Hardware upgrade advice - HP Microserver Gen 8

[ttoast4276]

Hello FreeNAS Community!

I've been experimenting with FreeNAS mostly for usage as a Veeam Backup repository / Veeam Office365 Backup repository and am hoping to improve the performance somehow.

I'm currently using a HP Microserver Gen 8 which has a total capacity to hold 4x 3.5" hdd's + 1 Sata SSD + one PCIE x16 slot. Dual 1Gbit NIC's.

This server is currently loaded with:
Intel® Xeon® Processor E3-1265L v2
16GB ECC Memory (16GB maximum supported by this setup)
3x Seagate Ironwolf Pro ST12000NE0008 in a RaidZ1

I use a few different Zvols as ISCSI targets, for Windows VM's acting as the Backup Repo's. My main issue is with the hourly 100 user Veeam Office365 backups that I run. The performance of these is less than ideal, and always points to the storage being overloaded. These backups use a database that they read and write from to process the new data to be backed up. All of this data is also then backed up elsewhere, so not the end of the world if the data is lost. Total storage usage is about 4-5TB.

I have already tried adding Samsung 850 Pro SSD's as Cache/ZIL (I know this is not recommended, just wanted to test as I had these on hand) and didn't really notice much of an improvement.

I am also considering setting up Object storage on the FreeNAS box to test as a Veeam Office365 backup repository, but need to do more research into if this is best from a performance point of view.

I see a few potential upgrades I could make to the system:

• Install another HDD (Would I then be better to use two mirrored pools striped for this, or one 4 disk Z1?)
• Install a Cache SSD (Would a decent Samsung consumer Sata SSD be suitable for this?)
• Install a Log SSD (Thinking an octane 900P if that is really going to make a difference?)
• Switch to a different Chassis, and add more memory. I would prefer not to do this, but if all of the advice I'm given is to do this, I will.

Any thoughts as to what I could do that would help best? Is RAM really king?

Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

 

[KrisBee]

Posting under "storage" rather than "hardware" might have got you more replies. While you're waiting for someone more erudite, I'd read this: https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/the-path-to-success-for-block-storage.81165/

This message I'd take from that is:

1. raidz1 is a poor choice for your workload that generates random writes and would benefit from higher IOPS.
2. In the case of block storage for ISCSI, RAM is king.

You can change your pool layout to a stripe of two mirror vdevs & test with sync=disabled, but the 16GB limit could well leave you with no option but to move to a full sized server with 32GB or 64GB of RAM and room for addding a third or fourth mirror vdev as necessary.