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Question about what to put on RAID and what to put on NVME (self.selfhosted)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by ch00f to c/selfhosted

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Since 2016, I've had a fileserver mostly just for backups. System is on 1 drive, RAID6 for files, and semi-annual cold backup.

I was playing with Photoprism, and their docs say "we recommend placing the storage folder on a local SSD drive for best performance." In this case, the storage folder holds basically everything but the pictures themselves such as the database files.

Up until now, if I lost any database files, it was just a matter of rebuilding them by re-indexing my photos or whatever, but I'm looking for something more robust since I'll have some friends/family using Pixelfed, Matrix, etc.

So my question is: Is it a valid strategy to keep database files on the SSD with some kind of nightly backup to RAID, or should I just store the whole lot on the RAID from the get go? Or does it even matter if all of these databases can fit in RAM anyway?

edit: I'm just now learning of ZFS caching which might be my answer.

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[–] ch00f 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I understand all of that. Sorry I didn't explain it well.

I have a RAID6 for data and a single HDD for system files. I'd like to move the HDD to an NVME/SSD. I suppose I could make another RAID with an additional NVME, but I've found it easier to deal with booting off a traditional drive.

My solution for redundancy for the NVME is to just backup the bits that I need every night. These are usually just a few hundred megabyte database files. I'm curious if that's a typical solution.

edit: to clarify, it's a software raid with mdadm.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I just made a mirror out of two NVMes―they got cheap enough not to bother too much with the loss of capacity. Of course, that limits what I can put there, so I use a bit of a tiered storage between my NVMe and HDD pools.

Just think in terms of data loss: are you going to be ok if you lost the data between backups? If the answer is yes, one NVMe is enough.

[–] ch00f 1 points 2 days ago

Yeah, I'm only serving one timezone, so if I can swing nightly backups at periods of low activity, I'd only be out 1 day which isn't that big.