newbie zfs query - usb3 or sata?

[Freddie Cash]

On Wed, Oct 2, 2013 at 10:01 AM, John <freebsd-fs at potato.growveg.org> wrote:

> 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?


​If there's an option to use SATA (even eSATA), then use it.

While the theoretical performance of USB3 is good, the CPU load isn't worth
it, especially if using 4 separate USB3 port.  And, USB has a nasty habit
of every now and then messing up a SCSI command or dropping a device off
the bus, or otherwise doing "not very nice" things.


-- 
Freddie Cash
fjwcash at gmail.com