SOLVED Seeking Advice: first build, 8x4 disks, pools, layout

[fabianm]

Hi,

1. My use case is mostly storage and backup for the family.
2. Offsite Backup for a small business from a Synology NAS.
3. Apps: Nextcloud, Collabora, Paperless-ngx

* My priority is reliability, stability and safety, storage capacity is currently enough. I'm also considering renting Hetzner offsite storage as an additional backup.
* My ISP delivers 100Mbit/s down and 20Mbit/s up. I think this is the bottleneck of the system (my family members are not in the same household) but preferably I want decent APP performance.
I bought a used (was never really in use) Server consisting of:

Show : Hardware

Board: A2SDi-8C-HLN4F
RAM: 2x Kingston Premier 32GB DDR4 ECC
Disks: 8x4TB Ironwolf
SSD: 2x1TB Intel D3-S4610
SSD: 2x120GB Kingston A400

Additionally, I have a home server I can salvage:

Show : old server, parts

NIC: 1x2.5 GB/s
Disks: 2x WD Red Plus
NVme: 2x500GB Samsung 980 Pro

From the documentation and forum, I thought I use the 8 Drives in 1 RAID-Z2 Pool.
From there, I am not sure how to use my available hardware efficient.
1. Should I use the two Intel SSD's for ZIL/SLOG?
2. Use the 2 Kingston SSDs (mirror) or just the M.2 Slot for boot (stripe).
3. Move the hardware over to the new NAS? Considering the higher reliability and better features (IPMI) as well as power consumption, I think this is the way to go.

I could use the M.2 or the PCIe Slot on the main board to expand my SATA ports for the drives from my old Server. My Router supports 2.5GB/s only but could aggregate two LAN ports on the main board or use the 2.5GB NIC I have in my old server.



Every help and criticism is appreciated.
Best Fabian

 

[fabianm]

Small Update:

I read the ZFS sstorage pool layout guide which carified a lot for me. Additionally from other posts and the documenton,I came to the conclusion:

1. For now, I will not use any special vdevs and use the 2 1TB drives for my APP tank. It should be plenty for what I need and the SSD are suitable for the job.
2. Make the boot drive mirrord, it is recommended and I have the drives for it.
3. Before I move the hardware over to the new server, I need to decide if I want a second vdev and how to set it up. I am considering using a LSI HBO in IT mode in the PCIe 3.0 x4 slot I have left. This would allow me to move the ssds from the onboard headers, since some user discurrage makeing use of those.

I have a new question tho:
Do I profit from a LSI PCIe 3.0 card since I only have a x4 slot ? since I can not fully use the 8x of the cards that are sold second hand, I thought it might be advantageous to at to have a card allowing for PCIe 3.0 instead of PCIe 2.0

 

[sretalla]

Do I profit from a LSI PCIe 3.0 card since I only have a x4 slot ? since I can not fully use the 8x of the cards that are sold second hand, I thought it might be advantageous to at to have a card allowing for PCIe 3.0 instead of PCIe 2.0

For connecting SSDs, it will certainly be possible to see some improved performance by using a card running at PCIe 3 speeds.

You'll probably be looking for the 9207-8i or some version of the 9300.

With an x4 slot, the card won't give you all it can, but it will give you all your mobo/CPU can take from that slot (which should be double that of a PCIe 2 card in that same slot).

2. Make the boot drive mirrord, it is recommended and I have the drives for it.

Not really needed if you do a regular backup of your config.

 

[fabianm]

For connecting SSDs, it will certainly be possible to see some improved performance by using a card running at PCIe 3 speeds.

You'll probably be looking for the 9207-8i or some version of the 9300.

With an x4 slot, the card won't give you all it can, but it will give you all your mobo/CPU can take from that slot (which should be double that of a PCIe 2 card in that same slot).



Not really needed if you do a regular backup of your config.

TY for the answer,

I watched a video about the LSI cards, and since SSDs will be used I think I will do that.