UFS, ZFS, or ZFS Data Set?

[MSCFAdmin]

I am new to FreeNAS and free BSD as well. We currently have a Windows file server and are looking to move to FreeNAS. I am looking for input on what type of volume to use. Our goal is to have one main share that everyone has read access to. Under that folder there will be many sub folders, each with its own permissions. I found I was able to setup a Windows share using a ZFS volume and I could create subfolders and manage their permissions via Windows Explorer. However, I don't know if this is the best solution. One of my concerns it the documentation seems to say to not use ZFS on hardware raid setups. My FreeNAS is running as a VM on a host that is installed on a hardware Raid 5. Any input would be appreciated.

 

[ProtoSD]

Can you provide more details about your hardware?

If you want to use Datasets, you need a ZFS pool first.

Post back your hardware details and you'll likely get a lot more feedback.

 

[MSCFAdmin]

Since I am running on a dedicated VM host (VMWare ESXi 4 to be exact), there is no specific hardware per-say. The main point of the VM is that I can move it as needed across different hardware in the event of a failure or overload. From a virtual perspective I can provide it with any number of "hard drives" but they are all virtual drives created from my data pool. All of that is resting on 5 hard drives running in Raid 5 currently.