Any advice for a complete newbie please!

[sdarling5691]

Hi everyone.

 

First of all, I can see this question has been asked a LOT, and I have been doing lots of reading and research, but for some reason the more I read the more I become confused.

 

So...I was hoping if I provide my specs, someone could kindly advise on the best disc configuration for me?

 

I will be using the Unraid server for media, a light game server, CCTV and Nextcloud for documents, photos etc.

 

I plan to add more discs in the future.

 

I have a fairly powerful server with 12 cores, and 128GB ECC Ram.

 

My discs are the following:

 

2x 512 GB Nvme  M.2 Drives

2x 3TB SATA HDD's

 

I do have a spare external HDD that I will use to run weekly backups, and some of the data (photos etc) is important to me, however, the rest I have stored in multiple places.

 

I am a complete newbie when it comes to Unraid.

 

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

 

[JorgeB]

Set the 3 HDDs has an array with parity, or a zfs raidz1 pool, and the SSDs as a mirrored zfs pool.

[sdarling5691]

Hi thanks for the reply. 
 

its 2x HDDs and 2 m.2. 
 

so should I set both HDDs as an array with one parity and one data drive, and the 2x nvme in one pool? Should that be a cache pool?

 

thanks again

 

[JorgeB]

Oops, then an array with parity and one drive, which works as a mirror, or another mirrored zfs pool, assuming you want some redundancy.

[itimpi]

20 hours ago, sdarling5691 said:

and the 2x nvme in one pool? Should that be a cache pool?

Note that whether a pool is going to be used for caching purposes is configured at the individual share level, not at the pool level, and it can potentially be different pools for different shares.

 

there can be confusion about this because for legacy reasons the first pool defaults to be named ‘cache’ even if it is not being used for this purpose.

[sdarling5691]

Awwww that’s explains things. Ok so one array with one parity and one data disk. 
 

one pool with 2x nvme. I assume this is a mirror by default when you set a pool with 2 slots, as it’s showing 512GB available space?

 

thank you again both you have been really helpful. 
 

thanks. 

[sdarling5691]

Oh sorry one more question that’s confusing me. 
 

I understand the parity drive is saving party bits, not my actual data. 
 

if I have only 2 disks in the array and one is parity, and the data disk failed, I understand they the data can be rebuilt when I replace the drive, but can I still access my data until I replace the drive?

 

if not, would a raid 1 array not be better so that I still have access to my data? Sorry if I have miss understood the parity drive scenario. 
 

thanks again. 

[Veah]

You would still have access to the data on array as long as parity drive holds up.

[sdarling5691]

Thanks for confirming. That’s reassuring considering it’s not RAID. 
 

thanks again.