Getting Started RAIDZ1 vs RAID10

[twisted]

So I've got a HP Proliant N36L Microserver with 8GB of ECC RAM. I'm looking to put FreeNAS on it. I was either thinking of doing either of the following.

1. 4x 3TB drives in a RAID10 setup (4x 2Tb would be a little less than I would like in this configuration).
2. 4x 2TB drives in a RAIDZ1 setup.
3. 4x 3TB drives in a RAIDZ1 setup.

My questions.

• Is 8GB of ECC memory enough for the configurations above (home use)?
• Is RAIDZ1 too big a risk with 4x 3TB disks or even 4x 2TB disks for that matter? And is the risk just that it will take so long for the replacement drive to come back online?

The biggest use the server will get will be from TimeMachine backups on my Mac devices and media streaming via MiniDLNA and Firefly. Apart from that, it will just handle general file storage and Windows backups (less frequent than TimeMachine which is every hour).

Unfortunately my budget does not afford me the ability to get 16GB of memory unless I were to go with 4x 2TB of drives, then I would probably see 16GB as a bit of overkill for 8TB of storage? Or is that the wrong way to look at it?

And am I right in saying FreeNAS impliments RAID1+0 and not RAID0+1 as below.

EDIT: I should also add the only things which I would consider important to me will be things like my family video and photos. Nothing else is relevant to me if it were to die, I would cringe a little and move on. I've got a 500GB Dropbox which I use for my videos and photos as well as personal documents. I'm also looking at either Crash Plan or AWS Glacier for last resort backups. Though I might also look at a monthly offsite physical at my parents place or something as well in case all things that could go wrong do go wrong :)

 

[warri]

You can't ever have too much RAM for ZFS - so 16 GB is certainly not an overkill ;)
But 8 GB should work good enough for your proposed configurations.

RAIDZ1 always involves a risk, but if you have a good backup plan for your important data and enough time to restore the pool you are fine (which you should have anyway!). It basically boils down to your willingness to invest time in restoring the system. Even if if might feel like a waste of space, I'd recommend you to use a RAIDZ2 instead (I'm using Z1 and wish I would have started with a Z2 pool to begin with - but I have currently not the necessary hardware to recreate the pool).
And thinking about an offsite backup for your most important files is a very good start! ;)

As for your question about the ZFS layout, consult cyberjocks excellent ZFS guide for beginners: http://forums.freenas.org/threads/slideshow-explaining-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/
You will find that in this configuration ZFS is comparable to a "RAID1+0" layout.

EDIT:
Just stumbled upon this thread, might be worth a read for you: http://forums.freenas.org/threads/how-to-create-a-raid10-array-in-freenas-9-1-1.15282/

 

[twisted]

What's the difference between these 2 setup's in FreeNAS 9.1.1. They both look 'different' in the volume setup, but after both are created they look the same under zpool status? I just want to ensure either way I do it, it will be the same. The one of the left I created by just dragging the slider to include all 4 drives. The one of the right I did 2 drives initially and then selected "Add extra device" and added the other 2. Just wondering if there's any difference, which method might be better. The documentation wasn't 'clear' :)

 

[twisted]

Actually ignore my question. Its just the same thing differently I suppose :) It made no difference as far as I could tell whether I did it 1 way or the other.