building a file server with zfs for personal use - recommenations?
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From: Torfinn Ingolfsen on 1 Dec 2009 17:35 Hi, Now that FreeBSD 8.0 is out, I am thinking about building me a new file server at home. In general, thiss will be a small PC type box, and it will only be a file server, no other duties. I am thinking: - amd64 - 2 to 4 GB RAM - 3 physical hard drives for the system drive and the storage pool. Questions: - am I on the right track here? Or would you recommend something different? - should I keep the system drive on a different set of disks? (if so, would a 2 disk zfs mirror be good?) -- Torfinn Ingolfsen, Norway
From: MZ on 1 Dec 2009 23:13 Torfinn Ingolfsen wrote: > Hi, > > Now that FreeBSD 8.0 is out, I am thinking about building me a new file > server at home. > In general, thiss will be a small PC type box, and it will only be a > file server, no other duties. > > I am thinking: > - amd64 > - 2 to 4 GB RAM > - 3 physical hard drives for the system drive and the storage pool. > > Questions: > - am I on the right track here? Or would you recommend something different? > - should I keep the system drive on a different set of disks? (if so, > would a 2 disk zfs mirror be good?) Sounds awfully similar to my setup and application. I've been using ZFS under FreeBSD 7.2 for a personal server/router. I plan on moving to 8.0 this week sometime to take advantage of ZFS 13. The 3 disk raid-z configuration seems to make more sense than the 2 disk mirror. As far as usable space goes, you're talking double with the 3 disk array. I actually use a small 4th disk (UFS) just for the OS (and swap, and temp, etc). Anyway, I've had zero problems with it, and the array is incredibly easy to import/export from different systems when it comes time to upgrade hardware. Yes, I'd definitely do it with 2 to 4 GB at your disposal, and double yes to amd64 (due to its memory management, you're less likely to fight kernel panics and configuration issues). Disk speed is ok, not great. I've tried a couple different SATA controllers, with pretty varied results for speed, so choose wisely in that regard. They also say more memory has a big impact on speed, but I haven't tested it. Surprisingly, there didn't seem to be a difference going from DDR2-667 to DDR2-800. The only drawback I've seen so far is that it's difficult (in FreeBSD, at least) to spin these drives down when not in use. And, I could be wrong, but it's even harder with ZFS.
From: Torfinn Ingolfsen on 16 Dec 2009 14:32 MZ wrote: > The 3 disk raid-z configuration seems to make more sense than the 2 disk mirror. As far as usable space goes, you're > talking double with the 3 disk array. I actually use a small 4th disk (UFS) just for the OS (and swap, and temp, etc). I decided to go for a 2 disk mirror for the system, set up like this: root(a)kg-f2# zpool list NAME SIZE USED AVAIL CAP HEALTH ALTROOT zroot 59.5G 28.8G 30.7G 48% ONLINE - root(a)kg-f2# zpool status pool: zroot state: ONLINE scrub: scrub completed after 0h7m with 0 errors on Mon Dec 14 22:33:12 2009 config: NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM zroot ONLINE 0 0 0 mirror ONLINE 0 0 0 gpt/disk0 ONLINE 0 0 0 gpt/disk1 ONLINE 0 0 0 errors: No known data errors I used this[1] guide for the setup. disk0 is a partition on ad4 and disk1 a partition on ad6: root(a)kg-f2# dmesg | grep ^ad ad4: 238475MB <SAMSUNG HD252HJ 1AC01118> at ata2-master SATA300 ad6: 238475MB <SAMSUNG HD252HJ 1AC01118> at ata3-master SATA300 ad8: 953869MB <SAMSUNG HD103SJ 1AJ100E4> at ata4-master SATA300 ad10: 953869MB <SAMSUNG HD103SJ 1AJ100E4> at ata5-master SATA300 ad12: 953869MB <SAMSUNG HD103SJ 1AJ100E4> at ata6-master SATA300 ad14: 953869MB <SAMSUNG HD103SJ 1AJ100E4> at ata7-master SATA300 ada0 at siisch0 bus 0 scbus0 target 0 lun 0 ada0: <SAMSUNG HD103SJ 1AJ100E4> ATA/ATAPI-8 SATA 2.x device ada0: 300.000MB/s transfers (SATA 2.x, UDMA6, PIO size 8192bytes) ada0: Command Queueing enabled ada0: 953869MB (1953525168 512 byte sectors: 16H 63S/T 16383C) and the rest are five disks for the storage pool (not set up yet). Question: should I use gpart to create partitions on the data disks, or is there a better way? (I'm not very familiar with zfs yet) References: 1) http://wiki.freebsd.org/RootOnZFS/GPTZFSBoot/Mirror -- Torfinn Ingolfsen, Norway
From: Michael Sierchio on 16 Dec 2009 16:36 Torfinn Ingolfsen wrote: > Question: should I use gpart to create partitions on the data disks, or > is there a better way? No, you should use whole disks, because ZFS can enable write caching and do other nice things. And you can designate hot spares - I don't know if autoreplace works in FreeBSD yet, but it is a great feature of zfs pools. Write caching is always safe because of the copy-on-write method, zfs avoids the write hole that exists with normal raid devices. If you are sure you want to go with mirrors, stick with mirrors. It doesn't work as well to have different storage types in a pool (raidz1 and mirror, for example). zpool will discourage you from doing it by preventing you unless you force it.
From: Torfinn Ingolfsen on 16 Dec 2009 20:29
Michael Sierchio wrote: > Torfinn Ingolfsen wrote: > >> Question: should I use gpart to create partitions on the data disks, or >> is there a better way? > > No, you should use whole disks, because ZFS can enable write caching > and do other nice things. And you can designate hot spares - I don't > know if autoreplace works in FreeBSD yet, but it is a great feature > of zfs pools. Ok. Do I labele the disks with glabel, or what? > If you are sure you want to go with mirrors, stick with mirrors. It > doesn't work as well to have different storage types in a pool (raidz1 > and mirror, for example). zpool will discourage you from doing it by > preventing you unless you force it. Aha. I am not trying to put the data disks in the same pool as the system disks - I will create a separate pool for them. I guess I'll use raidz1. -- Torfinn Ingolfsen, Norway |