ZFS Pools, Storage and VM's - newbie

[quiOt]

Hi,

I've a bunch of disk laying around and a small server and want to try proxmox with zfs.

My Hardware:
- 3 x 6TB WD RED Plus
- 2 x 4TB WD RED Plus
- 1 x 1TB WD RED Plus
- 1 x 250GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD +
- 1 x 250GB Crucial CT250BX SSD
- AOC-SAS2LP-MV8
- 16GB RAM ECC

I was planning installing Proxmox on 1TB disk and to create two mirrored zpools for VM's. One with the 6TB disks and the Samsung 840 EVO partitioned to be used as cache and log and the same setup with the 4TB + Crucial CT250BX. Is this the best configuration ?

 

[aschiefer]

Hi,
if you want do use ZFS as datastorage dont use WD RED!!
We had a lot of trouble with WD RED in ZFS Pool ans so we had to change them.
Take a look here: https://www.truenas.com/docs/hardware/notices/componentarticles/wdsmr/
Greetings
Andreas

 

[UdoB]

if you want do use ZFS as datastorage dont use WD RED!!

The point is to avoid SMR by any means. There are a lot of WD REDs with "normal" technology. I am using several of them with ZFS without problems. And I also fell into that pitfall once - I can confirm "Shingled" is "problematic" :-(

 

[Dunuin]

You can google the Model and check if that model is using CMR or SMR. "WD Red Plus" should always be CMR and fine. Old "WD Reds" were all CMR too but later they also used SMR.

And like already said, SMR HDDs or QLC SSDs aren't really usable with ZFS.
ZFS also needs alot of RAM, so your 16GB aren't really that much if you also want to run some guests. You should plan to use atleast 8GB RAM for the ARC and 2GB for PVE so only 6GB left for guests.