Now that Unraid can run several pools and can operate without an array, I have a few questions.

I have two Unraid servers. One has my major media storage, which runs as XFS Array. I love it. It allows different size and limits disk loss risk to 1 disk evenif parity and 1 disk die at the same time. No plan to change this and it works very stable.

I have a second Unraid server. I will only have one disk (in addition to the cache disk) for my music library (for Plex / UPNP) and personal backups. Most important factor will be safety, whiled speed plays some role for the music files. It's many small files as you can imagine. It's anyways a sata spinner, so won't be lightning fast.

This second server is currently set up as an array with one XFS disk and a second XFS disk for parity. I am thinking to change this to a ZFS array or a ZFS pool. Would love to hear any view whether there is any downside of doing so? And the advantages of ZFS array vs ZFS pool in this context?

Thanks all for your help!

4 minutes ago, steve1977 said:

ZFS array

If you mean ZFS in the traditional Unraid type array you probably do not want this. In the Unraid array each disk is a self-contained file system so you would still need a parity disk for protection, and ZFS in the Unraid type array is know to not have good performance.

Got it. Then this option is out. So, what about XFS Array vs ZFS Pool. Given only one disk with mirror/parity, many of the XFS array advantages do not apply. Anything I am missing why XFS array may still be superior? Or no brainer to go with a ZFS pool?

I will now need to decide going with an Unraid XFS Array or with a ZFS Pool. For my 1 disk / 1 mirror setup, is there any reason I should go with Array over Pool? Or a clear advantage of an ZFS Pool?