ZFS, Unraid Array, or Hybrid? Choosing the Right Storage Solution for Your Needs

[SpencerJ]

"To ZFS or not to ZFS, that is the question." - @SpaceInvaderOne

 

This guest blog by Ed Rawlings walks you through 3 potential Unraid storage setups to help you determine the optimal location for your media files on Unraid. There are also two step-by-step guide videos that walk you through upgrading your Unraid cache pool to either a larger drive or just reformatting the one you have to a ZFS file system - all without losing a single byte of data!

 

[ChuskyX]

For a hybrid solution, you still have the btrfs option. You have snapshots, and compression (i think). So, if you are not going to create a pool, why to use zfs?

[KluthR]

Quote

The increased RAM and CPU resources that ZFS demands could impact the performance of other server applications, making it less suitable for resource-limited servers.

Is there any comparison chart somewhere between Unraid parity and pure ZFS in CPU usage?

Edited August 2, 2023 by KluthR

[sjrahn]

On 7/26/2023 at 8:20 AM, ChuskyX said:

For a hybrid solution, you still have the btrfs option. You have snapshots, and compression (i think). So, if you are not going to create a pool, why to use zfs?

I went back and forth on this when adding 5 new drives to my existing btrfs formatted array. I decided to try zfs because it's a more mature file system, even if it's new to unraid, hoping to eventually convert the entire array down the road. Now I wish I had stuck with btrfs.

 

There is already other topics for it but there is problems with slow write speeds and constant read/write activity only on zfs disks inside of an array. Seems to be still undetermined on the root causes.

 

You are right that btrfs has scrubbing, snapshotting and compression just like zfs. I am probably going to stick with only using zfs for pool devices going forward.

[koaly]

Hi everyone,

 

I have 4x 14Tb xfs HDDs in the array, unprotected btrfs NVME drive for system and appdata, and also btrfs SATA SSD 480Gb single cache drive.

I watched the Ed's videos and converted my cache SSD into ZFS. So far no problem.

I am thinking about converting the drives in the array as single ZFS with an understanding that it may improve data compression. I am not concerned about additional workload for Ryzen pro 5750GE CPU. The process is well described in the videos.

The question is whether I should also convert the parity drive into ZFS or it does not make any sense?

Thanks in advance for explanations. 

[itimpi]

51 minutes ago, koaly said:

The question is whether I should also convert the parity drive into ZFS or it does not make any sense?

The parity drive has no file system.   It is jus a collection of bits that in conjunction with the data drives can reconstruct the contents of a failed drive and has no concept of file system.    That is why the Unraid array can have a mixture of file systems.

[koaly]

11 hours ago, itimpi said:

The parity drive has no file system.   It is jus a collection of bits that in conjunction with the data drives can reconstruct the contents of a failed drive and has no concept of file system.    That is why the Unraid array can have a mixture of file systems.

Many thanks for explanations. Makes sense.