Multiple HDDs options with Plex

[Newt182]

I'm new to FreeNAS but I've managed to get both FreeNAS and Plex setup and working with a single 4TB HDD as well as a share to access from my Windows PC. My single HDD is near capacity so I would like to add a second and looking for suggestions or best practices on how multiple HDDs are typically used with Plex. I want both drives to store Movies and Plex to show them all in a single library. With my limited FreeNAS/Plex knowledge and after doing some searching my assumptions are that my options are as follows:

1. Add the new disk to the current pool without redundancy but if one drive goes bad I lose all of my movies.
2. Add the new disk to the current pool with redundancy but now I have less storage space and I'm already nearing capacity
3. Create a new pool for the new drive but Plex would have to view it as a separate library.

If anything stated above is incorrect please let me know as these are just my assumptions after doing a bit of reading through other threads that may or may not have anything to do with what I am trying to accomplish.

So with this in mind my questions are:

1. Is there a way to use the HDDs independently and have a single Plex library? If one drive goes bad I'm ok with having to rebuild part of my library but would rather not have to suffer the loss of my entire library.
2. Is there a "Best Practices" method that most people stick to?
3. Should I just get more drives and use a single pool with redundancy?

Thanks!

 

[Jailer]

Is there a "Best Practices" method that most people stick to?

Yes, planning your pool layout before you dive in to ensure you have redundancy from the start. Doing so allows you to survive drive failures without losing data.

Having said that I would add another 4TB drive as a mirror to your existing drive. You won't gain any capacity but you will gain redundancy. Then you can continue to add mirrors to your existing pool as funds allow and grow your pool to increase capacity. Alternatively you could purchase more drives now if funds allow and set up a new pool with redundancy and migrate your existing data from your single drive to your new pool.

It's basically up to you on how you want to proceed from here.

 

[danb35]

Should I just get more drives and use a single pool with redundancy?

I expect that's what most people here would recommend.

Is there a way to use the HDDs independently and have a single Plex library?

Yes, this is possible. A Plex library can contain an arbitrary number of directories, so this is pretty easy--make a pool on each disk, mount directories from each pool to the Plex jail, and add both to the desired library(ies).

 

[sretalla]

A Plex library can contain an arbitrary number of directories

Actually, even if plex couldn't do that, iocage/jails can, since you can mount storage from different pools/datasets into the same directory to create a "virtual pool" in the jail... but what @danb35 said is more-or-less that... either add multiple directories to the library in plex, or add one in plex and mount all the storage under it.