Looking to migrate from Raid 10 to ZFS

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Mike W

Kuntrolphreak
Jun 29, 2018
75
29
18
Suffolk, Va
Looking to move over to FreeNas for my network storage and will need to migrate my current raid10 arrayover to ZFS. I Currently have a raid10 array 4x4tb Dell enterprise sas. I am looking to migrate this over to 4x3tb ironwolf drives. Thing is that I am going to install FreeNas on the server that i currently have my windows server on. My question is can i keep my raid array in the same machine that am installing FreeNas in. I have just started working with FreeNas and dont know if i can present a drive directly to OS or if it will want to overwrite my data. I do have some ideas and please let me know if i am on the write track.

FreeNas Questions
1 I currently am looking at using Dell Intel DC S3700 200gb for OS. Feel like this is over kill and was wondering if anyone has used any satadom drives for dedicated OS drives and if so what would reccomend.


Paths to completion that don't involve me loosing my mind during migration.
****Back up all files onto WD-6tb external and lock it away in my safe.**** Now that is out of the way.

1. Migrate existing data to new array over network to new array in workstation running FreeNas. This is my first choice if i was running HW raid since i could just move the whole array over to identical LSI card and discover the array and done. I dont know if this is possible using ZFS. I have had some issue using Intel SW raid. Not to mention the workstation is just your every day dell optiplex with an I-7 and non ECC ram.

2 Shut down existing system, Pull current OS drive from server. Remove LSI card while leaving drive in case and install FreeNas onto new drive. Create new Array in server which has 128gb ecc reg ram and Battery backup. Here Is where i dont know what is possible and am hoping to get some assistance. What i would like to do is present the existing array to the OS in its native Raid10 configuration and just transfer all data to the new array this would be the fastest and cleanest i believe if this can be done.

3.I am currently running hyper-v on my server and could spin up some OS that has native support for ZFS and Then follow path from senerio 2.

I am up for trying anything as long as it doesn't cost money, time or resources.

Still working on m understanding ZFS and best practices in terms of cashe' and weather or not i will need any addition cashe' at this time.

Current specs and gameplan for build

Intel s2600cp2j
Xeon E5-2690 x2
128gb ECC reg ddr3 1333 ram
LSI-9271-8i controller -
LSI-9285cv-8e controller-
LSI-9211 HBA - Will flash this to IT mode for data arrays
4x4tb Dell Ent SAS drives into ZFS equivalent of raid10
4x3tb Ironwolf sata drives into ZFS equivalent of raid10
4x200gb Zeus iops sas ssd- Can i utilize these in ZFS as cashe drives to increase performance on the HDD
and if so can I configure these into a raid 0 or 10 then present them to OS 4x200gb Intel DC s3700 - undecided on purpose as of now. (Spares)
1xIntel GB ET QUAD Port Nic- Think that this is going to be removed. cannot find drivers to allow for link aggregation and honestly have just had problems but that for another post.

Last
If the Satadom are not a good choice for OS then i there a USB that is recommended. I used to run ESXI from one but it always made me nervous. Just wasnt right for some reason. I have SSD usb's but for the cost of it i will just throw one of the DC ssd's in there.

Thank you ,
Mike
 

Linda Kateley

New Member
Apr 25, 2017
21
5
3
62
Minnesota
First the 3700 is way overkill for OS. Like them for cache or log. Freenas is tiny and most of it loads into memory so having fast boot device isn't important unless you need fast boot or reboot. Even so the actual load of os is nothing compared to post on most boxes.

Second, it depends on filesystem/network sharing protocols available on old kit.

third can't help with hardware validation, but I do have a youtube video on caching..
 

Mike W

Kuntrolphreak
Jun 29, 2018
75
29
18
Suffolk, Va
First the 3700 is way overkill for OS. Like them for cache or log. Freenas is tiny and most of it loads into memory so having fast boot device isn't important unless you need fast boot or reboot. Even so the actual load of os is nothing compared to post on most boxes.

Second, it depends on filesystem/network sharing protocols available on old kit.

third can't help with hardware validation, but I do have a youtube video on caching..
Thank you for the info.
 

brianmc

New Member
Jun 25, 2018
29
7
3
SATAdom for FreeNAS is great. S3700 is good for caching. Cheaper is getting this Intel SSD DC S3500 Series 80GB Drive (Lot of 4) | eBay and you can mirror the boot if you want to be really fancy plus have two drives for cache or fun.

You should be able to have the RAID10 array stay OK during the install then migrate after. I'd backup to the 6TB in either case. Stay sane.