General guidance for my setup

[Dudde]

Im having the following machines

ESXi:
Supermicro X10SRW-F
Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2620v3 2.4GHz
64 GB ECC memory
Supermicro PCI-e 2-port Intel 10Gbit Ethernet LAN card RJ45 LP X540
1x Samsung SSD SM863 240GB

FreeNAS:
Supermicro X11SSH-CTF
Intel Xeon E3-1220v5 3.0GHz
64GB ECC memory
8x WD Enterprise 1TB HDD
2x WD Enterprise 2TB HDD
4x Samsung SSD SM863 480GB
1x Intel SSD S3500 80GB

My thoughts for the use of all the harddrives in my NAS is like this:
2x 2TB samba shares for backup
8x 1TB iSCSI either all 8 in a mirrored VDEV or 2 VDEVS with 4 mirrored drives?
4x Samsung SSD in a mirrored VDEV for the single use of running a Pervasive database managing bookings.
1x Intel SSD either as an SLOG for the database VDEV or for the 8x1TB system/data VDEV?

Im a total beginner with all this so bare with me.

I will run 4-6 virtual machines from my ESXI host.
1 windows server 2012 and 3-5 windows 8 clients.
The windows server will be the machine using most of all this space, the clients will each be given 150GB of space for system install nothing else.
My thoughts on the database is that i should run it as an iSCSI LUN with both the database software and the database it self on it. Or should i set it up as an ordinary dataset instead of a ZVOL?

The main goal is for the database to run as smooth as possible, so any help with tweaking, settings, block size, sync-write etc would help me alot!

Does my thoughts sound correct or should i rethink everything?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Dudde]

I try to stack up my questions in hope for better luck.

1. Should i divide my 8x 1TB drives in two vdev of 4 drives in each, 4 for system install and 4 for data? Is there any performance boost or problem i might run in too that would make either choice a better one?

2. Should i use my SLOG device for the database VDEV or would it be a better choice to add it to my system VDEV (8x1TB)?

3. Should the database VDEV be an normal dataset or is better to create an ZVOL and connect it with iSCSI over SMB share? Both the database and the software will be running on it.

4. Is there any perticular tip anyone could give for running a pervasive database from FreeNAS, block size etc?

5. How should i configure "zfs sync=" for best practice when it comes to databases and pervasive?

 

[depasseg]

1. Should i divide my 8x 1TB drives in two vdev of 4 drives in each, 4 for system install and 4 for data? Is there any performance boost or problem i might run in too that would make either choice a better one?

For ESX you want a stripe across mirrors (you can't configure it the other way around). I would get rid of the 2TB drives and add 2 more 1TB drives. Add another Intel S3500 for your mirrored boot device.

2. Should i use my SLOG device for the database VDEV or would it be a better choice to add it to my system VDEV (8x1TB)?

I would recommend a SLOG for your database, and I would use a PCIe based SSD (like the Intel DC3700). You could try without it, and add it after the fact if the SSD's can't keep up.

3. Should the database VDEV be an normal dataset or is better to create an ZVOL and connect it with iSCSI over SMB share? Both the database and the software will be running on it.

Asking etither VDEV and ZVOL as well as "iSCSI over SMB" makes me wonder what your understanding is. vdevs make up a storage pool, and then you create datasets and/or zvols. You share datasets with SMB and zvols with ISCSI (zvol is a block device and cn't be shared directly over SMB). I don't know anything about Pervasive, so I don't know how it connects. Does it support clustering? Do you need clustering? You could create a zvol on the SSD's, present it via iSCSI and mount the ESX datastore on that directly and use that for the vm, or you could present the iSCSI zvol to the database server (VM or physical). Or you could use NFS to mount the datastore in ESX and do the same.

5. How should i configure "zfs sync=" for best practice when it comes to databases and pervasive?

I would imagine that for a mission critical database, you will want sync=enabled. This is where a very low latency SSD device (like the DC3700) comes in handy. It will ack the writes quicker than the storage pool.

 

[Dudde]

Im sorry if i wasnt clear enough, by asking if i should use ZVOL or a regular dataset i mean that i have read some threads here where people complain about the performance with iSCSI on they'r setups.
Maby it would give me better performance to run the database on an regular dataset and share it over SMB or NFS instead of an ZVOL and iSCSI?

So if i understand you right you recommend me setup things like this:

10x 1TB drives in a mirrored VDEV with the Intel S3500 SSD as an SLOG

4x SM863 in a mirrored VDEV with an PCI-e based SLOG if needed and sync=always

Is this correct?

Thank you

 

[depasseg]

I think if you have the proper hardware, iSCSI will provide better performance.

I would use the S3500 as the boot device (and system dataset). Get a second one to mirror.

If you need a SLOG for the 1TB drive pool, you could use an S3700 or similar. IIRC, the 3700 latency was better than the 3500.

NFS benefit is that you don't need to configure a size limit like you do with a ZVOL So maybe a dataset and share via NFS to ESX would be good for your VM's.

I'm not sure how SMB fits into the picture, unless you want datasets for users shared via CIFS/SMB.

 

[Dudde]

Ah ok i see.

I was actually thinking about running FreeNAS from a usb drive, im very new to FreeNAS and all the guides i have read have been running on a usb drive.

Is there alot of performance to gain from using an SSD instead?

 

[depasseg]

You are right USB drives are the norm, but as SSD prices are dropping, more and more folks are heading that way. In a setup like your, I'd suggest an SSD mirror. While things like upgrades and booting are faster, to me, the real benefit is longevity. the USB drives (especially if that's where your logging and system dataset resides) tend to wear out and fail.

 

[Ericloewe]

Is there alot of performance to gain from using an SSD instead?

Only during updates, boot environment manipulations, etc.

Nothing you'd notice as a user, but you'd notice as an admin. Is it worth it? I'd say yes, if you have a SATA port to spare.

 

[Dudde]

Well thanks for your advices, im now using SSD instead of USB