4GB RAM limitation?

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4GB RAM limitation?

Post by Watson » Thu Sep 27, 2012 9:50 pm

Thanks so much for the community edition of Zevo! Unfortunately, I can't upgrade my previous Z410 installation because the installer now checks whether you have 4GB of RAM and quits immediately if you don't. My machine only has 2GB. Is 4GB actually mandatory, or could the check be removed? Z410 seemed to work fine for me before (it's a home server with a very, very limited workload).
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Re: 4GB RAM limitation?

Post by chipped » Fri Sep 28, 2012 2:22 am

2GB RAM is pushing it, even for an extremely light workload. Can't the machine be upgraded?

4GB, or even 8GB won't break the bank :roll:
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Re: 4GB RAM limitation?

Post by coreyriggle » Fri Sep 28, 2012 9:26 am

I think a lot of us have slightly older macbooks or imacs that have ram limitations of 2-3 gb that we'd like to re purpose.
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Re: 4GB RAM limitation?

Post by grahamperrin » Sun Sep 30, 2012 12:47 am

ZFSTuningGuide - FreeBSD Wiki (work in progress) observes:

… to use ZFS on systems with less memory … requires careful tuning to avoid panics from memory exhaustion in the kernel. …


Watson wrote:… home server with a very, very limited workload).


How much storage? ZFS guidelines suggest 1 GB of ARC for every TB.

Add to that limited workload and indeterminate storage … something relatively ordinary (say, a scrub with too little memory) or something extraordinary, and you may run the risk of a kernel panic.
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Re: 4GB RAM limitation?

Post by wdonne » Sun Oct 28, 2012 2:25 pm

The tuning guide mentioned in this thread show examples of low-memory installations. So it is possible. The installer could use other arc_max and cache parameters when it detects lower memory conditions instead of just quitting. If this has performance repercussions the installer could warn the user.
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Re: 4GB RAM limitation?

Post by microsponge » Wed Oct 31, 2012 11:05 am

coreyriggle wrote:I think a lot of us have slightly older macbooks or imacs that have ram limitations of 2-3 gb that we'd like to re purpose.

Thats exactly my problem too. It would be really great to use it with 3GB RAM on one's own responsibility. Is there any way?
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Re: 4GB RAM limitation?

Post by poswald » Sat Nov 03, 2012 2:13 am

I'm personally looking to manage a relatively small amount of storage.

This is an enthusiast’s product, and as such, is designed for advanced users.

http://www.getgreenbytes.com/zevo/

I am willing to take responsibility for my decisions. In the past it has worked well with my amount of storage and workload with only 2GB of memory.
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Re: 4GB RAM limitation?

Post by timauton » Sat Nov 03, 2012 2:10 pm

This limitation eliminates an entire class of machines which are perfectly capable of running ZFS - all the older Core/Core2 machines with a 3GB RAM limit (well, they'll take 4 but only 3.3 is usable).

I guess I'll have to stick with HFS+ for my mid-2007 Mac Mini, even though with 3 GB of RAM, less than 1 TB of storage and nothing major running (it's just a server) it should be perfectly capable of running ZFS.
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Re: 4GB RAM limitation?

Post by grahamperrin » Sat Nov 03, 2012 3:25 pm

timauton wrote:… stick with HFS+ for my mid-2007 Mac Mini … 3 GB of RAM … a server …


Your Mac matches the system requirements for MacZFS … would that be a good fit?
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cross reference

Post by grahamperrin » Tue Nov 20, 2012 6:27 pm

Off-topic from installation of ZEVO

Now in the general discussion area: memory usage, kernel_task and zstat
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