Help setting up system.

[Rendermandan]

Hi there, this is my first TruNAS scale system. I’m running a Dell R720XD. 64 Gb of ram. with a cross flashed H710P mini controller. Drives consist of a 250GB ssd through the onboard usb as the boot drive. 10, 6gb RED drives, And 2, 120gb ssd drives. The main use for this will be running Emby server to host movies and DVR/TV to various devices. I’m planning on making a RaidZ-2 pool with the 10 6GB drives.

My question is what would be the best use for the 2 ssd‘s? Ie, vdev: Cache, metadata, Log? I had thought about mirroring the two to use as a boot drive, but I can’t seem to get it to boot to drives on the mini controller. I’m not sure it matters, but the two ssd’d are in the backplane spots.

Thanks for the help!

 

[indivision]

I would pool the 2 120GB SSD drives and use them for your System Dataset and your Application Dataset. That made a noticeable improvement in performance of the apps for me.

That's a pretty big data pool. For that size, I would increase the RAM.

 

[Davvo]

That's a pretty big data pool. For that size, I would increase the RAM.

May I ask why? He has a Total of 48GB of storage (60-12), while his RAM is 64: shouldn't it be enough to cache the entire pool?

 

[indivision]

May I ask why? He has a Total of 48GB of storage (60-12), while his RAM is 64: shouldn't it be enough to cache the entire pool?

Yes. If you aren't running applications or VMs. (And I was reading the drives as TB rather than GB...)

 

[jgreco]

Do we mean 6TB drives and 48TB of storage here? 6GB drives are hard to come by.

As for cache/L2ARC, 64GB RAM is not particularly large and you may find adding L2ARC a negative impact.

 

[joeschmuck]

I had thought about mirroring the two to use as a boot drive, but I can’t seem to get it to boot to drives on the mini controller. I’m not sure it matters, but the two ssd’d are in the backplane spots.

I think you know the answers about the usage of the SSD's would be recommended as a boot device and your system data set at a minimum. I don't have experience with your system but you will need to overcome the booting issue somehow as that is the best course of action. Once you get past this part it should be smooth sailing.

Good luck.

 

[Rendermandan]

Thanks everyone, I apologize, I mistyped the drive size. They are 6TB... I should be receiving the rest of the last drive I've been waiting on today. in the mean time I've been playing around setting things up to see how they work, and backing up my current disk storage (windows computer this is replacing).

if 64GB of ram is too low, how much do you recommend? FYI I have 8 free memory slots before having to replace the memory that's in there.

I'm going to try and fix the boot issue so I can use those ssd's as the boot. that was the intent all along. What I don't understand is, how do you set the system data set to be on a the boot pool?

 

[indivision]

if 64GB of ram is too low, how much do you recommend? FYI I have 8 free memory slots before having to replace the memory that's in there.

It depends a bit on what you want to do with the server in terms of VM/Apps. It's easy to use more if you have it. But, I think adding another 32GB would probably be enough.

how do you set the system data set to be on a the boot pool?

System Settings > Advanced > System Dataset Pool: Configure

 

[joeschmuck]

The main use for this will be running Emby server to host movies and DVR/TV to various devices.

if 64GB of ram is too low, how much do you recommend?

64GB is likely plenty but the best way to find out if you are low on RAM, install all your software and check the SWAP file. If it is not a zero (0) value then you ran out of RAM at some point. Even 1KB means you ran short and I'd advise increasing your RAM at that point. You can always add based on what you have said so save the money now and see how it works out. That is my advice.

 

[Rendermandan]

Last night I was able to get it to boot from the controller. I had to flash the boot options, and then setup which boot drive is preferred in. So now my boot drive is a raidz on two SSD' drives. Reinstalled Truenas and off I go. I also ordered some more ram from the seller I purchased the server from on Ebay. an additional 128Gg for a total of 196GB. I suspect that is probably way overkill but its always better to have more than you need in my opinion.

So now that I don't have any spare drives, I was thinking about added a couple M.2 NVME drives to use as a cache vdev. My motherboard does NOT support bifurcation. so I was thinking about adding a couple of single adapter cards two two slots. I have six free. Will I need anything special to get them to be recognized in Truenas? IE, drivers or boot/bios settings? Or should they plug and go.
These are the adapters I was thinking of getting.

Amazon.com

Thanks again for everyone's help!

 

[ChrisRJ]

So now my boot drive is a raidz on two SSD' drives.

RAIDZ does not exist in the world of ZFS. And RAIDZ1 requires at least 3 disks, with 2 disks you would do a mirror.

 

[NugentS]

196GB dor a media server is waaaaaayyyyyyy overkill. (not that that is a bad thing)
L2ARC is unlikley to help in the slightest as you have more than enough RAM

What might help is
1. using a single NVME drive - a small one, as L2ARC metadata only as that will make the main pool appear snappier when it comes to directory listing etc.
2. using a mirrored pair of NVMe drives to store your apps on

Lastly does the server support bifurcation? If so then there are boards that will support more than one NVMe in a bigger slot - might be a better long term buy and might enable you to implement both ideas above if you have a spare X16 slot and can bifurcate into x4x4x4x4 - you can fit 4 NVMe drives into that.

 

[Rendermandan]

RAIDZ does not exist in the world of ZFS. And RAIDZ1 requires at least 3 disks, with 2 disks you would do a mirror.

Thanks for the clarification. I am referring to mirror, I just thought that was called something different in ZFS. Cheers!