Updating FreeNAS server - want a sanity Check!

[Deadringers]

Hey Everyone,

Using FreeNAS for ESXI VM storage right now and doing an upgrade!

Current specs:

Build: 9.10.2-U1.
2 x 10 core Xeon
128 GB ram
10Gb Intel SFP+
8 x 1.2 TB 10k SAS disks.


I'll be moving to 2 x 4 TB SSDs instead of the 8 10k SAS disks. (mirrored)
I'll also be upgrading to the latest 11 version.

Questions I have:
Do I NEED an additional SLOG SSD device?
I figured with 2 SSDs I'd already be pretty damn fast, so no point in having an SLOG SSD?

Should I upgrade to the latest 11 version?
Just checking there are no iSCSI performance issues or stability problems?

Thanks!

 

[Chris Moore]

What model SSD? I would worry that with just two SSDs, the amount of wear would cause them to fail prematurely. One of the reasons for using more drives is to distribute the workload. It might be better to use 4 @ 2TB drives instead of just 2 @ 4TB.

 

[Deadringers]

What model SSD? I would worry that with just two SSDs, the amount of wear would cause them to fail prematurely. One of the reasons for using more drives is to distribute the workload. It might be better to use 4 @ 2TB drives instead of just 2 @ 4TB.

Hey Chris,

Is your worry really justified?

Unless you're constantly writing 100s of GB a day to SSD's, there doesn't seem to be much evidence to suggest they'll fail.

https://techreport.com/review/27909/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-theyre-all-dead

Articles like this show this shouldn't be an issue.

And they're enterprise SSDs from Cisco.

 

[Chris Moore]

Hey Chris,

Is your worry really justified?

Unless you're constantly writing 100s of GB a day to SSD's, there doesn't seem to be much evidence to suggest they'll fail.

https://techreport.com/review/27909/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-theyre-all-dead

Articles like this show this shouldn't be an issue.

And they're enterprise SSDs from Cisco.

We get all the questions here. There is a reason I ask what model SSD. If you have enterprise grade drives, and you are confident, then you have a plan and I am not trying to make trouble.
We have people wanting to use consumer SSDs and then there might be an issue. The iSCSI use and the using it for VMs might cause enough wear that a consumer drive would fail earlier.
Yes, I have seen Intel SSDs beginning to fail from wearing out of the cells. I have one in a system right now that needs to be replaced because it has used up all the extra space and is now reporting 2 bad blocks to the OS.
Be nice.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[Deadringers]

Thanks Chris.

Any further feedback on whether I should use another SSD as SLOG device?

 

[Chris Moore]

Thanks Chris.

Any further feedback on whether I should use another SSD as SLOG device?

To be useful, it would need to be faster than the SSDs you are using for the pool. That would probably require some thing like the Intel P3700 400GB HHHL AIC PCI NVMe SSD...
It is very fast and has good endurance. Here is a link to a build that was done last year using one:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...node-304-x10sdv-tln4f-esxi-freenas-aio.57116/

@Stux did a very good build report with lots of photos.