Hi everyone,

 

I'm really enjoying Unraid and already have the Pro license to create my new NAS, currently I'm testing Unraid on my vmware workstation before I migrate my pc to Unraid. Here is my dilemma, my goal is have this six SSDs as one drive (due to many VMs) and maybe use this 12TB HDD as daily backup of my SSD drives. I have some ideas how to accomplish that but I really would some some guidance and help from more experienced users, here are my ideas:

 

1 - Use AMD software RAID 0 with 6 SSDs, on Unraid add 12TB Raid 0 SSDs and 12TB HDD, find a solution for a daily backup from SSDs data disk RAID 0 to data disk 12TB HDD. (maybe the easiest?)

 

2 - Add the six SSDs with one for parity on the Array, find a solution to automatically spilt in some size (ex: 200GB) the vdisk of the VMs and span the files through the disks. (seems almost impossible)

 

3 - Use btrfs raid 5 with the six SSDs and 12TB HDD as data disks, also find a solution for a daily backup from SSDs data disk RAID 5 to data disk 12TB HDD. (seems impossible)

 

4 - Buy a hardware controller to perform the RAID 5 with the six SSD, add as data disk and again find a solution for a daily backup from SSDs data disk RAID 5 to data disk 12TB HDD. (expensive one, but feasible?)

 

Please if you have other idea/solution please let me know, I'm not experienced in storage/backup.

 

My hardware:

Ryzen 5900X

Asus X570 TUF

6XSSD

1x12TB HDD

64GB RAM

 

Thanks for any insights!

9 minutes ago, dgaglioni said:

Use AMD software RAID 0

Not supported

10 minutes ago, dgaglioni said:

Add the six SSDs with one for parity on the Array

Parity array and SSDs are a poor fit, no trim, and other issues

12 minutes ago, dgaglioni said:

Use btrfs raid 5 with the six SSDs and 12TB HDD as data disks

Not sure what you mean here, pools can be configured with BTRFS RAID levels, but it's not recommended to mix HDD and SSD in the same pool.

14 minutes ago, dgaglioni said:

Buy a hardware controller to perform the RAID 5 with the six SSD, add as data disk

Maybe possible, but still not optimal.

 

14 minutes ago, dgaglioni said:

Please if you have other idea/solution please let me know,

Normally HDD are used in the parity array, with the largest set as the parity volume, and others as data volumes.

SSD's are used in pools, either single per pool or multiple in BTRFS RAID sets, or some combination of pools that works for you.

 

Given your stated goals, the closest suggestion I can give is set the 12TB as disk1 in the parity array, with no parity disk, and the SSD's in a BTRFS RAID pool. I'm not sure of the stability of BTRFS RAID5, I would be more comfortable recommending RAID10.

 

You could set up backup software in the VM clients and point them to a share on disk1 of the array.

Thank you for the help @JonathanM !

 

I just watched Spaceinvader One video about cache pools and what you suggest works perfectly! I'll deploy in the following manner:

 

Array Devices

1 x 12TB Parity (I'll purchase another 12TB HDD)

1 x 12TB Disk 1 (xfs)

 

Pool Devices

6 x 2TB SSD (with btrfs RAID 0)

 

I'll use veeam for backup the VMs to the 12TB HDD, if something goes wrong with the RAID 0 I'll have everything on 12TB HDD with parity!

 

Thanks!

Edited August 4, 20223 yr by dgaglioni