[OpenIndiana-discuss] SSDs for OI hipster ZFS root mirror?

[Gary Mills]

On Sat, Aug 14, 2021 at 02:35:12PM +1000, Carl Brewer wrote:
> 
> Rather than use a couple of 1TB WD red pros or Blacks, is it a good choice
> to run a ZFS root mirror on a couple of SSDs? I figure I'd only need 250MB
> or so, all the data etc will be on spinning drives in a raidZ-something
> array, the root system - apart from swap, will be pretty static read-mostly

That's my usual configuration.  I use a pair of SSDs in a ZFS mirror
for the root filesystem, with the data on a separate ZFS filesystem.
That way you can replace the OS but retain the data if necessary.
It's never been necessary for me.

> So I'm considering running a couple of Samsung 250GB SSDs, any thoughts or
> war stories before I go and buy them? Is it better to stagger them in terms
> of age, or different brands/models so they don't both run out of writes at
> the same time?  Is this setting me up for a disaster in 3 years, or will it
> be predictable and easy to maintain?

I usually get the smallest SSDs that I can find.  The OS is not very
large.  Depending on the amount of memory the system has, you may need
a large amount of swap space on the SSDs.  Don't skimp.

Using different brands of SSDs is a good idea too, but I've never been
able to do that.

You can get brackets that hold two SSDs but fit into one slot on the
case.  That's a good idea if the case is short of slots.

> I don't think there's any status monitoring software for them that would run
> on OI?

It might already be ported to OI but just not on the USB image.  I
don't know.


-- 
-Gary Mills-		-refurb-		-Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada-