zfs tweaks/settings/recommendations for max performance? adding 2x500gb 2x1tb (2.5in)

[zenowl77]

thinking about adding 2x500gb 5900RPM 3.5in hdds and 2x1tb 2.5in (5400RPM CMR) drives to my server with ZFS raid 0, purely for VMs and to offload data from larger drives, will not be used for backups or anything else just live VMs that could be restored from backups at any time if a raid0 drive fails, any suggestions?

(main VMs/LXCs are kept on 1tb nvme and 1tb sata ssd, i offload vms not frequently used, low performance requirement and those with AI models and other really large files to slower drives to save space)

 

[UdoB]

ZFS raid 0

Personally I am not brave enough for that.

That's rotating rust. Adding a fast "Special Device" (mirrored, please!) would boost its overall performance IOPS-wise drastically. SD may be small, below 1 percent of the actual storage. For 5 TB --> 50 GB would probably be plenty.

 

[zenowl77]

Personally I am not brave enough for that.

That's rotating rust. Adding a fast "Special Device" (mirrored, please!) would boost its overall performance IOPS-wise drastically. SD may be small, below 1 percent of the actual storage. For 5 TB --> 50 GB would probably be plenty.

I may go the route of a special device, i would much rather prefer mirrored too, but i cannot afford more drives at the moment and i need more space desperately. So these spare drives are my only option to expand and i cant sacrifice half of their capacity with how badly i need the space.