New to FreeNAS, pre-11.1 Install Questions

[ere109]

I've assembled my hardware and built my machine: a 10-core Xeon with 128GB RAM in a SuperMicro X9 board with 10gbase-t. I've been reading the FreeNAS forums for about six months in preparation for this build, but still have questions (I've built dozens of desktops, but never a server-grade machine). I plan to use the machine for Plex, VMs, file/photo storage, torrenting/sickbeard, and whatever neat tricks I have yet to discover (input certainly welcome).
My biggest questions surround disk management. I purchased five 8TB harddrives and plan to format in ZFS z2. I've also got two 120GB SSD drives that I was originally planning to use to create a mirrored boot drive, but read in the manual that I should also have drives for a slog, and another for L2ARC cache.
I'm still wrapping my head around terminology. To my understanding, all five of these 8TB disks will be combined into a single vdev. But then I can create volumes within the vdev (basically like partitions?). Then there are pools and zvols and scrubs - and a single read through the manual hasn't clarified the terms, but I did just see the terminology powerpoint thread, and will continue researching on my own.
I'm planning to save personal files, my media collection, software collection, downloads, some surveillance footage, plus virtual machines. I've also read that I need a separate "jail root dataset." Does that mean I need to create a separate volume within the vdev for jails?
Last question, for now, on jails: I see that the jails system is going to be rewritten in 11.2 from warden to iocage. How long til 11.2 is released, and should I worry about this?

The bottom line, as I'm sure you can all relate to, is that I'm about to retire the NAS that has been storing all of my personal files for eight years, and I want to make sure I set this FREENAS machine up properly the first time to avoid losing data or limiting my future capability, and to maximize enjoyable uptime with this piece of hardware that I'm very excited about.

Thank you.

 

[ere109]

I'll reserve this spot for answers as I find them. I'm reading cyberjock's slide thread right now (https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/)

Ok, Page 13 of above tells me I don't need a SLOG, as there won't be overwhelming concurrent writes in my home environment.

I now understand that a zpool is the conglomeration of all devices.

Explanations for an L2ARC are still insufficient.

 

[danb35]

I've also read that I need a separate "jail root dataset." Does that mean I need to create a separate volume within the vdev for jails?

No, a dataset is not a volume.

but read in the manual that I should also have drives for a slog, and another for L2ARC cache.

No, the manual doesn't say that you should have these--but it does say how to add them to a pool.

Explanations for an L2ARC are still insufficient.

ARC is the read cache, and is kept in RAM (and is a large part of why ZFS is so RAM-hungry). L2ARC is a secondary read cache, typically stored on an SSD. It may or may not be useful for you.

I see that the jails system is going to be rewritten in 11.2 from warden to iocage.

iocage is already present in 11.1, though it seems to require a bit of work from the command line.

 

[wblock]

L2ARC is secondary cache space, added after maxing out the system RAM and still wanting more cache.

 

[Nick2253]

I've also got two 120GB SSD drives that I was originally planning to use to create a mirrored boot drive, but read in the manual that I should also have drives for a slog, and another for L2ARC cache.

Based on your provided use case, I do not believe a SLOG will benefit you. The real benefit to a SLOG is when you have high bandwidth, high I/O network traffic requiring synchronous writes, like iSCSI. If you're running all the high I/O stuff directly on FreeNAS, and only using accessing FreeNAS as a basic file server, you won't benefit from a SLOG.

I would say that L2ARC should only be considered if you have completely maxed the memory on your system.

I'm still wrapping my head around terminology. To my understanding, all five of these 8TB disks will be combined into a single vdev. But then I can create volumes within the vdev (basically like partitions?). Then there are pools and zvols and scrubs - and a single read through the manual hasn't clarified the terms, but I did just see the terminology powerpoint thread, and will continue researching on my own.

Terminology powerpoint will help. Key takeaway is: throw away everything you think you know about drives/partitions/volumes. ZFS is a different beast, and trying to drag previous understanding in will only confuse you more.

 

[ere109]

Thanks for your help so far. After viewing the slideshow, reading through the storage and advanced zfs pages, I think I understand that: a zpool is all of the drives that are virtually connected in a zfs file system. A vdev is a virtual drive plucked from all of the available space across the zpool.
I'm still working out volume and dataset. My best guess is that a volume is a virtual partition, and a dataset is a single container file that houses a host of additional data - like an iso or a VM instance. Am I getting closer?
Thoughts on my disk strategy? Boot to mirrored SSD drives, or use the second for another task? I'm still unsure how to implement vdevs and volumes with my five 8tb drives.
Oh, and how large a usb should I use to back up my configuration file?

Thanks again. Glad to become part of the community.

 

[danb35]

I'm still working out volume and dataset.

A volume, as FreeNAS uses the term, is a pool. A dataset is kind of like a subdirectory, and kind of like an independent filesystem.

I'm still unsure how to implement vdevs and volumes with my five 8tb drives.

A single pool/volume, consisting of a single vdev, containing all five disks in RAIDZ2.

 

[Nick2253]

My best guess is that a volume is a virtual partition, and a dataset is a single container file that houses a host of additional data - like an iso or a VM instance. Am I getting closer?

You're trying to drag in your previous understanding ;)

A vdev is a virtual device, consisting of one or more physical storage devices. A zpool is a pool of one or more vdevs. A zvol is a block storage volume that lives on a zpool. A dataset is technically a generic name for many things, but most often refers to a filesystem dataset. Each dataset allows you to configure various parameters for the data that lives in that dataset.

 

[ere109]

I booted to the 11.1 cd today, performed an install to the first SSD (using the UEFI boot option), rebooted, just got a blinking cursor, so reinstalled and chose the legacy BIOS boot. The system is now up and running, and I think I'm getting things figured out - though more questions arise.

 

[ere109]

First, I'm going on the impression that I shouldn't clog the forum with multiple posts about getting started. If I should create new threads for every question, feel free to correct me.
I've been using Ubuntu for four years; this is a TOTALLY different beast. I've created a volume with all five 8TB disks, and have created several datasets for various tasks.
I can now log into the GUI from my laptop, can see the system on my DHCP router, but cannot get the "update" feature to work, because it doesn't seem to be able to reach beyond my network. Watching the VGA output, I keep getting an error of "arpresolve: can't allocate llinfo for [my gateway]." I continue to read through the networking page. Suggestions would be appreciated.
After that, is there an interface to view files - both locally and over the network? I'd like to transfer all of my files from the old NAS onto this new one, and there are no more hard drive spaces. I've got both plugged into a 10g router, and would ideally like to browse, copy and paste.

 

[Nick2253]

but cannot get the "update" feature to work, because it doesn't seem to be able to reach beyond my network.

Have you added your DNS server(s) and gateway to FreeNAS when you set the static IP?

is there an interface to view files - both locally and over the network?

Have you set up any shares?

 

[ere109]

A reboot solved the WAN connectivity. Then all I had to do was start playing with shares. I'm learning that there's a steep curve to get into FreeNAS, but it's also short - not to say that I won't have additional challenges. Aside from the volume, itself, I feel like everything is undo-able - at least that I've come across to this point. So far I've gotten a Public SMB share set up so that it's writeable from a Windows machine. Still playing with the NFS share, but I'm getting close. I think I'll get all of my shares where I want them to be, then start playing around with plugins - at least that's the plan that seems to make sense. Thanks for all of your help thusfar.

 

[ere109]

User/Group, datasets and shares took some getting used to - it's all logical, but there are three different locations that divide that logic. I've just about got my empty shares set up, and accessible on both Win 10 and Ubuntu 16.04 laptops. I've created a user for myself and can use it to log in. I'm trying to create a user for my wife, but created some problems for myself. I inadvertently inserted a "\" into the home directory name, instead of "/" when I attempted to create her user. Now, when I try to create it the correct way, it indicates that FreeBSD already has an existing user. The error calls line 364 of: /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/middlewared/client/client.py. A restart didn't help, the user isn't listed in the GUI, and I'm not good enough with nano to search for specific lines. Any thoughts?

 

[Nick2253]

My immediate guess is that there is a problem displaying the user in the GUI, and that is causing her not to show up.

You should be able to remove her account from the shell, and then recreate it with the GUI: https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/users-synopsis.html

 

[ere109]

Thanks again Nick. You've been really helpful. I'm reading and solving as much as I can, on my own, but I've got two toddlers, so get about two hours a day for ALL the things I want to do.