Lost in storage options - different drives

[Stardenver]

Hello community

Decided to turn my Windows gaming computer (Ryzen 5 2600, 32GB RAM, Sapphire RX590 Nitro+) into a homeserver and it looks like FreeNAS is perfect for this. I started to read the docs and watched some videos. Well.. it was so much information that now I feel totally lost. I hope to get some answers, even they may be out there in the documentation. I am just lost a bit.

Because my computer was a former gaming pc, I bought several drives of different sizes and it seems like this may be of a problem. I'd move data so some of them are empty now, while some others contain all the movies and files I want to keep. 5 of them are WDs with 4 TB (3 more or less filled and 2 empty ones).

My plan was to build a pool with parity using 2 of them (the empty ones). I would then move the files from the other 3 (NTFS) into the pool. After this I would like to add those - now empty - drives to the pool as well (2 of them).

1st question: is this possible? Can I start with 2 drives of the same kind and size and mount the others to move my data?

I read, that I can't expand a pool with additional drives, but create a second pool. So there will be like 2 drives/folders then, made of 4 HDD? Or is it possible to make those 2 pools appear as one big drive?

And my question #3: I do have 1x 1 TB, 1x 2 TB and 1x 3 TB (plus the 4 TB that is left). Any chance to use them, even they are of different sizes? Is it possible to pool the 3 TB and use the combined 1+2 TB for parity/raid? Or the 4 TB together with 3TB+2TB? I don't like the idea of losing 10 TB, just because those drives have different sizes. Any chance?

Question #4: I do have one NVMe SSD for the OS and 2 SATA SSD (Crucial MX500 250 GB and Samsung 860 EVO 250GB). Can they be used for something? Maybe some sort of fast caching or something?

Thanks a lot and sorry for my english - not a native speaker.

Best,
Stardenver

 

[Chris Moore]

Sapphire RX590 Nitro+

FreeNAS only uses the local console for text. The most basic graphics card (for text) is all that you need.

 

[Chris Moore]

I read, that I can't expand a pool with additional drives, but create a second pool.

Not true. You can't expand a RAIDz2 vdev by adding drives. What you want to do could be done by setting the first two disks as a mirrored pair, then adding a second mirrored pair to the pool as a second vdev. You need to read the primer on terminology so you can understand what I am saying. Please take a look at these links:

Slideshow explaining VDev, zpool, ZIL and L2ARC
https://www.ixsystems.com/community...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

Overview of ZFS Pools in FreeNAS from the iXsystems blog:
https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/zfs-pools-in-freenas/

Terminology and Abbreviations Primer
https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/terminology-and-abbreviations-primer.28174/

 

[Chris Moore]

And my question #3: I do have 1x 1 TB, 1x 2 TB and 1x 3 TB (plus the 4 TB that is left). Any chance to use them, even they are of different sizes? Is it possible to pool the 3 TB and use the combined 1+2 TB for parity/raid? Or the 4 TB together with 3TB+2TB? I don't like the idea of losing 10 TB, just because those drives have different sizes. Any chance?

This collection of drives might best benefit you by being sold on ebay to obtain money to purchase drives that have the same size. Mirrored pairs is the minimum you should go for.
While these drives could be used with some manual partitioning, it would not be best practice (far from it) and it could not be done from the GUI, unless you wanted to be limited to the capacity of the smaller drive. In a mirror between a 1TB drive and a 2TB drive, the capacity would be limited to 1TB, wasting the second half of the 2TB drive.

 

[Chris Moore]

Question #4: I do have one NVMe SSD for the OS and 2 SATA SSD (Crucial MX500 250 GB and Samsung 860 EVO 250GB). Can they be used for something? Maybe some sort of fast caching or something?

How did you plan to use the system? Not likely that you will need any cache and these drives are probably not well suited to the purpose.

 

[Stardenver]

Not true. You can't expand a RAIDz2 vdev by adding drives. What you want to do could be done by setting the first two disks as a mirrored pair, then adding a second mirrored pair to the pool as a second vdev. You need to read the primer on terminology so you can understand what I am saying. Please take a look at these links:

Slideshow explaining VDev, zpool, ZIL and L2ARC
https://www.ixsystems.com/community...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

Overview of ZFS Pools in FreeNAS from the iXsystems blog:
https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/zfs-pools-in-freenas/

Terminology and Abbreviations Primer
https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/terminology-and-abbreviations-primer.28174/

Thank you very much for your helpful answers.

Ok.. so I can create several vdev and those will form the pool. I start with one vdev and move my data into the pool. The then empty drives (again 4 TB + 4 TB) will create the second vdev and expand the pool. I can also create a third vdev using 4 TB + 3 TB, but it will be reduced to 3 TB. So after all I will end up having aprox 11 TB of usable space.

I did the math and it seems like Raidz1 will be a better option. Is that right? It takes 3 drives for a vdev and one of them will be used complete for parity. So using 4TB+4TB+4TB will give me 8 TB of usable space. I can then transfer my files and use the left 4TB+4TB+3TB drives. The 4TB will be reduced to 3 TB and I will get 6 TB of usable storage. 8TB vdev1 + 6TB vdev2 = 14TB and therefor 3 TB more than the mirrored setup? Or am I missing something? Or is using Raidz1 not worth those extra 3 TB?

 

[Stardenver]

How did you plan to use the system? Not likely that you will need any cache and these drives are probably not well suited to the purpose.

Mediaserver. I will put my TV-Shows and homemovies onto my NAS and watch them in my house, using plex or emby. I will also use it as a fileserver for some backups or to share files to other devices. Most of the time just single connections.

 

[Chris Moore]

I did the math and it seems like Raidz1 will be a better option. Is that right? It takes 3 drives for a vdev and one of them will be used complete for parity. So using 4TB+4TB+4TB will give me 8 TB of usable space.

Very roughly speaking, yes. However, it is generally considered better to use RAIDz2 with drives larger than 1TB. Here is an article that talks about why:

Why not to use RAID-5 or RAIDz1
https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-raid-5-stops-working-in-2009/

Also, here is a link to a calculator that will give you a much more accurate number for usable space:

ZFS Capacity Calculator - WintelGuy.com

ZFS / RAIDZ Capacity Calculator - evaluets performance of different RAIDZ types and configurations

wintelguy.com

F

 

[Chris Moore]

Mediaserver. I will put my TV-Shows and homemovies onto my NAS and watch them in my house, using plex or emby. I will also use it as a fileserver for some backups or to share files to other devices. Most of the time just single connections.

Then the SSD for cache is really not needed. You could use the two SATA SSD drives to create a separate pool for installing the Plex plugin. It is sometimes useful to have your Plex on a separate pool. It is a thing that some forum members have done, but not strictly required. You may as well save the NVMe drive for something that can benefit from the performance.