Sun F80 800GB MLC (use as multiple 200GB vols, or big 800GB for ZFS/iSCSI/Proxmox/VMs)?

OpenZFS
1

I bought bought a box of 16* Oracle F80 800GB MLCs and wonder how to set them:

  1. Should I leave them exposed as separate 200GB SSDs? I guess by having more VDEVs I should get more IOPS

  2. reflash them and expose as big 800GB drives. Easier to maintain(and replaced failed drives), but less IOPS I guess.

Choosing 1st option would allow in case of just 3 * F80, make two raid-z2 VDEVs. I know that I should probably use mirrors for them. But is really z1 or z2 with more VDEVs(200GB) slower than multiple mirrors of 800GB?

For now I want them to use in old Dell R900 with 7 PCI-E slots as shared iSCSI server for Proxmox (it’s all for testing)

2

I’m not super familiar with that particular device, but I think the answer depends on how easy it is to replace a single one of the four elements in each PCIe accelerator.

If you can’t easily replace an individual 200GB module, I’d recommend reflashing and treating them as 800GB devices. On the other hand, if you CAN (and are willing to) replace individual modules as/if they develop problems, I’d recommend leaving them as they are.