[OpenIndiana-discuss] HP N40L configuration as a ZFS server

[Sašo Kiselkov]

On 01/24/2013 10:13 PM, Reginald Beardsley wrote:
>  
> I just unpacked an N40L and had a look around. It came w/ a single 2 GB DIMM.
> Would 4 GB be sufficient for a generally light load single user environment?

Absolutely.

> What sort of disk throughput should I expect w/ that?

That largely depends on how you structure your storage and services. If
you don't mess up the configuration too much, the machine has certainly
enough oomph to saturate that gigabit ethernet port (I have an N36L, I
speak from personal experience). Make sure you flash the new BIOS that
will enable you to use all 6 SATA ports (5 internal + 1 external) in
AHCI mode, if you plan on loading the box up to the max (without
expander cards).

> If I can get good performance over NFS to my Z400 I might move all my user
> files to the N40L and just use the disk in the Z400 for scratch space. Of
> course, then I'll need another N40L for a backup server ;-)

I'm using my N36L as a home storage machine, a hypervisor (zones +
VirtualBox) and generally all the kinds of home server use you can imagine.

> As I read things, I can create some small (e.g. 100 GB) slices on each of
> 4 3-4 TB disks w/ the rest of each disk in a single slice. Can one create
> a 4-way mirrored rpool w/ all the rest in a 4 slice RAIDZ pool?

Sure, this will work without hassle, though I'd personally go for 2
small SSDs for the rpool mirror + l2arc, and load the front up with 4
large-capacity drives for a single raidz "tank" pool.

> Would a 2-way rpool and a 2-way log pool be better use of disk space?

What do you mean by "log pool"? If you plan on using a separate log
(slog, aka ZIL) device, don't use spinning rust, go for a fast SSD with
a supercap, or an NVRAM unit (e.g. ZeusRAM), but those can be quite
expensive.

> I'm running a 2-way rpool and single disk scratch pool on my Sol 10
> box and a single disk pool on the OI box right now.  Data moves from
> the OI internet system to the Sol 10 system by means of a ZFS pool on
> a USB hard drive.

You'd probably be much better off just using incremental send/receive -
gig ethernet has much higher bandwidth than sneaker net over USB drives.

> Am I missing something?  Has anyone done a writeup relevant to this sort
> of thing I should read?  Andy provided a good bit of advice already
> which gave me confidence I wouldn't end up w/ shelfware.

I'm not aware of anything, but the N40L is a reliable little machine and
runs OI just fine with everything supported out of the box. You
certainly won't be disappointed.

> Also is eSATA port replication still not working outside of Windows?
>  I've got a 4 slot eSATA/USB box sitting idle that it would be nice
> to be able to use for making backups.

eSATA is just a regular SATA port in a different form factor. If you
plan on using it, though, be sure to google for the Russian BIOS update
for the N40L that will make both the eSATA and the internal CD-ROM SATA
port appear as native AHCI SATA ports, giving you the ability to
hot-plug stuff. I use an eSATA-to-SATA cable to just loop the external
connector back inside the box to hook up more drives. I've seen people
stuff as much as 8 drives in a MicroServer, though that's obviously
pushing the envelope somewhat. 6 drives, however, shouldn't be a problem.

Enjoy your little server, I absolutely adore these machines myself and
highly recommend them to suitably technically-skilled users instead of a
NAS blackbox.

Cheers,
--
Saso