zfs with a bunch of drives

[Randy Bush]

we want to build a new 16-drive RELENG_9 server on which we intend to
run a bunch of vboxen.  a couple of years ago, we built a 16-drive
server.  based on advice here not to just do a big raidz, it was
configured as eight mirrors

        tank                ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror            ONLINE       0     0     0
            label/m00-d01   ONLINE       0     0     0
            label/m00-d00   ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror            ONLINE       0     0     0
            label/m01-d00   ONLINE       0     0     0
            label/m01-d01   ONLINE       0     0     0

and so forth.  is this still the best advice for performance?

and is there a url for building a bootable RELENG_9 zfs-only system?
last i looked there were a half dozen all somewhat different.

thanks for clue.

randy