Raid Configure help

[Pirateben]

 

I got a new server and it has 8 1.2tb hdd it is a poweredge 730xd from Dell what would be the best set up for having the os being installed and the rest for vms and what not

[tkitch]

do you have space to install a small SSD?

Put TrueNAS or similar on a small ssd (128gb is MORE than enough)

 

Then do 8 disk RaidZ2 (2 drive parity) Giving you ~6TB of drive space, and up to 2 disks can fail before you lose data.

[Pirateben]

No room for an ssd ..I could get an m.2 adapter and use that for the os... the adapter allows for 2 m.2 card you think I should put them in a raid then add the hdd in there own raidz2 and what raid would the m.2 be raid 1?

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 hour ago, Pirateben said:

No room for an ssd ..I could get an m.2 adapter and use that for the os... the adapter allows for 2 m.2 card you think I should put them in a raid then add the hdd in there own raidz2 and what raid would the m.2 be raid 1?

What adapter? Make sure it has bifurcation support.

 

What raid card does the server have? If it has hardware raid, use the hardware raid card, and you can also boot from the main array if yo want.

 

What os are you using? I'd try to get ssds as hdds are gonna be slow for vms.

[ChrisLoudon]

5 hours ago, Pirateben said:

I got a new server and it has 8 1.2tb hdd it is a poweredge 730xd from Dell what would be the best set up for having the os being installed and the rest for vms and what not

Give Unraid a shot as it runs from a USB drive so doesn't take up an existing hard drive. Its not free but worth it imho.

 

You'll definitely need an SSD in there as a cache drive. You're VMs will be super slow running from spinning metal.

 

Can you sacrifice an existing hard drive to make space for an SSD and run it with single parity allowing for one drive to fail?

[Pirateben]

2 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What adapter? Make sure it has bifurcation support.

 

What raid card does the server have? If it has hardware raid, use the hardware raid card, and you can also boot from the main array if yo want.

 

What os are you using? I'd try to get ssds as hdds are gonna be slow for vms.

The adapter  is this one https://cloudninjas.com/products/supermicro-nvme-m-2-pcie-adapter-card from this video 

 

 

I do have a hardware  controller  card it is this one RAID Hardware: Dell PERC H730 1GB Cache Mini Mono RAID Controller

 

I want proxmox as the server os then a vm for local ai one for docker one as a Nas and maybe one for gaming...I got hdd and not ssds because the trays are 10$ and a tray and 1.5 tbs hdd was 20 but an ssd was 100+ each so if I need more I'll upgrade 

[Pirateben]

3 minutes ago, ChrisLoudon said:

Give Unraid a shot as it runs from a USB drive so doesn't take up an existing hard drive. Its not free but worth it imho.

 

You'll definitely need an SSD in there as a cache drive. You're VMs will be super slow running from spinning metal.

 

Can you sacrifice an existing hard drive to make space for an SSD and run it with single parity allowing for one drive to fail?

I want to add a vm as a Nas like that they are HDD 1.2TB SAS 10K 2.5 12Gb/s with Tray caddy look to my post above why I picked them

[ChrisLoudon]

1 hour ago, Pirateben said:

I want to add a vm as a Nas like that they are HDD 1.2TB SAS 10K 2.5 12Gb/s with Tray caddy look to my post above why I picked them

Was just thinking about performance when writing to the array.

 

My Unraid server has all docker containers and VMs running within the Cache and any file moves or writes set to cache > array with a 'mover' scheduled to run every day at about 3am.

 

Without that, my whole array would slow down as it will be stuck writing parity although you may not have that issue with 10k SAS drives.

[Electronics Wizardy]

8 hours ago, Pirateben said:

I do have a hardware  controller  card it is this one RAID Hardware: Dell PERC H730 1GB Cache Mini Mono RAID Controller

 

I want proxmox as the server os then a vm for local ai one for docker one as a Nas and maybe one for gaming...I got hdd and not ssds because the trays are 10$ and a tray and 1.5 tbs hdd was 20 but an ssd was 100+ each so if I need more I'll upgrade 

I'd be tempted to skip the SSD boot drives and boot from the main array. Then setup a hardware raid 10/6 and put your VMs on it. Should be slow but doable performance here.