I'm putting together a NexentaOS (b65)-based server that has 4 500 GB drives on it. Currently it has two, set up as a ZFS mirror. I'm able to boot Nexenta from it, and it seems to work ok. But, as I've learned, the mirror is not properly redundant, and so I can't just have a drive fail (when I pull one, the OS ends up hanging, and even if I replace it, I have to reboot. I asked about this on the Nexenta list: http://www.gnusolaris.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=6233).
I think the problems stem from limitations in booting from ZFS. So, I'm going to re-do the drive allocations, but I'm not sure the best way to go. I'm hoping this list will give me some advice. I was thinking I'd put the basic OS on one drive (possibly a ZFS pool), and then make a RAID-Z storage pool from the other three drives. The RAID-Z pool would contain filesystems for /usr, /home, etc. The drawback to this approach is that a 500 GB drive is far too large for the basic OS, and seems to end up wasted. An alternative would be to partition one drive, give it 20 GB for the OS and the rest for use by ZFS to allocated to a storage pool, but at this point ZFS isn't working with the raw device, and so I'm not sure what limitations this may place on me. BTW, I don't mind if the boot drive fails, because it will be fairly easy to replace, and this server is only mission-critical to me and my friends. So...suggestions? What's a good way to utilize the power and glory of ZFS in a 4x 500 GB system, without unnecessary waste? Thanks much! This message posted from opensolaris.org _______________________________________________ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
