Optimal setup for Veeam backups ( 12 and 24 drive )

[JeradMason]

Hello, I'm hoping to get some advice on how to properly configure the volumes on two new freeNAS devices. We always receive our NASes with a pre-configured volume setup, see attached. We prefer RaidZ2, and I've recently read that you want your vdevs to have a number of drives equal to a power of two, but not exceeding 9. So, my thought is, if we are going with RaidZ2, we should have 4 drives per vdev, 2 vdevs on the 12 drive setup and 4 vdevs on the 24 drive setup. Any Ideas?

PS. These are going to be using iSCSI and Veeam.

 

[JeradMason]

 

[gpsguy]

I think you meant to say 6 drives per vdev.

we should have 4 drives per vdev

Typically, for block storage like iSCSI, users will choose stiped mirrors (lots of vdev's) for best performance. If this is just for backups, RAIDz2 might be an acceptable option.

I would suggest doing some performance testing with RAIDz2 vs striped mirrors, to determine what's best for your needs.

 

[Mlovelace]

Are you planning on forever forward or reverse incremental for the Veeam jobs? What made you decide on iSCSI volumes for the Veeam repos?

 

[JeradMason]

Are you planning on forever forward or reverse incremental for the Veeam jobs? What made you decide on iSCSI volumes for the Veeam repos?

I'm pretty sure we are going with reverse incrementals. Not sure why we use iSCSI, though I am certain is necessary for our setup.

I think you meant to say 6 drives per vdev.


Typically, for block storage like iSCSI, users will choose stiped mirrors (lots of vdev's) for best performance. If this is just for backups, RAIDz2 might be an acceptable option.

I would suggest doing some performance testing with RAIDz2 vs striped mirrors, to determine what's best for your needs.

I meant 4 drives, reaching 6 with Raidz2. I don't believe we can do striped, as we need to make sure we always have backups.

 

[Mlovelace]

I'm pretty sure we are going with reverse incrementals. Not sure why we use iSCSI, though I am certain is necessary for our setup.

The performance of the incremental transformation process for reverse incremental is dependent on the IOPS of the underlying storage, and using raidz2 will give you the lowest amount of IOPS for your storage array. If you're leveraging a 10Gbe network I would recommend backing up to a CIFS volume on the freeNAS server, and if you are required to use reverse incremental jobs, then to create striped mirrors on the array.

The only advantage I can see with iSCSI is if you're trying to leverage server 2016 w/ReFS (remember to use 64K), though I wouldn't consider it bullet-proof enough for critical backups yet. There are loads of corrupt/lost backups on the Veeam forums from ReFS volumes.

 

[gpsguy]

ZFS mirrors aren't limited to two drives. Some users may opt for 3 or 4 way mirrors. Yes, it a lot of overhead, but if you need that level of redundancy it's available.

I don't believe we can do striped