Advice/Suggestions for Dell R710 Pools, Datasets, proper Performance?

[phebert]

Greetings,

I'm looking for advice regarding the common question: Pools, Datasets, proper Performance. I have looked through both of the very informational guides I found, but admit I only understand half of it. Still learning. , Direct me to some good learning resources for noobs.

• Path to Success for Structuring Datasets in Your Pool
• The path to success for block storage

Normally I just dump all 6 drives into one Raidz2 pool and put datasets under it. But after reading those articles and considering ACLs, I'm concerned I may not be doing it correctly.

What I would like?

• VMs, mostly Linux services and ssh access only. But I am also interested in running at least one workstation VM directly, iSCSI?
• SMB share for storage. For documents, pictures, various files, etc. on a Windows network, unless there is a better way.
• Stream music and videos to PC, Workstations, and Smart TV. Plex, or something better? No access from outside the network needed.
• Redundancy for at least one drive failure on a pool.

Questions:

• What is the suggested Pool setup for this? Do I need two pools, one for VM Mirror and one for Data RaidZ?
• Can I even do this with 6 drives?
• Suggestions on Datasets?

Let me know if there's any information needed. Hardware information in my signature.

 

[jgreco]

Running one VM on iSCSI on RAIDZ is not likely to drown puppies or do other horrible things, as long as you realize it isn't efficient and isn't going to be super-performant.

 

[phebert]

I'm considering moving all my basic personal workstation/computer use onto a VM i can use from any pc in the network. I wont be doing any gaming or anything like that. Maybe some photo editing, web browsing, web videos, things like that. Basic workstation stuff. With that said, would that efficiency or performance be negligible?

 

[phebert]

Ok, so here is what I'm thinking at the moment. Would this work well with the setup I'm looking for? Critique?