Hi,
I've been given the task to setup a fileserver at work. I've been Linuxing and BSDing away for as long as I've been around but unfortunately my hardware knowledge is limited. I have previously experimented with ZFS at home but never in critical production systems.
I have some very basic questions which I would appreciate if somebody could help me out with.
1. I initially recommended that we use FreeNAS due to ZFS. While reading the FreeNAS 9.2.1 documentation this portion stood out: "The current FreeBSD ZFS implementation will not notice that a drive is gone until you reboot or put the volume on high load." The risk of data loss here makes me want to consider using UFS instead. Am I being rational?
2. I'm a little bit confused regarding the combination of RAIDZ and hardware RAID controllers. Are they compatible? If I use RAIDZ, can I use a box without the hardware RAID controller? Would there be any benefits of having one? The fileserver which I have been ordered to install will be used specifically for this purpose so if a hardware RAID breaks something for one reason or another then I would save some money by not using a hardware RAID.
3. Should there be any hardware differences regarding the question above if I used ZFS instead of UFS or vice versa?
4. When using UFS, is it equally important having 1 GB RAM per 1 TB disk as with ZFS? If not, how much RAM does UFS require per 1 TB disk to perform optimally?
I apologize if my questions are stupid or could've been answered had I done some more RTFM. It is not often that I am ordered to focus on hardware and when I am it is rare that I do something that I have done before. This is a new world for me in many ways.
Thank you.
I've been given the task to setup a fileserver at work. I've been Linuxing and BSDing away for as long as I've been around but unfortunately my hardware knowledge is limited. I have previously experimented with ZFS at home but never in critical production systems.
I have some very basic questions which I would appreciate if somebody could help me out with.
1. I initially recommended that we use FreeNAS due to ZFS. While reading the FreeNAS 9.2.1 documentation this portion stood out: "The current FreeBSD ZFS implementation will not notice that a drive is gone until you reboot or put the volume on high load." The risk of data loss here makes me want to consider using UFS instead. Am I being rational?
2. I'm a little bit confused regarding the combination of RAIDZ and hardware RAID controllers. Are they compatible? If I use RAIDZ, can I use a box without the hardware RAID controller? Would there be any benefits of having one? The fileserver which I have been ordered to install will be used specifically for this purpose so if a hardware RAID breaks something for one reason or another then I would save some money by not using a hardware RAID.
3. Should there be any hardware differences regarding the question above if I used ZFS instead of UFS or vice versa?
4. When using UFS, is it equally important having 1 GB RAM per 1 TB disk as with ZFS? If not, how much RAM does UFS require per 1 TB disk to perform optimally?
I apologize if my questions are stupid or could've been answered had I done some more RTFM. It is not often that I am ordered to focus on hardware and when I am it is rare that I do something that I have done before. This is a new world for me in many ways.
Thank you.