Multiple partitions on one disk

[golfox2]

Hi TrueNAS people,

I just installed TrueNAS on an unused desktop and now it’s running well.

Intro & setup :

I bought a brand new WD RED 4to, installed an old Seagate Firecuda 2to SSHD, and an old WD Caviar Green 2to HDD (that I got out of an old apple timecapsule). The OS is installed on a separate 256gb SSD. All drives are connected in SATA. There is 16gb DDR3 RAM in the system and a 4 core intel i5 4th gen cpu.

Questions :

Is it possible to make multiple partitions in one disk so I can create multiple pools on the same disk ?
> I would like to use the new WD RED 4to like this, is it possible ? :

- 2to for home network storage on one pool “A”

- 2to for nextcloud plugin, which will include 800gb for me, and 200go of shared drive for friends; on another pool “B”.

> I would like to use the 2to WD caviar green for virtual machines (btw I would like to setup 2 of them, do I need 1 pool per VM ?); on pool “C”

> I would like to us the 2to Seagate SSHD as mirror backup of the nextcloud pool “B”

Actually, I don’t know if I’ll be able to use the apple WD in the system (you know, weird encryptions of their disks, and I think my Seagate SSHD is sometimes faulty, so I might have to put 4 different 1to partitions on the new WD red, would that be possible ?



Thanks !

Golfox2

 

[Adam Flagg]

Hey there,

Caveat: I'm new to the forums but have some general insight on ZFS, so if a more experienced person hops in here I'll defer to them.

In general, I'm wondering what your use case is for having multiple pools on the same disk. You can create multiple datasets within one pool, and for each dataset set (if desired) a quota of space that cannot be exceeded. A lot of the power of ZFS comes from redundancy (among other things), and by creating multiple pools on partitions of one disk you're just reducing the redundancy and introducing one point of failure.

Regarding pools (or otherwise) for VMs, there are going to be a lot more read/writes to the disk and for smaller files so you're almost certainly going to want to create a mirrored vdev to host the VMs. Here is a link to the fundamentals of ZFS pools and their substructures you may find helpful - https://arstechnica.com/information...01-understanding-zfs-storage-and-performance/

 

[danb35]

Is it possible to make multiple partitions in one disk so I can create multiple pools on the same disk ?

Practically, no. Technically, yes, you can partition the disk manually (at the CLI) and then create your pools at the CLI, but that's strongly discouraged. But I agree with Adam above that it sounds like you're kind of confused about what pools are and how they work. Why do you want to configure your storage in this way?

 

[artlessknave]

the wording of this makes me think of someone trying to fit ZFS into a windows storage spaces topology.
ZFS is not windows storage spaces.
make one pool.
create a dataset for each function.
done
you can set quotas by dataset if you wish, but that's usually not needed (unless your friends fill it with prawns).
VM's tend to perform dramatically better on SSD's (what doesn't really), because they are essentially random IO, but if you just want like a linux desktop, it'll perform fine in the main pool.

 

[golfox2]

Hi guys, ok i've read some documents and the above link, I understand now that I can create one pool and multiple datasets, which are separated and I can use them for different functions.
my goal was to use only my new 4to WD red HDD and separate it for different usages, but in the end it's fine with the different datasets, only the iocage of plugins is a bit messy in the jails but i have only nextcloud and plex only (for now), so it's fine.
I tried to install another HDD and it seems to work, tho i know it's an old one and don't know how long it'll last ...
thanks for the replies =)