Need help for the setup

[mapGeek]

Hi everyone.

Story:

I have a server that currently receives numerous image upload and download requests. On my workstation, I have sorted everything out by initially writing it to an NVME disk and then later transferring it to my 16TB HDD using a queue system. When a user requests an image, it is fetched from the HDD, and thumbnails and lower-quality versions of these images are generated and stored back on the NVME. This way, if the same image is requested again by a user, I can provide it at NVME speed.

However, this setup is no longer sufficient. My new startup is receiving so many images that it's not feasible to manage them on a single workstation and let it run continuously. So, I've decided to create a NAS server. I'm relatively new to NAS configuration and have read a lot of material, but I haven't found enough information on how to configure a system on my NAS.

What I'm trying to build is the following:

I have:

1 x 1TB NVME disk

2 x 512GB SSD disks

4 x 16TB HDD disks

I would like to create a system that initially writes everything to the NVME or SSD and then moves the data to the HDD. I've heard about mover tuning, but I'm not entirely sure if that's the only option. Can anyone please guide me on whether UnRaid can solve this problem with high-speed data writing? I've already installed TrueNAS Scale, but I haven't found enough information for the setup I'm planning to create.

 

[Arwen]

No, TrueNAS SCALE does not directly support your tiered storage.

TrueNAS server RAM, and potentially a SSD or NVMe in Cache / L2ARC can act as read buffer, that's standard ZFS behavior. But, you don't manually write to the RAM or Cache / L2ARC. ZFS handles what goes into the ARC, (in RAM), or L2ARC, (on SSD or NVMe).


I don't know much about UnRAID, so can't comment on it.

 

[mapGeek]

I've been tinkering with my setup, and I can't help but wonder if I've hit the sweet spot. I've set up a pool with a pair of 16TB HDDs in a vDev, and I've got two SSDs for logging. The write speed is impressively fast, but I'm curious about what's happening under the hood. Does the system move data from the SSDs to the HDDs? Right now, the speed seems perfect for my needs.

 

[Arwen]

You don't describe your pool layout enough for any useful response.

What do you mean by a "pair of 16TB HDDs in a vDev"?
Is that supposed to be a Mirror vDev?

What do you mean by "two SSDs for logging"?
Is this a ZFS SLOG?
What NAS protocol are you using, SMB or NFS?

Do you know what synchronous writes are about in relation to ZFS?