[OpenIndiana-discuss] ML350G6 What to do?

[the outsider]

I already use OI 151a9 on a HP N54L server since 2013 but I build it poorly,
with 2x2TB in basic ZFS mirror and 1 very old 250GB for OI itself. 

 

To prevent myself from disaster I searched for a bargain and found something
nicely second hand, so I bought an HP ML350G6 with the (infamous) P410i RAID
card with 512MB RAM and battery backup. 

Server has 1 Xeon L5630, 6x 3,5" SAS/SATA bays and 32 GB RAM. It should
consume low power due to the 40W processor. 

 

it is just a little bit bigger then the HP microserver ;-) But now I have a
battery backupped HD controller, 32GB RAM and 6 3,5" bays and it was cheaper
than a new Microserver. 

 

The server is for home use. I would appreciate suggestions based on the
following needs:

1. the server needs to run several Solaris zones for testing and separating
different jobs

2. the server needs to have SATA drives (WD RED series) 2,3 or 4 TB each

3. idea is to create a ZFS RAID Z2 pool with 4 or more drives

 

The questions I have:

1. What should I install: OI Hipster or OI 151a8 or ??

2. What is the current limit for OI and WD RED series SATA drive sizes? 

3. I could create a RAID1 config on the P410i with 2x 500GB for the OI OS,
then I am a bit safer regarding disk failure. But would it work? 

4. Because the P410i doesn't have JBOD function I want to set all disks as
RAID0 single disk and create a ZFS pool around them, or ? 

 

Br,

Roel