Thanks for the input - I did look at OpenNAS etc, however my question re BSD was more on a cost/benefit front of using Debian-BSD or Debian-Linux, given that from my reading
  • ZFS on BSD is more up-to-date, being a native implementation, than ZFS-on-Linux
  • BSD generally offers fairly good device support, but less so than Linux
  • Debian-BSD is supposedly slower than Debian-Linux, apparently suffering most in the areas of data throughput


On a related note, I have learnt that the Intel 530 series I was originally proposing to use does not have power loss data protection (ie supercap or similar to ensure writes are committed on power loss), despite the 320-series it replaces having such. Have therefore specced up to a 730, which is a pain as the lowest capacity I can find them available in is 240GB. Still, I can use it for ZIL/L2ARC if I end up running ZFS.