Setup question for FreeNAS 9

[Ray Milyard]

So I am rebuilding my system. I have an extra 120gb SSD that not using. Should I add it to my FreeNAS system? And if so what should I use it as and how?

I have 8x 3tb drives in ZRAID2

and

4x 2tb drives in ZRAID1

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Way overkill for a boot device, and not much use for anything important without at least a mirror. Maybe some kind of tmp/scratch pool?

 

[Ray Milyard]

Way overkill for a boot device, and not much use for anything important without at least a mirror. Maybe some kind of tmp/scratch pool?

Thought I saw somewhere use for cache drive or something

 

[m0nkey_]

Thought I saw somewhere use for cache drive or something

Yes, you are correct it is possible to use it as a L2ARC or SLOG device. However, unless you have a use case for either, that SSD is better used else where.

 

[Mirfster]

I have 8x 3tb drives in ZRAID2 and 4x 2tb drives in ZRAID1

I am not a big proponent of mixing RaidZ type vdevs in a pool. If you are thinking about making a single pool out of these drives, I would suggest:

• 1 RaidZ2 vdev of 6 x 3TB
• 1 RaidZ2 vdev of 2 x 3TB + 4 x 2TB
  • Would have to use the "Manual" option in the GUI to create this

Yes, you will lose about 2 TBs for the 2nd vdev but when you get around to upgrading those 2TB drives to 3TB the space will auto-expand for you.

Having a RaidZ1 means loss of more than one drive is loss of the vdev. If that vdev is part of a pool; then that also means loss of the entire pool. Even if you have a RaidZ2 vdev as part of that same pool, you are still toast due to the RaidZ1 vdev going down.

I have an extra 120gb SSD that not using. Should I add it to my FreeNAS system?

As others have said, if using it as the OS Drive; then "no"; you are basically wasting space.
For SSD OS drive(s) I recommend grabbing older ones on eBay ~32GB size; then mirroring them. Here are some examples:

• http://www.ebay.com/itm/161933540349?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
• http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-40GB-...Solid-State-Drive-SSDSA2BT040G3-/331806399721
• http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-SanDisk...894123?hash=item3d14ad1b6b:g:AesAAOSwu1VW3-52

If you want to really use it; then grab a second one for mirroring; then use it for jails or something.