NOOB Help with RAID levels

[swezey]

So total newbie here... Building my first TrueNAS. I'm using a 24 bay Supermicro chassis and will populate with 12TB drives. I am coming from the QNAP world and I always did RAID10 for performance and data protection. So....

1) Is there RAID10 in ZFS? Or something equivalent?
2) Is that my best choice in this scenario or is there something better?

I am looking for an equal amount performance and data protection. Yes, I'll be using snapshots and also mirroring to a second device AND mirroring to S3 but really keeping the primary storage up five 9's is preferred. Any thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Bill

 

[Mlovelace]

Proper pool design depends on the intended workload of the storage server. You'll need to provide more information as to the hardware and intended use.

 

[danb35]

Is there RAID10 in ZFS? Or something equivalent?

Not RAID10 as such, but something similar in the form of striped mirrors.

Is that my best choice in this scenario or is there something better?

Since you've really told us nothing about your use case "in this scenario", we can't really say for sure. If VM storage is the main intended use, yes, a pool of a bunch of mirrored vdevs striped together would be a good way to go (lots of IOPS). For most bulk data storage and file sharing, we'd generally recommend 6-8-disk RAIDZ2 vdevs striped.

 

[swezey]

Guys,

Sorry, I'm not an IT person, I just play one on TV. ;-) Here's the hardware we're using:

CPU: 4x Intel Xeon E7-4850 V2 12 Core 2.3Ghz ( 48 Total Cores)
RAM: 128GB DDR3 ECC REG
RAID Controller QTY 1x AOC-S3008L-L8E HBA Controller IT Mode
Power Supplies: 4x 1620W Power supply PWS-1K62P-1R Platinum
**8x Memory Board X10QBI-MEM1 Rev 1.01 SYS-8048B-TRFT (12 slots per board)
Supermicro 4U 24x 3.5" Drive Bays 1 Nodes
Server Chassis/ Case: SYS-8048B-TRFT
Motherboard: X10QBI Ver 1.01
Backplane: Upgrade to BPN-SAS3-846EL1 24-port 4U SAS3 12Gbps single-expander backplane, support up to 24x 3.5-inch SAS3/SATA3 HDD/SSD)
PCI-Expansions slots: 8x PCI-E 3.0 slots w/ 96 memory slots
(4x PCI-E 3.0 x16 and 4x PCI-E 3.0 x8)
*1x AOM-X10QBI-A Add-on Module support 1x VGA, Dual 10GBase-T ports X540
* Integrated IPMI 2.0 Management

Being used for file storage for document scanning operation so high IO of thousands and thousands of small scanned files a day. These files are the work in progress so protection of the data is very important but speed is as well since there are operators waiting for the images to be written or read pretty much at all times. Our VM storage is someplace else at the moment. Does this help? I am just filling in for IT until we fill that role but this can't wait so I'm trying to figure it out ASAP! Thanks a bunch!

Bill

 

[ChrisRJ]

Being used for file storage for document scanning operation so high IO of thousands and thousands of small scanned files a day.

That is potentially a huge misconception. With this information it is not clear what amount of IOPS we are talking about.

If you currently have an IT vacancy but need to act fast, you should really get professional help from an experienced storage consultant. Without a hundred times more information whatever conversation we have with you is more or less crystal ball gazing. This is the kind of situation where a forum comes to its limits.

 

[Jessep]

TL,DR: Thar be dragons here!

Drive #, size, and type?
File sizes and access method? (SMB, NFS, etc.)
Likely total space needed?
Importance of data? (SYNC writes needed?)
Backup plans? (RAID levels aren't a backup)
Future access requirements? (How and how often will the data be accessed?)
Will you be using a document management system involving a database of files?
File/folder/directory design/management?
Access security? Users? Access logging?
Change management? Roll back? Version history?
ETC...

You are potentially in a very precarious position if you could be in any way held accountable for the outcomes.

• Document scanning usually involves some level of legal requirement to maintain the information
• Depending on the data, security could have extreme impacts and further legal implications

I would suggest pushing back for more clarity and planning before rushing ahead.

 

[swezey]

Thanks guys. OK, I am probably in over my head... I'll try to find a professional resource in the area. Anyone have any suggestions for someone in the Philly area?

 

[danb35]

If you haven't bought the hardware yet, you could contact iXSystems. I'm sure they'd be glad to recommend a solution for you.

 

[swezey]

We had the chassis and the drives, just need to get some software on it and the config done. But yeah, had we not had all the hardware already I would have just called them.