SOLVED My first FreeNAS, couple of questions

[jetster]

This is a work in progress, originally I just was wanting to learn about NAS in general. I own a Synology DS216 Play and its does the job but I want to build one.
I stumbled across FreeNAS and so I'm going with that for now. I had some drives and parts laying around so I put it together
and got it working. Its actually working really well so far. My questions will be at the end of all this.

H81 Board ITX
i3-4130 CPU
8 Gb DDR3
Corsair VS400
LSI SAS 9211 8i HBA
3 X HGST 3 Tb drives set in a RAIDZ-1

This is a media server and for back up of a few PCs. Right now its just backing up my Synology that is in a RAID0. Eventually this will be my NAS and the Synology will back this up

Questions:
I'm going to add 3 more 3 Tb drives for a RAIDZ-2. I have to rebuild the RAID completely correct? I know I can add another RIAD array and end up with two but that's not what I want.

Also I have a 120Gb SSD would it be beneficial to add it to the build for a cashe?

Also open to any suggestions about my hardware, and feel free to move this if needed

Thanks

 

[tvsjr]

Unfortunately, reusing old gear is usually fraught with peril. Based on the information you've provided, it doesn't appear your system supports ECC, which is important for data protection.

You will have to rebuild the pool completely, yes.

Adding external cache (L2ARC) consumes some memory, and basically shouldn't be done until the motherboard is maxed out. With only 8GB, you don't have any memory to spare, so an L2ARC isn't recommended.

 

[jetster]

That's for the response. I understand the issues with non ECC ram. As far as the hardware, Ive owned it since it was new and it has been solid for me. So more ram increasing it to 16 Gb is a good idea?
Like I said this is mainly a learning tool, maybe someday I'll buy server worthy hardware.

 

[garm]

The reason people frown on consumer hardware is that with a NAS the integrity of you data is everything. And even if you have had no issues using this setup for other tasks in the past. One of many reasons people reinstall ther computers after a few years is becasue of data corruption, something that is unacceptable with a data storage machine. So if you aren’t saving anything that isn’t backed up to multiple nodes or simply isn’t really important (like a dvd/bluray collection) then it might do its job. Just be aware that ZFS might not be able do save your data if it’s being let down by the hardware.

 

[tvsjr]

Short of an E5-class board that's capable of handling substantial amounts of RAM, you basically should max out the RAM on the motherboard before you worry about L2ARC.

 

[jetster]

Did a little research, talked to a bunch of people I work with that build servers and folks that run FreeNAS builds. The conclusion of that is I'm comfortable in not going with ECC. I added 3 more drives and went to 16 Gb of Ram. 6 disks in RAIDZ2. Now this will be a primary NAS, with occasional back ups with a Synology + a cold backup. Hopefully is something does get corrupted it wont make it to my back ups. Ill let you know how it works out. Thanks for your help

 

[tvsjr]

Enjoy your bit errors. I fail to see why it's worth spending the time, money, and effort necessary to make a reasonable FreeNAS system... and then compromise on something like ECC memory.

 

[jetster]

Do you have any facts to bring to light? Something helpful maybe. I'm will to listen to reason but stomping your feet, I'll pass. I'm seeing that this is a controversial issue and I have no stake in the argument. Just a guy who likes to understand electronics. I'm looking for options that support ECC. Really haven't spent much yet so its not off the table.

For anyone stumbling across this thread here is a discussion on the topic right here at FreeNAS. Has some helpful information.

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/ecc-vs-non-ecc-ram-and-zfs.15449/

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/blog-article-advising-against-ecc-ram.20327/