Reasonable use for SSD or simply overkill ?

[guermantes]

Hi,
I have "liberated" an NVME M2 SSD 250 GB from my desktop and it is just lying in the drawer now. I could buy an M2->PCIe adapter and stick it in my Freenas (X11SSM, 16 GB ECC), but is it worth it?

My Freenas mainly serves music files and as holds work files that I access daily. It also holds my personal RAW photo files that I develop in Lightroom. I have one Ubuntu VM running low intensity Nextcloud mainly for calendar and contacts (this will probably by converted to a jail once 11.2 is properly released). I have another jail setup with apache and mysql where I run several wordpress sites in development (the files actually live in my HDD-pool but they are mounted inside the jail for testing the sites and also mounted on my desktop where I do the actual codehammering).

Is there any task the SSD could reasonably perform in this Freenas or would it just be overkill? I feel it's too big for boot drive.
I have plenty of space on my HDD pool, disks are always spinning, so maybe there is no point having the jails on SSD?

 

[kdragon75]

If you have your photos in their own dataset and that's you live store for you light room images (obviously not your lightroom catalog just the images), you could use the SSD as a "dedicated" L2ARC. You can use zfs set secondarycache=none <pool_name> to disable L2ARC at the root (it gets inherited by al child datasets/zvols) and then zfs set secondarycache=all<pool_name>/<photo_dataset> to enable it on selective datasets. This may help in building smart previews and such after an import if you have 10gbe from your NAS to your editing PC.

 

[kdragon75]

Just filed a feature request for this to be enabled in the GUI.
Issue #61038 created.

 

[guermantes]

...if you have 10gbe from your NAS to your editing PC.

I was getting my hopes up until the very last words. Implementing 10gbe will probably be too expensive a project.

 

[Chris Moore]

What kind of hardware do you have? I spent less than $300 to implement 10Gb which includes the cost of the switch.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[kdragon75]

Cards, switch, cables, and other misc should be doable for sub $200 if you find a decent deal. Far less without the switch and just direct connections.

 

[kdragon75]

You know you want 10gbe.... dooo it. Give in to peer pressure!:D

 

[guermantes]

Don't pressure me, please... I actually have a 10gbe PCIe card lying in the same drawer not being used, but I would need another one for my desktop and a new switch and maybe also router. It all seems a bit overkill just to achieve *perhaps* better performance for previews. Even if €200 is not that much, it feels overkill...

Any other uses for a SSD? Am I right that it not much point putting the jails on it (apart from ease of transfer).

 

[SavageAUS]

Don't pressure me, please... I actually have a 10gbe PCIe card lying in the same drawer not being used, but I would need another one for my desktop and a new switch and maybe also router. It all seems a bit overkill just to achieve *perhaps* better performance for previews. Even if €200 is not that much, it feels overkill...

Any other uses for a SSD? Am I right that it not much point putting the jails on it (apart from ease of transfer).

May not be of much help but I use 2x240gb mirrored ssd’s for my jails and another m.2 nvme drive (harvested from desktop pc after an upgrade) that I use as a dedicated downloads pool.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[kdragon75]

but I would need another one for my desktop and a new switch and maybe also router

Why would you need a 10gbe router!? You only need a switch if more than two devices need to connect at 10gbe. All you need is a card and cable. Point to Point.

 

[Chris Moore]

I actually have a 10gbe PCIe card lying in the same drawer not being used, but I would need another one for my desktop and a new switch and maybe also router. It all seems a bit overkill just to achieve *perhaps* better performance for previews.

It doesn't call for a router change. I picked up a used switch from eBay for $150 and even though I have not used LightRoom in many years, I have to imagine that this would make it work better:

That speed was probably limited by the SSD in my desktop more so than the 10Gb network speed. You could have a NAS that is about as fast as a SSD. I don't know how that is overkill. What is your time worth to you?

 

[acquacow]

I've been meaning to bench lightroom against my local nvme, vs local sata ssd, vs ssd pool on my freenas, vs hdd pool on my freenas.

I have a dedicated dataset and catalog to test with ready to go from some prior pci-e vs nvme lightroom testing.

I just haven't had time to re-do it all yet =P

 

[guermantes]

Why would you need a 10gbe router!? You only need a switch if more than two devices need to connect at 10gbe. All you need is a card and cable. Point to Point.

True. Didn't think about that possibility.

That speed was probably limited by the SSD in my desktop more so than the 10Gb network speed. You could have a NAS that is about as fast as a SSD. I don't know how that is overkill. What is your time worth to you?

Ouch, I am feeling progressively caught in 10gbe quicksand...

I've been meaning to bench lightroom against my local nvme, vs local sata ssd, vs ssd pool on my freenas, vs hdd pool on my freenas.
I have a dedicated dataset and catalog to test with ready to go from some prior pci-e vs nvme lightroom testing.
I just haven't had time to re-do it all yet =P

Maybe the holidays is a good time to do a little benching?

 

[Chris Moore]

Take a look at this switch:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Aruba-S250...ASE-T-4x1000BASE-X-10GBASE-X-KMJ/232504836333
Only $125 and free shipping. It needed a firmware update and a modification to the configuration but I got the four 10Gb port working for the things I want to be fast and have plenty of 1Gb ports for everything else. It even comes with a web based management console: