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New RAID/ZFS Recommendation for best Performance [ RAID60|ZFS]

I would like to get some feedback on the best (both performance and redundancy) solution based on the following hardware.

Scenario: This NAS server will be serving two XenServers running Windows 2012 VMs using iSCSI.

NAS Server: AMD 8120, 8 core 3.1 Ghz CPU with 16 GB RAM, Adaptec 6805 RAID card attached to 8 - 2 TB ReadyNAS drives, GigaByte 970A-D3 MB attached to 2 - 4 TB drives and 1 - 120 GB SSD (for OS) and a QUAD port Intel GB NIC (using link aggregation for iSCSI).

My original plan was to use the Adaptec 6805 as RAID60 (so I could loose 2 drives and still get a performance boost of striping ie. 60)

I have began reading a lot about ZFS; not I am totally confused as to what is the best route to go with FreeNAS.

Do I use the Adaptec controller and setup RAID 60, then install FreeNAS and will it then see the RAID60 as one drive ???

or

Do I disable the RAID of the Adaptec card, then install FreeNAS and have it use them as ZFS?

Really could use some educated guidance.....

For completeness, the two XenServer servers are identical hardware: GigaByte 970A-D3 MB, AMD 8150 8 core 4.0 Ghz CPU with 32 GB 1600 DDR3, 1 - 240 GB SSD S3 for OS, Intel DUO GB NIC (for iSCSI), DVDRW.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

David

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Mazdajai

In short, you should not use HW raid on top of SW raid, it should be one way or the other. You should use the SW raid provided by freenas for performance and scalability purpose.
If there is a drive failed, zfs have the ability to rebuild the array independently. If you need to move to different piece of hardware, you can export and import volumes.

I suggest you to take some time and read through the freenas hardware guide -
http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/Hardware_Recommendations

David

ZFS is uniquely intolerant to even using HW raid in any way. ZFS does a flush-on-write. It does so for data integrity and to get around the RAID5 write hole. (google that for an explanation).

So with the flush on write, this will kill hardware RAID performance, even if you just limit hardware RAID to RAID1.

sdragoninc

ASKER

Ended up using ZFS2 and disabling the Adaptec RAID functions. Had I known prior to purchasing, I would have bought a simpler SATA expansion board instead of RAID. Lesson learned.

David

You might want to look deeper. I do not know off top of my head if the Adaptec controller ends up virtualizing single disks. It may do so.

Do the drives appear to ZFS as whatever make/model they are supposed to be, with the full number of blocks as documented in the specs? (You can run the solaris format command to query such information. It won't format the disks unless you specifically tell it to, so select the drive and look at the # of blocks & make/model)