Stating out options

[vanadiumjade]

I have used vmware for years on an old dell 2950 and dell r710 all for personal use.

I have run out of space so decided I would like to give proxmox a crack.

I have brought another dell r710. And would like that start with one drive and add more drives over time. I would like to try zfs.

Is this possible? I would like to get one 10tb drive obviously there will be no redudnacy. But I would like to add another 10tb in a month or so (and continue doing this until server is full) and would each drive be easy to add to the pool or will I need to add a new pool each time? Or is it easier to get all the drives then setup server. Ideally would like to start migrating services from old vmware r710.

Would it be easier starting with x drives and add more later?

 

[wolfgang]

Hi,

ZFS is very flexible, so yes, you can slowly create your Raid 10 with ZFS.
But there are some limitations.
First, Dell uses normally a Raid controller, but ZFS is not compatible with Raids.
The recommendation is HBA or the onboard Sata Chip.
Second, ZFS is no capacity to rebalance data on an existing pool.
This means if you add a second vdev you have no real raid 0.
It is more of a span.

 

[vanadiumjade]

From research I have done the card have in dell can be flashed to hba.

Ideally want to have equivalent to raid 6. So I presume that's zfs raid z2.

From internet calculators I would require 3 drives min. Is that correct?

Also if I later wanted to continue adding drives can I extend the raid? Is that sensible? Will this extend take days? Can I do this extend online?

Sorry lots of questions. Just want to make fully educated decision. Raid 6 has saved my ass right now where I had two drive failures.
Also have had another server drive fail and recovered automatically.

Can you have hot backup drives with zfs?

I will do research on top of these questions. Just nice to confirm with a real person.

 

[wolfgang]

You can't extend a RaidZx only the pool.
This means if you should add another 3 disks (RaidZ1) to this pool.
But you can also add a Raid1 to a pool.

From internet calculators I would require 3 drives min. Is that correct?

Yes, but this is the same as a three-way mirror but needs more memory and CPU.

Is that sensible?

Yes, if you add raid1 for two disks or RaidZ1 for min 3-4 disks o

Will this extend take days?

No, this will apply instant.

Can I do this extend online?

Yes.

Can you have hot backup drives with zfs?

Sparedirves are possible.