Repository suggestions

[m1kkel]

Hello.

Need a good advice for my backup repository.

I've built a large box with 12 SATA disks, and 2 entreprise SSD's for ZIL and L2ARC and installed freenas. Setup iscsi extent, and been using it for veeam backup as primary repository.

However it's been filling and filling, and it seems like there is some bugs with iscsi and fragmentation etc. I've been running RAid Z2 in two vdevs.

So i was thinking of installing a decent raid card, and using Raid 10 instead, but i need som software on top of the box.

Was thinking windows server 2012 because it have ssd caching and dedupe - or maybe using windows storage spaces.

Alternatively a linux distro with pre built n as functionality - however i dont want to spend to much time finding and solvings bugs etc. i neeed something that just works.

Last, i have a 3par storage system, and in the future i wich to attach my proxy with FC to the 3par array, and also attach the proxy to the backup repository, via fc or 10G ethernet, because we need to be able to restore faster than with our 1G network can give us, so the appliance must support using a FC HBA or alternatively 10G nic so i can restore directly to my 3par. Other suggestions?

[PTide]

Hi,

I've been running RAid Z2 in two vdevs.

Please note that ZFS is reported to be not the best solution in terms of performance.

as thinking windows server 2012 because it have ssd caching and dedupe - or maybe using windows storage spaces.

Good option, however the performance may suffer if deduplication is enabled. For more info on how to configure repository with storage spaces please take a look at this thread.

Alternatively a linux distro with pre built n as functionality - however i dont want to spend to much time finding and solvings bugs etc. i neeed something that just works.

If you pick up some mainstream distro it won't take you much time and efforts to configure a repository of it. There is also an article our engineer's blog with step-by-step guide.

<...>i wish to attach my proxy with FC to the 3par array, and also attach the proxy to the backup repository, via fc or 10G ethernet, because we need to be able to restore faster than with our 1G network can give us, so the appliance must support using a FC HBA or alternatively 10G nic so i can restore directly to my 3par.

Sounds good. With fast FC/iSCSI connection between production storage and proxy you'll get the fastest speed possible. Please check this article.

Thank you.

[m1kkel]

Okay cool, thanks for that.
I got to thinking, maybe i should use server 2012, and also use that server as our Veeam proxy server, since the data is sitting locally on the server. However, if i do that, i wont be able to use hot add mode anymore, so i guess it will first be really good when i add FC hba to the server..

[Vitaliy S.]

Please take a look through this existing topic, should be a good read > Recommendations for backup storage, backup target

Last, i have a 3par storage system, and in the future i wich to attach my proxy with FC to the 3par array, and also attach the proxy to the backup repository, via fc or 10G ethernet, because we need to be able to restore faster than with our 1G network can give us, so the appliance must support using a FC HBA or alternatively 10G nic so i can restore directly to my 3par. Other suggestions?

All restores are happening through ESXi network interface, so if you want to have faster restores, then either hotadd VM proxy or direct SAN restore process will be required.

[m1kkel]

Thanks for that really interessting article.

What i will do is install server 2012R2 on my freenas box which have xeon processor and plenty of memory, i will configure storage spaces with my SSD disks as cache, and attach this box directly to our fc switches to make makeup and restore directly from san. This is much better than using ZFS to iscsi extent, to windows virtual proxy server formatted in ntfs. Too many layers.
THanks

[ngagne]

However it's been filling and filling, and it seems like there is some bugs with iscsi and fragmentation etc. I've been running RAid Z2 in two vdevs.

So i was thinking of installing a decent raid card, and using Raid 10 instead, but i need som software on top of the box.

Was thinking windows server 2012 because it have ssd caching and dedupe - or maybe using windows storage spaces.

RAID Z2 isn't a good choice. Aside from the double parity write penalty, resilvering times are greatly increased (and along with it, load). Use mirrored vdevs instead. http://jrs-s.net/2015/02/06/zfs-you-sho ... not-raidz/ Also, while FreeNAS isn't fundamentally bad, it does require that you understand ZFS and implement a lot of hardware to get the best performance out of it.

Storage Spaces - just like with ZFS, you do not want to use a RAID controller, unless the controller supports pure HBA or JBOD mode. Both ZFS and Storage Spaces need access to the physical disk, unencumbered by controller abstraction. You should also use mirrors and not any sort of parity, for the same reasons as above. The SSD cache is a good idea too.

[m1kkel]

My system was built with hba's only and withour raid controllers, so yes, i agree with you. WIll use raid10 from now on, and have only 7 days of retention on primary.