Creating Jails - Storage allocation

[Bxtreme]

Hello, I have been researching jails for installing PBI's. I even watched some youtube video's, but nothing really answered my question. I am trying to figure out how much storage space to allocate for the jail dataset and software dataset. If I'm not mistaken, the software dataset is where the software and the storage for that software goes. So if I use a torrent plugin, it would be installed in software, and all of the torrents downloaded would be stored there as well? Is that correct?

If what I am saying is accurate so far, is it feasible to have the jail dataset at 2GB and the software dataset at 500GB? Would it be easier to just create the jail and then create software inside of jail - jail space could be 500GB and software would have no allocation/quota size?

I know I'm asking a lot of noob questions, but thank you in advance!!!

 

[gmontalvo]

Hi Bxtreme,

I can tell you what I do, but you have to decide what is best for your situation. I do not create separate data sets for either the jail or the pbi's. My "main" pool is mounted to /mnt/storage/ I created a sub directory "software". In this directory goes both the jail and the pbi installs (each in their own folder).

I know ... *gasp* I am such a heretic, but I really don't see the advantage of creating a separate dataset for either the jail or the plugins. Set a quota? Manage security separately? Create ZFS snapshots? Bah! A simple directory structure within the main ZFS pool works for me.

Taking this approach you won't have to manage (or even care about) the size of the dataset. Now, to answer your question Directly - I think 2 GB is fine for the jail, but the minimum size for a dataset may be 4 GB (I am not sure, so test it for yourself). 500 GB for the pbi's installs is way too much space. Keep in mind, all you need is enough space to install software. The size will depend on how much you intend to install, but 20 GB is probably large enough.

If you have other questions, I will try to help, but I check the forums infrequently. Good luck to you ...

 

[Bxtreme]

Actually, that answered all of my questions. I like that setup - sounds easy to maintain. Thanks!!

 

[gmontalvo]

Well that was easy - cheers! ;-)