From owner-freebsd-fs@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Oct 2 17:02:04 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-fs@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C3AE3319 for ; Wed, 2 Oct 2013 17:02:04 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from john@potato.growveg.org) Received: from potato.growveg.org (growveg-1-pt.tunnel.tserv11.ams1.ipv6.he.net [IPv6:2001:470:1f14:3d2::2]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 7FE9A28BB for ; Wed, 2 Oct 2013 17:02:04 +0000 (UTC) Received: from john by potato.growveg.org with local (Exim 4.80.1 (FreeBSD)) (envelope-from ) id 1VRPoF-0001ro-5M for freebsd-fs@freebsd.org; Wed, 02 Oct 2013 18:01:59 +0100 Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2013 18:01:59 +0100 From: John To: freebsd-fs@freebsd.org Subject: newbie zfs query - usb3 or sata? Message-ID: <20131002170159.GA6937@potato.growveg.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) Sender: John X-SA-Exim-Connect-IP: X-SA-Exim-Mail-From: john@potato.growveg.org X-SA-Exim-Scanned: No (on potato.growveg.org); SAEximRunCond expanded to false X-BeenThere: freebsd-fs@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Filesystems List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 17:02:04 -0000 Hello freebsd-fs. I have a possible newbie question, and am not sure if this should go into -hardware: I have the situation where I need to add more hard drives but I haven't got the space in the existing box. So I have two choices - make a DAS box out of a SATA connection or make one out of a USB3 connection (using a Highpoint usb3 card with 4 ports and 4 channels). I'll be ZFS-ing them together on 9.2-R. The question is, under zfs which kind of setup will be better? I can stick 8GB RAM into the machine. I want to get 4x 4Tb drives. With the 4-port card, one will go into each port. Similarly with a 4-port SATA. Performance-wise is there much in it, and will ZFS be able to handle it. The machine is a desktop. The other thing I need to know is, should the machine die, can I just pull the card/disks and put it into another freebsd machine, install zfs and expect the data to still be there? thanks, -- John