SSD Tiering on ReadyNas104

[alexejCederholm]

I am currently running a ReadyNas 104 (firmware 6.10.1) with 3 x 4tb drives in X-Raid mode.

I received a 250gb SSD drive and would like to understand how I best can utlise it, my current options are:

1: Convert the X-Raid to Flex-Raid and utlize the SSD as a metadata tier or data tier - not sure if this is possible with just one SSD drive.

2: Convert the X-Raid to Flex-Raid and add the SSD as a new volume utlising it for non-sensitive data that I need faster access to

3: Add the SSD to the X-raid - don't really know if this makes any perfomance sense at all. 

Thank you in advance

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

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@alexejCederholm wrote:

3: Add the SSD to the X-raid - don't really know if this makes any perfomance sense at all. 

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It doesn't, so take that one off the table

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@alexejCederholm wrote:

1: Convert the X-Raid to Flex-Raid and utlize the SSD as a metadata tier or data tier - not sure if this is possible with just one SSD drive.

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It is possible to do this, but it is risky.  When the SSD fails (as it eventually will when it reaches it's write limit) you will lose the entire data volume.  Note that you can't just use the SSD as a cache (and the data tier is built on top of a metadata tier - there's no way I know of to turn the metadata tiering off).

I'd be keener on this if you had two SSDs.

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@alexejCederholm wrote:

2: Convert the X-Raid to Flex-Raid and add the SSD as a new volume utlising it for non-sensitive data that I need faster access to

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Persoally I think you should go with this one.  Put folders with lots of small files on this volume, as these have the worst performance with SMB/mechanical disks.

Since the SSD is pretty small, you can back it up to the main RAID array (which of course should itself be backed up).

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

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@alexejCederholm wrote:

3: Add the SSD to the X-raid - don't really know if this makes any perfomance sense at all. 

---

It doesn't, so take that one off the table

---

@alexejCederholm wrote:

1: Convert the X-Raid to Flex-Raid and utlize the SSD as a metadata tier or data tier - not sure if this is possible with just one SSD drive.

---

It is possible to do this, but it is risky.  When the SSD fails (as it eventually will when it reaches it's write limit) you will lose the entire data volume.  Note that you can't just use the SSD as a cache (and the data tier is built on top of a metadata tier - there's no way I know of to turn the metadata tiering off).

I'd be keener on this if you had two SSDs.

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@alexejCederholm wrote:

2: Convert the X-Raid to Flex-Raid and add the SSD as a new volume utlising it for non-sensitive data that I need faster access to

---

Persoally I think you should go with this one.  Put folders with lots of small files on this volume, as these have the worst performance with SMB/mechanical disks.

Since the SSD is pretty small, you can back it up to the main RAID array (which of course should itself be backed up).

[alexejCederholm]

Thank you @StephenB for the clarification. Will go with the extra volume solution as it makes most sense.