testing freenas on a 4 disk system

[gusans]

hi everybody,
i have the following hardware:

Intel Core2Quad 2.6 Ghz
Asus mobo with Realtek Glan and 4 integrated S-ata2 ports (Intel chipset)
8 Gb RAM (2x4Gb dual-channel)
4 x WD 3Tb green
FreeNAS 8.3 installed (on usb pendrive)

i would like to use this setup as storage for a Xeon 4-core server (16Gb, 2x 300Gb SAS) with VMware esxi (connected with Glan to storage) that will run a web and mail virtual servers (for around 100 users). in a future, i plan to setup a second storage for redundancy of the first one.

i'm planning to test this setup on various scenarios (ZFS vs no-ZFS, iscsi, nfs mounts, etc) to be sure what could be the best performer and if it could be a good idea for production or need to buy new hardware.

i'll really appreciate any opinion or ideas.

thanks in advance

 

[gpsguy]

I've held out all day, hoping someone else would respond. ;-)

At the end of the day, based on the minimal information provided, *I* would buy new hardware. It sounds like you plan to provide a home storage solution, for 100 users. Assuming these are business users, who earn $75+/hour with fringe benefits (just a WAG), is this a solution?

How much storage is needed for the next 2-3 years? Do you need ZFS RAIDZ1, RAIDZ2, ... Right size your vdev(s) and buy it now. At a minimum, it would be WD Red's - I'd do the WD RE's instead. Once you have the storage needs, decide on the amount of RAM, based on the FreeNAS documentation.

How are you backing up the VM's? If you're dependent on the just the RAIDz array and/or snapshots, you need to factor in alternatives. "A second storage array" should be part of the initial plan.

btw, while Realtec NIC's might work, you'll generally get much better performance from an Intel NIC.

OOC, how will you use your ESXi setup? At a minimum, I'd dedicate multiple NIC's between it and the storage array (and across separate NIC's for fault tolerance).