Re: [zfs-discuss] Using L2ARC on an AdHoc basis.

2012-10-14 Thread Jim Klimov

2012-10-14 2:41, Michael Armstrong wrote:

Ok, so it is possible to remove. Good to know, thanks . I move the pool maybe 
once a month for a few days, on an otherwise daily used fixed location. So 
thought the warm up allowance may be worth it. I guess I just wanted to know if 
adding a cache device was a one way operation or not and whether or not it 
risked integrity.


I haven't *tried* your scenario, but I *believe* that:

1) Loss of L2ARC should not be fatal to a pool - reads should just
fall back to main pool, so even an occasional export without removal
should work;

2) Removal and addition of L2ARC on the fly does work - tested that ;)

3) As of now, upon pool import (and/or L2ARC attachment) the cache
device is considered empty. So any such porting of the disk, as well
as reboots of the computer, will cause new cache warm-up (and some
SSD wear).

4) If your portable disk is USB and practically limited by the bus
and protocol, you may have benefits from caching of its hot data
in RAM and SSD (ARC and L2ARC) - if the data from this pool is used
heavily enough.

//Jim
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Re: [zfs-discuss] Using L2ARC on an AdHoc basis.

2012-10-13 Thread Ian Collins

On 10/14/12 10:02, Michael Armstrong wrote:

Hi Guys,

I have a portable pool i.e. one that I carry around in an enclosure. However, 
any SSD I add for L2ARC, will not be carried around... meaning the cache drive will 
become unavailable from time to time.

My question is Will random removal of the cache drive put the pool into a degraded 
state or affect the integrity of the pool at all? Additionally, how adversely will this effect 
warm up...
Or will moving the enclosure between machines with and without cache, just 
automatically work, and offer benefits when cache is available, and less 
benefits when it isn't?


Why bother with cache devices at all if you are moving the pool around?  
As you hinted above, the cache can take a while to warm up and become 
useful.


You should zpool remove the cache device before exporting the pool.

--
Ian.

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Re: [zfs-discuss] Using L2ARC on an AdHoc basis.

2012-10-13 Thread Michael Armstrong
Ok, so it is possible to remove. Good to know, thanks . I move the pool maybe 
once a month for a few days, on an otherwise daily used fixed location. So 
thought the warm up allowance may be worth it. I guess I just wanted to know if 
adding a cache device was a one way operation or not and whether or not it 
risked integrity. 


Sent from my iPhone

On 13 Oct 2012, at 23:02, Ian Collins i...@ianshome.com wrote:

 On 10/14/12 10:02, Michael Armstrong wrote:
 Hi Guys,
 
 I have a portable pool i.e. one that I carry around in an enclosure. 
 However, any SSD I add for L2ARC, will not be carried around... meaning the 
 cache drive will become unavailable from time to time.
 
 My question is Will random removal of the cache drive put the pool into 
 a degraded state or affect the integrity of the pool at all? Additionally, 
 how adversely will this effect warm up...
 Or will moving the enclosure between machines with and without cache, just 
 automatically work, and offer benefits when cache is available, and less 
 benefits when it isn't?
 
 Why bother with cache devices at all if you are moving the pool around?  As 
 you hinted above, the cache can take a while to warm up and become useful.
 
 You should zpool remove the cache device before exporting the pool.
 
 -- 
 Ian.
 
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