Q: Your suggestions/ideas for uses cases for an extra NVME

[b0m541]

Hi there,

 

I am running unRAID for quite some years, currently with 2 parity drives, 8 data drives (XFS), and 2 SSDs (each 500GB Samsung Evo 860).

The Evo 860 SSDs run software RAID with BTRF and are used for the array write cache, appdata, VMs und docker.

 

Recently I bought a Samsung Pro 980 1TB NVME without having a concrete plan for what I would use it in unRAID.

 

What are you guys using an extra fast drive for, what are great use cases?

 

- just use the NVME as a second cache drive? Is that actually possible that unRAID uses both, the BTRFS RAID of the Evo 860s and the Pro 980 with XFS for aching array writes?

 

- should I separate the array cache from the system stuff (appdata, VMs, docker)? Which to put where? Do I want the software RAID for the array cache or for the system stuff?

 

My imagination for what else to do with it in the unraid machine is currently limited,

feel free to chime in!

 

 

 

 

[JonathanM]

Depends on your specific use case. I'd set up a second pool, with only the new NVME, and move whatever I used the most to it. If you daily drive your VM(s), put your most used one there. If you mostly do serve media using a container, move that container's appdata.

 

I'd recommend analyzing your everyday uses, and whatever you do the most, see if you can make the extra speed worth it.

[goodyear]

I'm using NVME for my cache drive to have it as performant as possible to support my 10GbE network, and I've set my appdata and temporary files to land there before the mover moves them to the array. My motherboard has 2 NVME slots so I've used them instead of using my SATA ports for SSD-drives, I'll rather save them for my array. I also have 980 pro drives, and I've setup them up as RAID 1. In my mind I'd always use NVME drives instead of SSD if the motherboard supports it; same price but much more performant.