Assigning dedicated journal disks to SSDs in the pool when using VDs with parity resiliency improves sequential write performance. Without dedicated journal disks, the journal disks reside on the same physical disks as the parity VD and this can cause increased seek times and reduce overall throughput of a parity VD.
When using a dedicated journal disk, ensure that the quantity of journal disks scales with the number of parity spaces in the pool. Dedicated journal disks can only be added using PowerShell.
PowerShell command for adding a dedicated journal disk to an existing pool.
Add-PhysicalDisk -StoragePoolFriendlyName <poolName> -PhysicalDisks <physicalDiskObject> -Usage Journal
For example,
A dedicated journal disk which is an SSD labeled PhysicalDisk5 is assigned to variable $pd. The disk is then added to an existing pool MyPool1 with the Usage attribute set to Journal disk.
$pd = Get-PhysicalDisk –CanPool $true -FriendlyName PhysicalDisk5Add-PhysicalDisk -StoragePoolFriendlyName "MyPool1" -PhysicalDisks $pd -Usage Journal