pools / cache / backing it all up

[Jammy B]

in all honesty, i am feeling a little overwhelmed and unsure what to do next.

 

I have not kept abreast to the new features/abilities that have rolled in over the last year, that and simultaneously some hardware issues [drives playing up] have reminded me that routine maintenance is not enough and i need to be implenting some things.

 

existing setup:

 

Cache/docker/VMs - 1TB NVME

Unassigned Devices - 1TB SSD - Plex Metadata

 

I have spent the last couple days reading up and think my best course of action is to:

 

Cache pool - 2x 2TB NVME mirrored - docker

Pool 2 - 1x 1TB NVME - Plex metadata / VMs

 

create a schedule to clone/mirror/snapshot Pool 2 to the array or even just the vdisk's nightly. 

 

I want Plex metadata/VMs off of cache as i can see/feel performance issues with VMs on the cache. [i had VMs on another NVME until last week when the drive began to play up. so the affected performance is new!]

 

my questions:

 

1. i know how to move things around with MC. but i have never done a new cache setup before. what is the simplest method to complete that?

 

2. what is the easiest method to  create scheduled backups of Pool2 to the array?

 

thanks all!