OpenZFS on OS X

I am getting rid of my Drobo (now unsupported) and need a home for multiple drives (I would like to try RAIDZ (2+1). Is it possible to use something like this:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MEQX2KIT0GBR/ to install the drives in.

The price looks right (and I need FW800) but I am uncertain about the hardware support with regards to the dial for settings: see video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMIbBc9LRls#t=50

Is this device ok or should I be looking at something else?

I already have a zpool in my mac pro (2x 1.5TB mirrored), but want another external zpool for archiving older data.

Thanks for any pointers.

robbrown99,

You'd probably want to place that set of drives in "IND" mode, assuming that is JBOD mode.

It's unlikely that you will get a concrete recommendation for that particular chassis unless one of our users has one. The project itself does not have a particularly large collection of test hardware I'm afraid.

Cheers
Brendon

robbrown99 wrote:I am getting rid of my Drobo (now unsupported) and need a home for multiple drives (I would like to try RAIDZ (2+1). Is it possible to use something like this:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MEQX2KIT0GBR/ to install the drives in.

The price looks right (and I need FW800) but I am uncertain about the hardware support with regards to the dial for settings: see video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMIbBc9LRls#t=50

Is this device ok or should I be looking at something else?

I already have a zpool in my mac pro (2x 1.5TB mirrored), but want another external zpool for archiving older data.

Thanks for any pointers.

Yeah basically, if you can set it to JBOD, and the disks show in OSX as /dev/diskX, then we can use them. Generally, if OSX sees the disks, we see the disks.

But alas, I have no such hardware to test with.

Thanks for the info. There's a 'span' setting (non-RAID), which I guess would be what I'm after. I will try it out.

Idea: perhaps we should start a list of enclosures that have user success on the wiki? Might help others decide whether it is worth the jump?

IND sounds like individual disks, ie JBOD. Span could mean one large concatenated volume which you dont want?

Ah yes that is definitely not wanted. I found a slightly different model that does have jbod / independent support. Thanks for the advice.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

robbrown99 wrote:I am getting rid of my Drobo (now unsupported) and need a home for multiple drives (I would like to try RAIDZ (2+1). Is it possible to use something like this:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MEQX2KIT0GBR/ to install the drives in.
...

There are two different version of the OWC's Mercury Qx2 enclosures. You linked the old one.
The latest one has USB3.0 rather than just USB2, plus FW800 and eSATA interfaces:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/M3QX2KIT0GB/
Only this latest USB3-version has IND (independent disks == JBOD) as an dial option - the previous USB2 version doesn't!

I am using this OWC Mercury enclosure (USB3+FW800+eSATA) myself since about two months without major problems from the hardware side.
Its connected with FW800 to a Mac Mini, set to IND and has a RAIDZ2 pool on it. RAIDZ2 over Firewire to 4 independent disks is however quite slow...
I plan to try an eSATA to thunderbolt adapter as soon as I can get hold of one.

roemer wrote:I am using this OWC Mercury enclosure (USB3+FW800+eSATA) myself since about two months without major problems from the hardware side.
Its connected with FW800 to a Mac Mini, set to IND and has a RAIDZ2 pool on it. RAIDZ2 over Firewire to 4 independent disks is however quite slow...
I plan to try an eSATA to thunderbolt adapter as soon as I can get hold of one.

Ok, since one week I have an eSATA/USB3-to-Thunderbolt adapter in place between the OWC Mercury and the Mac Mini (from Kanex: http://www.kanexlive.com/thunderbolt-esata). I am using the eSATA interface. This tripled my transfer rates as compared to Firewire 800. In fact read access is now faster than my network connection can handle (accessing file server via Gig Ethernet; WLAN obviously is worse . Before that, my RAID configuration was really only usable as a read-mostly archive, now it finally shows no difference to a local HDD. No problems so far. Awesome.

I've been running on a Mediasonic ProBox 4-bay via USB 3.0 since the day the installer dropped.
I also have my disks set to sleep when not in use on my media server, which works flawlessly as well.

Transfer speeds are in the 250-300mb/s range, which is far faster than a single USB3 external tested at (114mb/s).

roemer,

I have just ordered an adapter and external enclosure. Can you share you config of ZFS Pools, setting, etc. that you have found optimal?

I have esata 4 disk, mac mini 16G ram, Core i7 which use as a normal pc as well
I am thinking of Raidz1 since disk failure seems so seldom I have a hard time seeing 2 disks fail at once.

Thanks!