From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Thu Oct 15 12:44:31 2015 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B6444A13C5D for ; Thu, 15 Oct 2015 12:44:31 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wam@hiwaay.net) Received: from fly.hiwaay.net (fly.hiwaay.net [216.180.54.1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 6E374163A for ; Thu, 15 Oct 2015 12:44:30 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wam@hiwaay.net) Received: from kabini1.local (dynamic-216-186-213-32.knology.net [216.186.213.32] (may be forged)) (authenticated bits=0) by fly.hiwaay.net (8.13.8/8.13.8/fly) with ESMTP id t9FCiSwm029911 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA bits=128 verify=NO) for ; Thu, 15 Oct 2015 07:44:29 -0500 To: FreeBSD Questions !!!! From: "William A. Mahaffey III" Subject: Follow-up install questions Message-ID: <561F9FAC.9080308@hiwaay.net> Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2015 07:49:58 -0453.75 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/38.3.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2015 12:44:31 -0000 Pursuant to ongoing issues trying to install FreeBSD 9.3R on my Myth-TV box, I have some questions about provisioning another box, also w/ 9.3R. That box is AMD A-10 APU based, w/ 8X 1 TB 2.5" HDD's. Given the problems I am having getting the (smaller, simpler box) going. I am pondering using ZFS on the larger box. To that end, I have a couple of questions. ZFS supports (man page) 'unmirrored pools'. Is that tantamount to striped RAID ? If so, what sort of I/O performance can I look for there ? There was a lengthy thread a few weeks ago on ZFS & performance. I (think I) recall someone saying they used a bunch of 1-HDD vdevs to get some semblance of good I/O performance w/ a RAIDZn configuration, is that (additional layer of config) actually required ? My man page says vdev's can be single devices or 'a collection of devices', with devices being disks (individual HDD's ?), files, mirrors, or raidz's. Are those mirrors necessarily ZFS mirrors, or can they be gmirrors ? I am interested in maximizing the size of the storage pool available, & the best I/O performance I can get. This box will be backed up across the LAN onto other boxen, so I am worrying less about HDD reliability & more about performance & max available GiB's/TiB's. TIA & have a good one. -- William A. Mahaffey III ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "The M1 Garand is without doubt the finest implement of war ever devised by man." -- Gen. George S. Patton Jr.