Looking for advice on SSHD/SSD/NVME arrangements

[agbishara]

Hi Everyone,  I've been a unraid lurker for a few years now.  Moving to a new amd cpu soon and looking for advice on how best to organize a mix of random drives i've collected on a new system.

 

My current Setup:

 

Cache -

256gb SSD + 500gb SSD (hates me if I cache over 256gb as you can imagine)

 

Array - 2 x 2 TB SSD's

  Parity - 2TB SSHD (probably slows writes but thats what cache is for)

  Turbo Write On.  SSD Trim plugin

 

512 TB NVME for VM's /unassigned disk plugin.

 

3 x 2tb sshd's that used to be in array but have smart Errors now so I use them for offline backup with cryptomator 

 

Pcloud  2TB Lifetime subscription for partial cloud backup

 

I'm at 4TB total of storage with parity and mirrored raid.  Have 6 sata ports and 2 nvme to work with on b550 mobo. One is PCIE 4.0.  Less drives is better if possible to save power.

*I know ssd's are not supported officially in the array.  I'm a bit sick of HDD's failing

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm open to buying a new drive.  Here is what I have to work with.

128gb ssd

256gb ssd

500gb ssd

512gb NVME

512 m.2 ssd I use currently in a external enclosure for steam games

2 x 2tb SSD's

3 x 2tb sshd's with smart errors

1 x 2tb sshd without smart errors

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

My Thoughts.  Another 512 NVME and toss rest into array if possible, or maybe 500gb SSD for even cache and sell the rest? 

Maybe no Cache and toss it all into the array?

 

I'm investing in a 3950x will be running ~10-15 dockers, 3vms (one for gaming with vga passthrough). 64gb of ram 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for the advice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[trurl]

3 minutes ago, agbishara said:

I know ssd's are not supported officially in the array.  I'm a bit sick of HDD's failing

You could put a single disk in the array, no parity, and maybe not even use it, then use the multiple cache pool feature in the latest beta to set up multiple btrfs raid pools.

[agbishara]

25 minutes ago, trurl said:

You could put a single disk in the array, no parity, and maybe not even use it, then use the multiple cache pool feature in the latest beta to set up multiple btrfs raid pools.

Oh that interesting I didn't know that was coming.  I assume you still loose half the space per cache  pool right? 

There is no way to limit the cache pool right?  if you combine a 128gb ssd with a 256gb, but limit the pool to 128? 

Right now it works but if I write over 128gb it errors.

Edited June 19, 2020 by agbishara
Stuff

[trurl]

Each cache pool works more or less the same as the original cache pool. If you have only a single disk in a pool, it can be xfs or btrfs. If multiple disks in a pool, it must be btrfs.

 

Even with the stable version where only one cache pool is supported, you have always been able to set that up with various btrfs raid configurations. See here:

 

https://forums.unraid.net/topic/46802-faq-for-unraid-v6/?do=findComment&comment=480421