advice on zfs pool config for a new custom NAS

[robbrown99]

Hi all, I'm a newbie to Unraid. I've been running a simple ZFS mirror on an old Mac Pro (openzfs on mac then zfs on Linux mInt), and before that I was one of the first Drobo v1 users. I've had really great success with ZFS integrity and want to continue with it.

 

I have built a new NAS box with a Jonsbo N4 case (6x 3.5 bays, 2x 2.5 bays) and a N5105 motherboard / 4 core Intel Combo, 32GB ram.

 

My existing pool is 2x 6TB seagate ironwolf NAS drives in a mirror.

 

I am thinking of buying 4x more 6TB drives (either same seagate NAS or Exos drives), and creating a 5x or 6x 3.5 inch drive setup. Not sure what the best option is though.

 

Use cases...

1. Primary storage for my 25 year old collection of photos (I take a lot of photos). Data integrity v important, but also because it would be my primary storage for photo editing then I'd like good read speed.

2. Backup for my computer

3. Backup for my family computers... a mix of Mac and Windows.

4. Ideally a photo server so that one day I can stop paying flickr $100 a year

5. Perhaps run next cloud or similar.

6. Kids are into gaming so maybe the odd server

7. I toy with linux distros so occasionally running those for fun.

8. Would love to run my website for it one day, and maybe a small mastodon server.

 

So nothing too taxing. I'd like some input on the following please...

 

1. With regards to creating a new pool do I need to start with all disks populated first, or can I populate say 4 disks, get the new pool online then copy my data, then move the 2x disks from my old pool? Or best to just buy all new? Perhaps I just go all new and use my existing drives for offaite backup.

 

2. For the pool setup I am thinking

... 5x 6TB disks in a raidz1 (24TB available storage)

... 5x 6TB disks in a raidz2 (18tb storage, better integrity)

... 2x z1 groups in 1 pool... where each group has 3x 6TB (1 is parity). I believe this would be the most performant (but only 12TB storage). Though that's a LOT of drives used for marginal storage!

... or 6x 6TB with Z2 (24TB).

 

Is the read and write speed for the pool significantly better with groups?

 

3. Is it a good idea to also populate one of the 2.5 bays with an SSD for a cache drive? How do I add the cache drive If I do this? Perhaps this is a good way to get a performance boost with a Z2 setup? E.g.

 

5. New Exos (non enterprise) disks are $30 cheaper right now than ironwolf nas drives. I bought some refurbished exos drives but they ran hot (55 c!) after a min of use so I returned those.

 

Any tips appreciated.

 

Thanks!

[JorgeB]

I would go with a single vdev raidz2 pool or 5 or 6 disks, note that as of now you cannot expand the pool by adding a device, you should be able to in the near future once OpenZFS 2.3 is out, expected later this year.

 

20 minutes ago, robbrown99 said:

Is it a good idea to also populate one of the 2.5 bays with an SSD for a cache drive?

Gigabit or faster LAN? For gigabit the pool should be able to saturate the kink without any issues.

 

 

 

 

 

[robbrown99]

@JorgeB thanks for the pool recommendation. I will go for a 5 disk single z2 zdev for now, and hope the 2.3 upgrade will allow for future flexibility.

 

Only gigabit LAN in the house. I guess if I notice issues I can add later (but again assume I can only do that with 2.3). I have a spare 512gb ssd so maybe I will just throw that in now.