Jail on L2ARC SSD, after drive has been set as L2ARC

[silvergoat]

Yesterday, I tried to access my server with an xbox and it failed, so I read more into it and I found out why the jail was so important and everyone was doing it.

I've been doing a little bit of reading and learned that I could potentially install this onto my SSD that is currently being used as L2ARC for one of my zpools (which would be best because the SSD is pretty useless in this configuration otherwise). Can I still do this? Where would I start?

 

[cyberjock]

I don't believe you can use the same device for 2 purposes. It will have to be either an L2ARC or store your jail. To be honest, since you are using it at home, I'd bet serious cash you have no use for an L2ARC at all.

Unless you are running iscsi or a database that is sized in 10s of GBs, your SSD is useless.

 

[silvergoat]

I'm sure I don't need it.....I just don't know how to remove it from my zpool without screwing anything up.

 

[paleoN]

I don't believe you can use the same device for 2 purposes. It will have to be either an L2ARC or store your jail.

False, they're called partitions.

I'm sure I don't need it.....I just don't know how to remove it from my zpool without screwing anything up.

From the CLI should be:

Code:

zpool status -v

zpool remove pool device

 

[cyberjock]

So using an L2ARC doesn't require the entire device? I thought there was a discusion about this around Oct 2012 and someone showed it won't work. I don't have a ZIL or L2ARC because I know its pointless so I can't easily check at the moment...

 

[silvergoat]

False, they're called partitions.

From the CLI should be:

Code:

zpool status -v

zpool remove pool device

Thanks- this will allow me wait until I have the appropriate sized SSD to use for my Jail

 

[paleoN]

So using an L2ARC doesn't require the entire device? I thought there was a discusion about this around Oct 2012 and someone showed it won't work.

ZFS nor GEOM requires any such thing. Who was in the discussion anyway? Now, if you need a ZIL or L2ARC it's probably a smart idea to dedicate the IOPS for it's role and not share it.

Thanks- this will allow me wait until I have the appropriate sized SSD to use for my Jail

I thought you wanted to safely remove it? Personally, I would simply install the jail to the pool, which I do.

 

[silvergoat]

ZFS nor GEOM requires any such thing. Who was in the discussion anyway? Now, if you need a ZIL or L2ARC it's probably a smart idea to dedicate the IOPS for it's role and not share it.

I thought you wanted to safely remove it? Personally, I would simply install the jail to the pool, which I do.

I needed to get it out because it was 128GB, which from what I had read would also have the potential to negatively affect my RAM's allocation. Since I was already at the max for my board of 8GB, I figured it would be best to remove it. However, I am not entirely against using an SSD or some form of flash memory to hold my jail since I just realized I would need one to setup sharing to my xbox.....it would just have to be much much smaller.

Adding the jail to the pool is an option, but it feels like wasting storage space to allocate 4GB to it. I might just have to get over that though, because I really would rather not tinker with the pools now that I've got everything running close to the way I want it and have transferred over half of my movie collection to it.

I have plenty of time to think about it since I've got a couple hundred movies to rip and transfer.

 

[ProtoSD]

Adding the jail to the pool is an option, but it feels like wasting storage space to allocate 4GB to it.

I'm confused why you think you're wasting 4GB of storage for a jail? Depending on plugins and what your doing in the jail, it should be much less than 1GB and you don't have to reserve that space.

 

[silvergoat]

I'm confused why you think you're wasting 4GB of storage for a jail? Depending on plugins and what your doing in the jail, it should be much less than 1GB and you don't have to reserve that space.

I forgot where I read the suggestion to set aside 2x2GB datasets. That's a little relieving-

 

[ProtoSD]

I forgot where I read the suggestion to set aside 2x2GB datasets. That's a little relieving-

You still need the datasets, but you don't have to reserve space, the jail just uses what it needs.