Recommended Memory Amount - Is it based on RAW or USABLE storage space?

[HeloJunkie]

So my primary FreeNAS system is running 64GB of memory but I recently added a bunch more drive space so I am now up to 108TB Raw and about 75TB usable. So I am thinking of bumping up to 96 or 128GB memory is recommended since it seems like the more ram FreeNAS has the happier it seems to be.

So my question is on the memory recommendation, is it based on raw, in which case I go to 128GB or usable in which case I go to 96GB?

My primary system is listed below and I am running 10.0.2 on it.

Thanks

 

[m0nkey_]

The obvious answer is give ZFS as much RAM as you can afford. As far as I know, it's based on raw values. That being said, 64GB RAM should be more than adequate for a 108TB of raw storage. If you find you're getting poor performance, then add more RAM.

 

[HeloJunkie]

Thanks @m0nkey_

I have not seen any issues, but there is not much traffic on the system, it has a single NFS share for Plex and that's it. I just didn't want to get in a situation where I lost a drive (or something) and realized too late that (for whatever reason) I should have had more ram!!

I think I will leave it for now. Thanks for the info...

 

[nojohnny101]

@m0nkey_ gave good advice. Others have asked this question and the experienced members on here have said the rule is purposefully not intended to be a "hard and fast" rule. In your case, as was stated perviously, stay with 64GB for now and if you see degraded performance that you can start looking to upgrade. With 64GB of ram and that light load, you data is not at risk by staying with your current RAM.

 

[HeloJunkie]

@m0nkey_ gave good advice. Others have asked this question and the experienced members on here have said the rule is purposefully not intended to be a "hard and fast" rule. In your case, as was stated perviously, stay with 64GB for now and if you see degraded performance that you can start looking to upgrade. With 64GB of ram and that light load, you data is not at risk by staying with your current RAM.

Thanks guys! I'll stick it out for now and worry about it if I start to see performance problems.