I have a WHS V1 with Drive Extender (love it) and a 2012 Essentials server (not a fan). I'm struggling with all the info on this forum and elsewhere on how to set up my drives. I have two 4GB WD Red, one 6GB WD Red, and a 80GB system SSD. On my 2012 server, I have them setup up with a 2TB Mirror, a 4TB Parity, and a 2TB Simple storage space (all thin) and a second fixed 2TB storage space.
The server works fine but I've had so many problems with the connector software over the years that none of my laptops and desktops are being backed up at this point.
I set up OMV on a RPi just to try it and successfully backed up and restored a laptop with urBackup! First try, no issues, great!
I have the entire server backed up on external drives and am ready to build my OMV. My initial thought was to partition the drives 2TB/4TB on the 6TB and 2TB/2TB on the two 4TBs. I could then set up the 2TB Mirror, 4TB Parity, and a couple of fixed partitions with what is left over but reading the forums it sounds like partitioning is difficult and only recommended for advanced users. My questions:
1. Is partitioning the best idea?
2. Does OMV with UnionFS provide pools with similar functionality as Storage Spaces on Windows?
3. If #2 is yes, will I end up wasting a lot of space because of the drives I have (the 6GB might end up being the Parity drive since it's the largest, not ideal)?
4. I have a hot spare drive for my WHS (a 2TB WD Green). My case really can't accommodate it, but if I can get it in there, would it improve my situation?
Sorry for the length. Any advice will be appreciated.