preconfigured TrueNAS systems and provides business-level support for them (FreeNAS is the free DIY version of the OS in the TrueNAS systems and is supported only by volunteers on the forums).
My impression is that you are in over your head, but maybe it's not entirely your own fault.
