Share ZFS with Windows 11

[KnoBuddy]

Okay, I'm brand new to unRaid and I'm diving straight into ZFS and the beta version of unraid 6.12. My first goal is to get a ZFS mirrored pool useable by Windows 11 over the network. My second goal is to get a plex server running to serve the files on the network. Finally, I would like to setup a retro gaming docker or VM, as well as a VM specifically to use for game streaming from my gaming PC. The server has an RTX 2070 Super in it that I would like to passthrough for use in emulators as well. My current server setup has 5 drives. Four 8TB Seagate NAS HDD, and a 1TB nvme. I already setup a ZFS pools with 2 groups of mirrors. I followed SpaceInvaderOne's recent videos, have been searching the internet far and wide, and mashed it all together to get this far.

 

Issue #1: Windows sees the server but cannot see the dataset I created in ZFS. I know windows can't see ZFS, but it was my understanding that's the point of the share? The server is in my network tab in windows but when I click on it it is empty. No dataset folder.

 

Issue #2: How should I setup and initialize the array/cache/pool. I was able to initialize the array by using a spare USB Stick as a single disk. I have the NVME that I thought I would use as a cache drive or pass through to a VM.

I know there will be more issues I run into but I'm hoping there is more documentation around them once I get past the ZFS bit. I am adamant about using ZFS and mirrors because it will allow me to add more mirrors for more performance and more storage without having to resilver or risk losing data. Maybe I'm way off and shouldn't even be using ZFS? I really don't think so...

 

Help please.

[JorgeB]

3 hours ago, KnoBuddy said:

Issue #1: Windows sees the server but cannot see the dataset I created in ZFS. I know windows can't see ZFS, but it was my understanding that's the point of the share? The server is in my network tab in windows but when I click on it it is empty. No dataset folder.

Make sure the share is being exported (Shares -> click on that share)

 

3 hours ago, KnoBuddy said:

Issue #2: How should I setup and initialize the array/cache/pool. I was able to initialize the array by using a spare USB Stick as a single disk. I have the NVME that I thought I would use as a cache drive or pass through to a VM.

Not sure I understand, NVMe device needs to be assigned to a pool, please post the diagnostics.

[KnoBuddy]

9 hours ago, JorgeB said:

Make sure the share is being exported (Shares -> click on that share)

 

I think the issue it that the dataset is a user share not a disk share. I created the zfs pool with "zpool create -m /pool pool mirror <name-of-disk1> <disk2> mirror <disk3> <disk4>". I then created a dataset using "zfs create pool/data". I have desperately been trying to find more information without asking for help but it's been very slow progress.

Edit: Forgot to upload diagnostics.

 

 

serverbuddy-diagnostics-20230611-1129.zip

Edited June 11, 2023 by KnoBuddy
Edit: Forgot to upload diagnostics.

[KnoBuddy]

Okay I got shares working. I had to set disk sharing to On from Auto, and then I was able to export the disk share. Now it shows up as well as the /data/ folder in Windows. Next step is to get plex a plex server up and running and my movies transferred over. I guess I will make a new post if I run into more issues. 

[KnoBuddy]

Okay, so datasets I don't have permissions to access from windows, but if I create a folder on the root of the share I can add and delete from there. (Can't delete folders though) I can't seem to find a way to delete the dataset in Unraid either, I assume it thinks there is data in there. I don't know that I need to use dataset, it just seemed like a good idea for the future. I have to go off to work, and will try back at this again later tonight.

Edited June 11, 2023 by KnoBuddy

[itimpi]

If a User Share is set up to use a ZFS format pool then Unraid will automatically create a dataset with the same name.   Doing this manually or creating a folder manually can give unexpected behaviour.

[JorgeB]

12 hours ago, KnoBuddy said:

Okay, so datasets I don't have permissions to access from windows,

You should let the GUI create the datasets, or the permissions will not be correct.

[KnoBuddy]

I got everything working. 

I currently have 16TB (4 drives, 2 mirrors) in a zfs pool. I have a 1TB NVME in the array as Disk1. I have the plex server working, and the windows 11 VM with GPU passthrough working as well. I might need to change some pinning of the docker and VM, but overall performance is great. 

My question, however, is do I need to create a cache drive or should I setup movers and first place the data on the NVME then move to the ZFS pool? Currently the shares are setup in a way that they only use primary storage. All the shares used by the VM/docker are on NVME with the movies and other data only being stored on ZFS. What write and read speeds should I expect from the ZFS pool? Obviously I'm maxing out the 1 gigabit ethernet connection when moving files, but how much more headroom do I have? Is 2.5 gig still a bottleneck?

Thank you guys for all the help. While most of the guides are outdated, Unraid has become much easier to use over the years it seems.

serverbuddy-diagnostics-20230618-1041.zip

[JorgeB]

You can just use the zfs pool as the main storage, note that the NVMe device cannot be trimmed when assigned to the array.