mixing 2 ssd and 2 hdd in same pool

[hellomynameisleo]

I currently have 2 HDD in the pools in a striped vdev configuration, would there be a performance improvement if I was to add in another 2TB ssd and 250GB SSD spare I can slot in the pool?

 

[Arwen]

Yes and no. In general, a Special Metadata vDev / device does speed up some access, metadata and or small files depending on how it was configured. But, it is an advanced option and loss of a Special Metadata vDev mean loss of the entire pool. Thus, it is recommended to have the same level of redundancy as the main data vDevs.

But, in your case, with 2 HDD in stripe configuration, meaning no redundancy, you are just increasing the odds of total pool failure. This is because loss of either HDD will result in total pool failure. And then adding yet more non-redundant devices simply increasing the chance of failure.

That said, adding a Special Metadata vDev / device now only affects metadata written after it's addition, (and potentially small files if you have that enabled).

Last, some people concerned about their ZFS pool speed had selected poor hardware. TrueNAS & ZFS were designed for Enterprise Data Center use. Both can and do work well on SOHO hardware, as well as general consumer hardware. However, their are gotchas in network chips, disk controllers, HDD selection that can directly impact performance.

If you want to list all your hardware, including disk make, model and how they are wired up to the system board, we may be able to let you know if their are any devices that are generally slower or less reliable than normal for TrueNAS.

 

[hellomynameisleo]

Yes and no. In general, a Special Metadata vDev / device does speed up some access, metadata and or small files depending on how it was configured. But, it is an advanced option and loss of a Special Metadata vDev mean loss of the entire pool. Thus, it is recommended to have the same level of redundancy as the main data vDevs.

But, in your case, with 2 HDD in stripe configuration, meaning no redundancy, you are just increasing the odds of total pool failure. This is because loss of either HDD will result in total pool failure. And then adding yet more non-redundant devices simply increasing the chance of failure.

That said, adding a Special Metadata vDev / device now only affects metadata written after it's addition, (and potentially small files if you have that enabled).

Last, some people concerned about their ZFS pool speed had selected poor hardware. TrueNAS & ZFS were designed for Enterprise Data Center use. Both can and do work well on SOHO hardware, as well as general consumer hardware. However, their are gotchas in network chips, disk controllers, HDD selection that can directly impact performance.

If you want to list all your hardware, including disk make, model and how they are wired up to the system board, we may be able to let you know if their are any devices that are generally slower or less reliable than normal for TrueNAS.

If I add the ssd to the pool does it automatically convert to putting the metadata stuff on there instead of the hard drives or do I need to configure the setting? Currently doing daily backups to a seperate NAS so redundancy isn't needed for me

 

[Arwen]

No, by default adding any device to a ZFS pool is simply another data device.

There is a GUI option to add the devices as Metadata instead of data devices under "Storage->Unassigned Disks-Add To Pool".

 

[Davvo]

Striped pool and single drive metadata vdev

 

[hellomynameisleo]

No, by default adding any device to a ZFS pool is simply another data device.

There is a GUI option to add the devices as Metadata instead of data devices under "Storage->Unassigned Disks-Add To Pool".

Thanks, will it add also add the extra storage to the pool as well as store the metadata stuff on there so I can browse through it on my windows pc? currently browsing my truenas pool with smb to my windows pc

 

[Davvo]

Thanks, will it add also add the extra storage to the pool as well as store the metadata stuff on there so I can browse through it on my windows pc? currently browsing my truenas pool with smb to my windows pc

Not by default.

/scale/scaletutorials/storage/fusionpoolsscale/

 

[hellomynameisleo]

Not by default.

/scale/scaletutorials/storage/fusionpoolsscale/

Do I have to create a seperate pool? I want everything to be in a single one that is easier to manage

 

[ChrisRJ]

It seems to me that you should read up a bit on ZFS. Without a basic understanding it is next to impossible to even ask the right questions.

 

[Arwen]

I agree with @ChrisRJ, you have quite a few too many questions to get simple answers.

First, you want the pool faster. Fine, you can add a Special Metadata device.
Except now you want more storage... A Special Metadata device won't do that, (except possibly for small files).

It is okay if you are exploring your options. But much of this is covered in the documentation.


TrueNAS, Core or SCALE, are not the most flexible NAS. Nor is ZFS. Their are limitations, gotchas and places for design errors to lead to data loss. Here in the forums we encourage people who have less common configurations to read up on both ZFS & TrueNAS. The reason for this is 2 fold:

1. You are going to have to support what you implement.
2. We, in the forums are not going to be able to help you, unless you can describe your use case and configuration in terms we understand.

 

[hellomynameisleo]

I agree with @ChrisRJ, you have quite a few too many questions to get simple answers.

First, you want the pool faster. Fine, you can add a Special Metadata device.
Except now you want more storage... A Special Metadata device won't do that, (except possibly for small files).

It is okay if you are exploring your options. But much of this is covered in the documentation.


TrueNAS, Core or SCALE, are not the most flexible NAS. Nor is ZFS. Their are limitations, gotchas and places for design errors to lead to data loss. Here in the forums we encourage people who have less common configurations to read up on both ZFS & TrueNAS. The reason for this is 2 fold:

1. You are going to have to support what you implement.
2. We, in the forums are not going to be able to help you, unless you can describe your use case and configuration in terms we understand.

understood I thought adding more storage drives to the pool would make it faster since it was raid 0 pool. I'll look up guides on how to add a special metadata device as see more what it is about. If needed I can migrate the current data destroy the current pool and make a new one with with the right configuration

 

[ChrisRJ]

Please also check the forum rules. Those contain a good section how to ask questions to get the best possible answers. I can really recommend this. Although it sometimes seems that new people think this is more to "torture" them. But in my view it is to their benefit more than to anyone else's.

In that spirit please explain these things:

• What does your system looks like (hardware details, network setup, etc.)?
• What performance would you like to see?
• What performance do you see right now?
• How did you test this?

 

[hellomynameisleo]

Please also check the forum rules. Those contain a good section how to ask questions to get the best possible answers. I can really recommend this. Although it sometimes seems that new people think this is more to "torture" them. But in my view it is to their benefit more than to anyone else's.

In that spirit please explain these things:

• What does your system looks like (hardware details, network setup, etc.)?
• What performance would you like to see?
• What performance do you see right now?
• How did you test this?

I've got my trueNAS in hyper-v VM connected over smb to my unraid system which got an SSD. currently have 2x14TB hdd in strip vdev using 8 cores of my 13900k cpu, RTX 3090 gpu, msi z690 motherboard, 16GB of RAM allocated to the TrueNAS VM, boot drive is allocated 8GB of space from my ssd.
Faster speeds ideally 700MB/s to keep up with transfer speed with my ssd in my UNRAID especially for millions of small files daily backup
around 140-180MB/s
transfer data from mounted TrueNAS over SMB to UNRAID rclone mount union and using rclone sync to sync all my data daily

 

[Davvo]

Gosh, that ticks so many warning boxes.

1. If you are virtualizing, please read this resource;
2. I'm not going to ask how did you connect a TN system with an UNRAID one using SMB, if I am understanding correctly you are doing something unsupported;
3. In order to move data between the two just create parallel SMB shares and move the data from one to another using a 3rd system with access to both shares; not efficent but simple.

 

[hellomynameisleo]

Gosh, that ticks so many warning boxes.

1. If you are virtualizing, please read this resource;
2. I'm not going to ask how did you connect a TN system with an UNRAID one using SMB, if I am understanding correctly you are doing something unsupported;
3. In order to move data between the two just create parallel SMB shares and move the data from one to another using a 3rd system with access to both shares; not efficent but simple.

thanks I've followed guides online for truenas in hyper-v and it works without any issues
I don't understand isn't smb supported in trueNAS? I mount trueNAS share to unraid which also using smb same thing like windows
I am using rclone on unraid to transfer the data from the truenas share to the unraid pool

 

[Davvo]

I don't understand isn't smb supported in trueNAS? I mount trueNAS share to unraid which also using smb same thing like windows

I understood the other way around; I do not know unraid so I cannot comment on that.

 

[ChrisRJ]

thanks I've followed guides online for truenas in hyper-v

Can you be specific about which guides you used?

and it works without any issues

Am I right in assuming that by that you mean things started to work? If so, please be aware that there is a fundamental difference between this so-called "happy path" and not loosing data under all but the absolute worst combination of events imaginable. If you are just playing around, you can ignore me here. But if you value your data, a decent amount of paranoia is a good starting point.

 

[hellomynameisleo]

Can you be specific about which guides you used?

Am I right in assuming that by that you mean things started to work? If so, please be aware that there is a fundamental difference between this so-called "happy path" and not loosing data under all but the absolute worst combination of events imaginable. If you are just playing around, you can ignore me here. But if you value your data, a decent amount of paranoia is a good starting point.

I followed this youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0XXHk147pw
I usually backup daily so don't mind too much if something goes wrong I have got a backup from 1 day before on my UNRAID server that my truenas share is sync daily to, I just find that trueNAS sync performance on the hard drive is too slow when going to my ssds on unraid and want to speed it up somehow, maybe with adding in ssds?