4 x 8TB SAS - RAIDZ2 or Striped Mirrors?

[HarambeLives]

I am building out a second NAS to put in my garage. Very dusty, cold in winter, hot in summer. Not a great environment

I don't need plenty of space, and I also happen to have an endless stack of old, identical 8TB SAS disks. Should I go for Striped Mirrors or RAIDZ2? My thinking is that RAIDZ2 would be better, as any 2 disks can fail in that case. Make sense?

Performance is not critical, and the NAS won't have much RAM (Just 8GB)

Thoughts?

 

[artlessknave]

Very dusty, cold in winter, hot in summer

this is a very terrible environment.

Striped Mirrors or RAIDZ2

raidz2 for reliability, mirror for speed.

NAS won't have much RAM (Just 8GB)

you certainly wont be getting much speed. the system will be at risk.


I would recomend against doing this entirely.

 

[HarambeLives]

Too late! I ended up with RAIDZ2

The idea here is to replicate my backups to this NAS as its physically about 150ft away. Networking to the garage is fiber, so lightning can't come through an AP or Camera outside and into the switch and nuke it, and its quite well separated electrically too being in a different building on a separate UPS, and much closer to ground. Right now my long term local backups (not my only backups) are in the same rack which has problems

• Roof leak over the rack could damage both original and backups
• 80ft Water Oak could smash into the house, and crush both
• Physical theft, if they steal the rack in the house, its not likely they steal all the junk in my garage rack
• Lightning strike through a switch could kill both, not now
• UPS could nuke both, not now

There is a LOT of benefit to replicating backups to a different location on your property, even if it is in a more harsh environment. The odds of losing this entire array is low, and even if I do, the snapshots can be re-replicated as they are stored for the full retention in the main NAS as well as secondary. The odds of me losing my primary array AND this, are extremely slim. The entire purpose of this copy is to prevent physical damage

It also moves heat outside the house, which is a plus

Some shots of the system. So far its performing very well. RAM is not even CLOSE to being an issue with 3TB replicated so far. CPU load is minimal, 10% at most

 

[HarambeLives]

Ignore the marks on the UPS/Rack, thats where a Raccoon tried to climb up it

 

[HarambeLives]

So far maxing out both 1Gb NIC's moving data via replication and SMB. I suspect the array isn't really even maxed out, as these 8TB SAS Disks have quite good write speeds

 

[artlessknave]

Ignore the marks on the UPS/Rack, thats where a Raccoon tried to climb up it

I am sure racoons are good for servers.

note that servers trying to run outside their temp range of ~ 10C to 30C will likely have their lifespan drastically reduced. it might seem like cooling them this way would work but what happens is the components flex when the hot parts and cold parts reach extreme differences.
does "cold" and "hot" fall outside those numbers?

 

[HarambeLives]

Don't worry, the data is encrypted so the Raccoons can't do too bad. That was during the 2021 Freeze we had here in Texas. We left the garage man door cracked to keep the few stray cats we look after warm, and a Raccoon got in, climbed up into the ceiling of the garage, through the breezeway that connects it to my house and ended up in the attic. That was fun...

I think powered on, the temp will never really get all that low (And I don't ever intend to let it turn off!). I think the issue comes when you turn the server off, and you deal with condensation. Assuming its on, I suspect I will have no problems. As it is, my server closet inside sits around 110f/43c and I have never really had any failures to speak of other than the odd drive. The fan curve with this box is VERY aggressive since I don't care about noise. The disks in the house will probably end up warmer since I always nerf the fans

 

[HarambeLives]

I might buy the 5th fan for the chassis though, that will blow right across the HBA heatsink

 

[artlessknave]

eh. you mostly sound like you know what you're doing and if it's a backup server, not really a big deal.

 

[HarambeLives]

eh. you mostly sound like you know what you're doing and if it's a backup server, not really a big deal.

You and my employer, I have no idea why! All evidence suggests otherwise

 

[rvassar]

As a fellow Texan, albeit transplanted from occupied territory 19 years ago, I get it... I'd put the whole thing on an old school lamp timer. Let it power up at midnight, complete the replication, and shut back down during the heat of the day.

 

[HarambeLives]

As a fellow Texan, albeit transplanted from occupied territory 19 years ago, I get it... I'd put the whole thing on an old school lamp timer. Let it power up at midnight, complete the replication, and shut back down during the heat of the day.

Shut down?

I'm not sure I understand those words!

 

[rvassar]

Shut down?

I'm not sure I understand those words!

Ahhh... You're on Oncor market rate...

 

[HarambeLives]

Ahhh... You're on Oncor market rate...

I'm on the sun rate

About 140% offset. 17~kw capacity

 

[rvassar]

Very nice... I've added insulating panels to my garage doors, but that's mostly an attempt to keep the garage freezer from dying with a west facing garage door. I refuse to pay for solar panels here, as I grew up in far northern California where all that stuff started, and can DIY it myself for half the cost... In the end it's more of a trust issue though, as I have several neighbors with panels mounted on north facing roof elements. At Lat 30N they see full sun maybe 60 days of the year? Important days, no doubt, but why should I pay full rate for them?

 

[HarambeLives]

Very nice... I've added insulating panels to my garage doors, but that's mostly an attempt to keep the garage freezer from dying with a west facing garage door. I refuse to pay for solar panels here, as I grew up in far northern California where all that stuff started, and can DIY it myself for half the cost... In the end it's more of a trust issue though, as I have several neighbors with panels mounted on north facing roof elements. At Lat 30N they see full sun maybe 60 days of the year? Important days, no doubt, but why should I pay full rate for them?

Did the garage door insulation help? I need a new door once I raise the header and get a taller door, and I've been wondering if its worth it

 

[rvassar]

I DIY'ed the insulation both here and at my old Round Rock home, using the idea from an actual factory insulated garage door I had installed at my first house in Kali. In RR I used the 1-inch rigid foam panels with foil backing, and aluminum foil "duct" tape & silicone to glue the panels in the door. This was a north facing install, so no direct Sun. After the install I could run a 24 port switch and related Cisco gear in the garage, even during the brutal 2011 Texas summer drought.

Fast forward to more modern times, I bumped the foam board up to ~1.5 inch I think, and made it a point to measure more carefully. But my current house has a directly west facing garage door, and it simply doesn't stand a chance. I can keep the garage freezer operational, and it cuts the A/C bill by preventing the heat bleed up to the second story above the garage. Basically it clips the peak heat, not much more... But amusingly, the insulated garage door in Kali was the biggest disappointment because it added a sheet metal backing, and the aluminum conducted the heat around the insulation.

 

[artlessknave]

ah. should probably take that to the off topic forums

 

[Davvo]

I mean, a 4-way mirror would be incredibly resilient.

 

[artlessknave]

I mean, a 4-way mirror would be incredibly resilient.

but also incredibly wasteful. pretty sure no-one was talking about a 4-way mirror.........