Hello!
Please, can you tell me how to start because I’m little confused.
I have the opportunity to take over a Lenovo P520 machine at a great price. I would like to use it for TrueNas Scale. However, I require 2x m.2 SSD drives in “mirror” configuration (for safety reasons ONLY FOR the operating system!).
The motherboard supports build in RAID mirror for m.2 SSD but requires an Intel VROC key.
Is there an option to install TrueNas Scale in the above configuration - but without having to use/buy an Intel VROC key?
I know that TrueNas does not like built-in RAID controllers, but can this be done (or how to install it correctly) - for OS Mirror only !
I want to connect the rest of the 3.5" drives via SATA in RAIDz1 (3x6TB, single parity, or 4x4TB id double parity - and I don’t need any super performance)
But have no idea how to install “mirrored” OS on those two m.2 ssd =/
Do I understand the manual correctly, to install the system normally on one of the two M.2 SSDs, and then in TrueNAS set “Mirroring the Boot Pool” (System > Boot > ACTIONS > Boot Pool Status) and the copy will be made automatically? And I won’t bother about the built-in RAID controller and mess around with VROC? ( what I don’t necessarily want )
Sure, you can mirror two devices for the boot pool. You can set that up through the installer, or through the GUI after installation. No guarantees on what the BIOS/UEFI will do on failure of one of the devices, though.
The easiest way is to just choose both devices as installation targets when you install TrueNAS.
The boot device is designed to be disposable, and need not be mirrored. Just keep a copy of the configuration file and reinstall if needed.
You can make a ZFS mirror… without any guarantee that the BIOS will cope gracefully with a failure.
But if you want a really resilent boot process, you’ll need three drives and VROC key or a dedicated RAID controller.
But it will keep the system from going down in the event of a boot device failure. It may not boot again, but it’ll most likely keep running. Whether this is worth it is, of course, a different question.
