Advice for Array/Pool structure if I switch from TrueNAS to unRAID

[unraid3r]

I am thinking of switching from TrueNAS "Scale" to unRAID.

 

My current setup is ;

 

Pool 1 for media storage = 8x HDD's in a Raid z2. ( 6x 3tb and 2x 6tb )

 

Pool 2 for media storage = 2x HDD's in a Mirror. ( 2x 10tb )

 

Pool 3 for Docker images and important data = 3x SSD's in a 3 way mirror. ( 3x 256gb )

 

 

Unused HDD's = 3x 6tb, 1x 4tb and 4x 2tb.

 

 

I would need to buy 3x 6tb HDD's ( £500 ) to expand the Raid z2 pool storage from 18tb to 36tb.

Buying an unRAID Pro license for £100 I could get similar storage space as above using the the HDD's I already have, saving myself £400.

 

 

In unRAID I would want to use "dual parity" and from what I've read the most conventional setup would be,

 

2x 10tb HDD's as parity and all other HDD's used for data.

 

 

However I am not keen on doing this for 2 reasons ;

 

1.  If a 10tb parity HDD failed, " I think "  I would need to replace it with another 10tb HDD to match the remaining 10tb parity HDD. ( almost £300 )

[ Or am I wrong and could I replace a failed 10tb parity HDD with a 6tb HDD because none of the "data drives" are bigger than 6tb ? ]

 

2.  I would like to keep my two mirrored pools as they are ( ZFS ) and just export them from TrueNAS and then import them into unRAID. ( Keeping them separate from the main unRAID array )

 

 

So my idea is ;

 

Main array

Parity = 2x 6tb HDD's

Data = 3x 6tb, 3x3tb and 1x4tb HDD's"

 

ZFS Mirror 1 ( pool )

2x 10tb HDD's  ( exported from truenas and imported into unRAID )

 

ZFS Mirror 2 ( pool )

3x 256gb SSD's  ( exported from truenas and imported into unRAID )

 

 

I am not interested in having any type of cache drives. I will keep all the HDD's spinning at all times and enable " turbo write "

 

 

What do you guys think ? Sorry for the VERY long post and thanks in advance to anyone who read all of this lol.

 

[ p.s ] [ my motherboard only has 14 SATA connections ]

 

 

Edited October 16, 2022 by unraid3r

[trurl]

47 minutes ago, unraid3r said:

replace a failed 10tb parity HDD with a 6tb HDD because none of the "data drives" are bigger than 6tb

This ^

 

Each Parity must at least as large as any data drive

[unraid3r]

Thank you for the reply !

 

So when using "dual parity" it does not matter if the parity drives are different sizes ? even if they were both the same size before one of them failed ?

 

Better way to put this ;

 

[ Assuming all data drives are 6tb or less ], can you replace a failed 10tb parity drive with a 6tb drive ?

 

 

 

How about importing a ZFS pool ( or multiple pools ) from TrueNAS, and having them separate from the main unRAID array ?

 

Thanks again

Edited September 27, 2022 by unraid3r

[trurl]

1 hour ago, unraid3r said:

[ Assuming all data drives are 6tb or less ], can you replace a failed 10tb parity drive with a 6tb drive ?

It will allow a 6TB parity drive as long as no data drives are larger than 6TB. You would have to New Config to get it to accept the smaller replacement.

 

In order to avoid rebuilding both parity, you would have to New Config without that parity drive and check the parity valid box so it will accept the existing parity as is, then add that smaller parity disk so it can be rebuilt.

[unraid3r]

OK thank you, so its "possible" but probably not the best idea by the sound of it.

 

I'm thinking that leaving my current mirrors as they are and importing them as separate zfs pools still seems like the best option for me.

[peterg23]

Unraid does not support ZFS natively although it is rumored to do so in the future. There is a ZFS plugin but configuration is a bit complex.

Spaceinvader One discusses using ZFS in a Truenas VM in the link below.

 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6MCtOroZNDCr7TgKEgYDD_5WPV75M2If

[unraid3r]

On 9/30/2022 at 6:50 AM, peterg23 said:

Unraid does not support ZFS natively although it is rumored to do so in the future. There is a ZFS plugin but configuration is a bit complex.

Spaceinvader One discusses using ZFS in a Truenas VM in the link below.

 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6MCtOroZNDCr7TgKEgYDD_5WPV75M2If

 

Yeah I knew ZFS wasn't "officially" supported I was planning on using the ZFS plugin and shell but I wasn't sure if I could import a pool from truenas ( I now know I can ) I don't particularly want to run a truenas VM if I can help it, thanks for the suggestion though.