ZFS special device

sub2o5

Active Member
Nov 5, 2021
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Hello,

i found several pages on the net stating the specialdevice gets around 75% used per default, but this setting can be changed.
No one mentioned where this can be done, i only found one setting with 75 for l2arc, which, obviously, is something different.

Does anyone know more?

I also know, that you can't remove a specialdevice BUT you can add additional specialdevices, much like in regular RAID10 ZFS.

But can you also add a larger specialdevice (either to the vdev mirror or as separate vdev) AND then, after sync, remove the old specialdevice for additional space?

I would really appreciate some clarification as i've chosen some slightly to small ssds for the specialdevice and may run into the 75% limit soon.

Kind regards
Stephan

PS: This is a crosspost - i also posted to the national proxmox forum and tried to translate as good as possible. I'll share the answers in both threads, of course!
 
Quick follow up:

you can simply increase the size of your specialdevice by setting "autoexpand=on" and adding bigger mirrors. After removing the last small device, the specialdevice automatically gets expanded to the next bigger devs!