Design Question - Streaming Video - 4x 8TB and 2x 4TB

[cowboydude]

Hi all,
I'm new here. I've read through some of the posts and a PDF explaining how TrueNAS works, but still have questions. I apologize in advance if I should know some of this already!

I am running a system used for streaming various media files across my network.

The current setup is 4 networks shares (SMB). Each share is on its own HDD. The user must go to the right share to find the video they need. This isn't the most efficient way to do things... and also there is no redundancy in place.

I have four 8TB WD Red drives and two 4TB WD Red drives.

I'm planning on the following and hoping you could validate this configuration or point out any flaws with performance or any other issues you may see.

System:
Server - Running VMware 7.
HBA - IBM M1015 in IT mode. Set to passthru from VMware to the TrueNAS VM.
TrueNAS VM - 4 CPUs, 8GB RAM (may increase to 16GB).

VDEV1 - 4x 8TB drives. RAIDZ1. Should two drives fail at the same time, it is time consuming to restore from a backup... but doable.
VDEV2 - 2x 4TB drives. Mirror. Data is also backed up offsite.

Would you setup 2 pools or 1 pool? Is there a benefit to setting up multiple pools vs a single pool with two shared folders?

Looking for some guidance.

Thank you!

 

[Arwen]

It's not really advisable to set up a single pool with mis-matched disk sizes that are way different in sizes. Nor is it advisable to setup a single pool with a RAID-Z1 vDev and a Mirrored vDev.

So, 2 pools as you have laid them out is probably the best you can get with the disks you have.

 

[Etorix]

Alternatively, a single pool with three mirror vdevs: 2*4 TB + 2* 8 TB + 2*8 TB.
Definitively allocate 16 GB RAM or more and study @jgreco 's primer on virtualising TrueNAS—or go bare metal.

"Absolutely must virtualize FreeNAS!" ... a guide to not completely losing your data.

[---- 2018/02/27: This is still as relevant as ever. As PCIe-Passthru has matured, fewer problems are reported. I've updated some specific things known to be problematic ----] [---- 2014/12/24: Note, there is another post discussing how to deploy a small FreeNAS VM instance for basic file...

www.truenas.com

 

[cowboydude]

Hello- and thanks for the repsonse.

Right. Two pools.

Pool1 = 4x 8TB RAIDZ1. Allows for a single drive failure.
Pool2 = 2x 4TB Mirror. Allows for a single drive failure.