3. Hardware
OmniOS runs on common desktop and serverhardware, see http://illumos.org/hcl/
You should mainly care about the network and the disk controller.
Rules for a trouble free minimal system
- use Sata/ AHCI with a 30GB Bootsdisk (60GB when using the napp-it ToGo image)
- prefer Intel nics
- use at least 4 GB ECC RAM (2 GB is the absolute minimum, more gives performance as readcache)
- use at least 8GB if you enable na--it realtime monitoring or acceleration
- enabling dedup may increase these minimums
Rules for barebone „quality storage“ or „Napp-in-One“
- use server class hardware/ server chipsets and IPMI remote management
- use ECC RAM and an Sata bootdidk/ DOM with 60GB or more (SuperMicro DOM or prefer an Intel S3510)
- use a Celeron G4400 or a Xeon as they offers ECC support and vt-d (virtualized SAN)
- use Intel Nics (10 GbE preferred, ex Intel X540)
- use LSI HBA with raidless IT firmware, ex LSI 9207 that comes with IT firmware per default
- prefer SAS disks with an expander
- use SAS disks for HA solutions based on Multipath IO
- prefer Sata disks with multiple HBAs (without expander)
- prefer 24/7 enterprise disks
Rules for high capacity storage
- prefer raid Z2 vdevs with 6 or 10 disks or Z3 vdevs with 11 disks
- prefer enterprise SAS disks or 24/7 high quality Sata/ NAS drives
- with desktop disks, check reliability, ex with backplaze annual failure rates
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/best-hard-drive-q4-2014/
Rules for High-Performance storage
- prefer Enterprise SSD with powerloss protection and build in overprovisioning
like Intel S3500-S3710 or Samsung PM/SM 863 series - optionally use manual overprovisioning
example with a host protected area (HPA) on new SSDs
You can create a HPA with hdat2, http://www.hdat2.com/
Rules for fast but write secure storage like ESXi datastores
- use sync write with a dedicated high perfomance Slog device
Rules for a dedicated Slog device
- ultra low latency
- continous high write iops, even under load
- powerloss protection
- should be noticable faster than your pool like Intel S3700 with a disk pool or a ZeusRAM with an SSD pool
- examples: ZeusRAM, a Dram based device (best of all) or Intel S3700/ 3710
more: http://napp-it.org >> Sample Configs
Summary of Contents for ZFS Storage
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