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Hi users of Hardforum.
I have for several months been collecting information, to help me decide what to do with my new server.
I will also note from the start that i am very experienced as system integrator, but this virtualization on bare metal level is completely new to me, and so is ZFS, which seems to be giving me the most unanswered questions, so please bare with me
The current situation is i have a DIY NAS consisting of a Intel Q9550 on a P45 board, with 4GB ram and a Rocketraid 3560 Hardware controller for 24 disk's
I have upgraded to 3TB WD Green drives, about 8 months ago, and will to start of, be using these in my new server.
Hardware is bought or orderer (on its way), and is the following:
Asus P8C WS (C216)
Intel E3-1230V2
4x4GB Samsung DDR3 1333 MHz ECC Ram
(4x8GB might be better in the future, but i think 4x4GB is good for now)
3 x IBM1015 in IT mode.
Intel® PRO/1000 PT Quad Port NIC (giving me 4 + 2 on MB).
For software im going with VMWare vSphere Hypervisor, my intention is first of to make a new functioning NAS box, for which im thinking of using Solaris 11 for ZFS, and Win 7 or WHS for a few op my everyday serverneeds.
Now i think it's time to put some questions on the board
1. I have been thinking about also integrating a Freenas VM, using the drives shared by Solaris 11, because Freenas seems very intuitive for setting op secure shares on my network and FTP.
Can all the Freenas functionality however be achieved within Solaris, with only a little extra hassle added, i would prefer that.
Opinions?
And is it even possible to make the Solaris to Freenas, and thereby getting advantage of the higher ZFS version in Freenas?
2. On my VM im using for some testing before i get the last hardware for my server, i installed Solaris 11, by using the live-cd, which results in Solaris installed on my disk with GUI.
Can Solaris be installed without GUI, or is it just the installer that is commandline?
The pupose of course being to save resources, on a OS only needed to get ZFS on my disks.
3. Right now i have 8 x 3TB disks for files, and with my intention to use RaidZ2 im thinking of using vdevs of 4 or 6 disks, and 1 hot spare(will have to be bought).
However if making RaidZ2 vdevs of 4 sidks, shouln't i just make Raid10 instead?
The 6 disk solution seems to be the best for my needs, and in a few months i can expand it with one more vdev of 6 disks, to achieve higher capacity and performance(i can understand that only one vdev in a zpool is NOT the recipe for higt transfer speed).
4. Im currently running encryption on my NAS with truecrypt resulting in everything being encrypted.
I cant seem to figure out clearly how little or much is encrypted with ZFS encryption.
Is it encrypted on the vdev level, zpool level or something else?
As far as i can tell it is able to take advantage of AES-NI, can someone confirm that?
These are the most urgent questions, that i just cant seem to conclude on my own, and i hope your expertise can help me see the light
I have for several months been collecting information, to help me decide what to do with my new server.
I will also note from the start that i am very experienced as system integrator, but this virtualization on bare metal level is completely new to me, and so is ZFS, which seems to be giving me the most unanswered questions, so please bare with me
The current situation is i have a DIY NAS consisting of a Intel Q9550 on a P45 board, with 4GB ram and a Rocketraid 3560 Hardware controller for 24 disk's
I have upgraded to 3TB WD Green drives, about 8 months ago, and will to start of, be using these in my new server.
Hardware is bought or orderer (on its way), and is the following:
Asus P8C WS (C216)
Intel E3-1230V2
4x4GB Samsung DDR3 1333 MHz ECC Ram
(4x8GB might be better in the future, but i think 4x4GB is good for now)
3 x IBM1015 in IT mode.
Intel® PRO/1000 PT Quad Port NIC (giving me 4 + 2 on MB).
For software im going with VMWare vSphere Hypervisor, my intention is first of to make a new functioning NAS box, for which im thinking of using Solaris 11 for ZFS, and Win 7 or WHS for a few op my everyday serverneeds.
Now i think it's time to put some questions on the board
1. I have been thinking about also integrating a Freenas VM, using the drives shared by Solaris 11, because Freenas seems very intuitive for setting op secure shares on my network and FTP.
Can all the Freenas functionality however be achieved within Solaris, with only a little extra hassle added, i would prefer that.
Opinions?
And is it even possible to make the Solaris to Freenas, and thereby getting advantage of the higher ZFS version in Freenas?
2. On my VM im using for some testing before i get the last hardware for my server, i installed Solaris 11, by using the live-cd, which results in Solaris installed on my disk with GUI.
Can Solaris be installed without GUI, or is it just the installer that is commandline?
The pupose of course being to save resources, on a OS only needed to get ZFS on my disks.
3. Right now i have 8 x 3TB disks for files, and with my intention to use RaidZ2 im thinking of using vdevs of 4 or 6 disks, and 1 hot spare(will have to be bought).
However if making RaidZ2 vdevs of 4 sidks, shouln't i just make Raid10 instead?
The 6 disk solution seems to be the best for my needs, and in a few months i can expand it with one more vdev of 6 disks, to achieve higher capacity and performance(i can understand that only one vdev in a zpool is NOT the recipe for higt transfer speed).
4. Im currently running encryption on my NAS with truecrypt resulting in everything being encrypted.
I cant seem to figure out clearly how little or much is encrypted with ZFS encryption.
Is it encrypted on the vdev level, zpool level or something else?
As far as i can tell it is able to take advantage of AES-NI, can someone confirm that?
These are the most urgent questions, that i just cant seem to conclude on my own, and i hope your expertise can help me see the light
