SSD partitions best practice?

[Gwynei]

Hi all,

I have ordered the following:
- HP Microserver Gen8
- 16 GB RAM
- 4x 3 TB WD Red
- 1x Crucial MX200 250 GB

I want to use ZFS on the 4 hard disks (mirrored+striped)

But I want to use the SSD for the Proxmox installation, AND for L2ARC (and maybe ZIL?)

How can I create a EXT3 partition of lets say 32 GB for Proxmox, and give the rest to ZFS?

I have found an URL (which I cannot post due to forum restrictions) to resize the boot and swap partitions, but that's not regarding ZFS.

Thanks in advance!

 

[t.lamprecht]

Hi,

to fine tune the partitions you can use this wiki article to setup your desired configuration:
http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Install_Proxmox_VE_on_Debian_Jessie
This would be by far the easiest and most comfortable way.

As a note: The proposed variant is not really recommended by the ZFS guys, as when ZFS does not control the whole disk/controller it degrades performance and also may cause some troubles with fsync/flushes. As said it's a note, at the moment i don't have the production experience with such a setup to say more about it.

 

[mmenaz]

I'm interest in pros/cons about using SSD for L2ARC, ZIL AND Proxmox because in an Intel server I can't boot if I install in the WD disks with ZFS.
About how to install proxmox only in a part of the SSD, during installation when you choose the disk driver you have the "Option" button and the possibility to set how much assign for swap and for Proxmox installation AFAIR.
Then you could use systemrescuecd to boot and add 2 partitions for L2ARC and ZIL, I suppose.
Let me know

 

[sigxcpu]

slog (NOT ZIL) and L2ARC are trashing the SSD, so it will wear and crash someday. Do you want to take down the OS with it?