[OpenIndiana-discuss] zfs and usb drives

[Jay Heyl]

A while ago I put together a server using OI and zfs that I was hoping
would provide me room to grow for well into the future. While I'm not yet
running out of room, the usage chart shows the future approaching
considerably faster than I had hoped. The primary storage pool is composed
of ten drives in a raidz2 setup. Given the current price of hard drives
combined with wanting to make the next jump another similar ten drive array
(plus some issues not really relevant to the question I'm getting to), I've
been considering some cheaper alternatives for staying ahead of the growth
curve.

A fair amount of what I currently have on the server could be classified as
non-critical. I'd rather not lose it, but I won't cry too hard if I do.

One idea is to use the external USB drives I've collected to create a
separate pool for the non-critical data. I have four 2TB USB drives that
have been performing flawlessly connected to Windows systems for quite a
while. Any opinions on using them to set up another raidz pool? Is this a
reasonable idea or a really bad idea?

I'd be inclined to go with raidz1 on this new pool simply to not give up
50% of the storage to "parity" data. (I might be convinced to buy another
2TB drive to get a 60/40 split on a raidz2 pool.) I realize there's also
the option of just going JBOD for the non-critical stuff, but I think I"d
prefer the greater level of assurance provided by raidz.

Informed thoughts on this topic will be greatly appreciated.

  -- Jay