New ZFS setup, quick sanity check

Good evening everyone,

Following the advice I received here, I’ve finally set up my first server using a 12600K and 64 GB of RAM.

So far, I’ve configured three ZFS pools:

• A 4×24 TB HDD RAIDZ1 pool for storage, called vault

• Two 2 TB NVMe drives in a mirror for appdata and important cached data, called core

• One NVMe ZFS pool as disposable cache, called scratch

I’ve created some basic datasets and shares, and installed the plugins that are usually recommended on the forum:

• CA Auto Update Applications

• Community Applications

• Fix Common Problems

• Network UPS Tools (NUT) for Unraid, set up with my UPS policy and winNUT on my desktop PC

• Sanoid for Unraid 6/7

• Tips and Tweaks

• User Scripts

• ZFS Master for Unraid

I’ve also started using SpaceInvaderOne’s Unraid ZFS Dataset Snapshot and Replication user script to create snapshots of core and replicate them to vault, as well as to create snapshots of vault itself.

I’m currently using the following snapshot retention policy:

snapshot_hours="24"

snapshot_days="30"

snapshot_weeks="24"

snapshot_months="12"

snapshot_years="2"

Before I start experimenting with Docker and moving my data over, I have a few questions.

1. Is this snapshot policy overkill?

2. I know I should run scrubs and SMART tests periodically, but I can’t find a way to do this directly from the GUI. Should I be using a plugin for that?

3. Since I’m replicating core into vault, is that enough for backing up appdata, or should I still use the Appdata Backup plugin?

4. In Fix Common Problems, I’m getting the following warnings:

   • “Share documents set to use pool core, but files or folders exist on the vault pool”

   • “Share media set to use pool scratch, but files or folders exist on the vault pool”

   • “Share photos set to use pool core, but files or folders exist on the vault pool”

     Each of these shares is designed to use the other pools as cache for vault, so isn’t this warning just expected behavior? Should I simply ignore it?

I’m also having issues with Unraid Connect. I tried to back up my flash drive there, but the website just stays on “Loading”, even though the plugin is installed.

I’m planning to develop a proper 3-2-1 backup strategy once I’m more comfortable with the system. Is there anything else I might be missing, or something I’ve already messed up? What should I look forward next?

Thanks in advance!