New system - design plans

[elyobelyob]

I am buying an N54L which comes default with 2GB RAM and a 250GB HD. My intention is to replace my DNS-320 NAS drive, bringing the 2 x 2TB drives out. I also will be looking to replace an old PC which runs as an Ubuntu LAMP server, with a few small quirks (e.g. running Mosquitto MQTT broker and a serial2USB perl module, probably python as well).
So, my original idea was that I install FreeNAS on the 250GB drive, with the 2TB drives set up as a ZFS mirror.

First things I have read are about the boot drive (i.e. 250GB drive) being just that? No other space allowed to be used? I presume I'd be looking to setup the LAMP stuff under a jail? Is this area able to hold the jail/s? I would likely then redirect the Apache & MySQL storage to the mirror, and not store on that drive.

So, something like this ...

N54L
- 250GB FreeNAS, Jail LAMP
-- Mirror ->
--- ZFS 2TB
--- ZFS 2TB

Next, I need more RAM to run ZFS. Could I setup with 2GB with a view to update later?

Lastly, I would be ideally looking to install the first 2TB backup drive, format to ZFS and copy across from the second drive in the DNS-320 . Finally, adding in this drive to the ZFS and adding to the mirror. My feeling on this last bit is that I should find another machine and 'hop the stuff across'. Creating the ZFS raid will probably want to wipe my drives clean? I've got in the range of 800GB I'd like to keep, and not got anywhere big enough to store whilst moving across.

Appreciate any pointers

Nick

 

[jgreco]

Best advice, please look at the information-rich FreeNAS doc site. It answers all your questions. I'm not likely to give you better/more thorough answers typing on a smartphone.