scruzloose33
Dabbler
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2018
- Messages
- 20
I am building out a new FreeNAS server in a 16-bay Supermicro chassis. I happen to have seven WD 8TB red/white drives. I see my options as:
1. Use six drives in a RAIDZ2 and keep one cold or hot spare drive. I’m not crazy about leaving a drive on the shelf, even though I know it is recommended. This is for home use, so I could keep the server off while I purchase (or RMA) a new drive to replace a failed drive.
2. Use all seven drives in a RAIDZ2. This increases storage to a more desirable level, but leaves me with an awkward number of remaining empty bays in the chassis. I suppose I could eventually fill them out with a 9-disk RAIDZ3, but my understanding is that a matching vdev would be preferable if I would plan to add the next vdev to the same pool. Another option would be to build two 7-drive RAIDZ2 vdev’s and save the extra two bays for my OS SSDs or a basic 2-drive mirror (that I would put into a new pool).
3. Go buy another 8TB drive and build an 8x8TB RAIDZ2. I think 8 drives is pushing the limit of my comfort with RAIDZ2, especially with such large drives. My next vdev could then be a matching 8x8TB vdev.
What would or wouldn’t you do? I know this decision is somewhat subjective, but I am hoping the more experienced users can help eliminate some options that are a bad idea or suggest another option that I haven’t considered.
1. Use six drives in a RAIDZ2 and keep one cold or hot spare drive. I’m not crazy about leaving a drive on the shelf, even though I know it is recommended. This is for home use, so I could keep the server off while I purchase (or RMA) a new drive to replace a failed drive.
2. Use all seven drives in a RAIDZ2. This increases storage to a more desirable level, but leaves me with an awkward number of remaining empty bays in the chassis. I suppose I could eventually fill them out with a 9-disk RAIDZ3, but my understanding is that a matching vdev would be preferable if I would plan to add the next vdev to the same pool. Another option would be to build two 7-drive RAIDZ2 vdev’s and save the extra two bays for my OS SSDs or a basic 2-drive mirror (that I would put into a new pool).
3. Go buy another 8TB drive and build an 8x8TB RAIDZ2. I think 8 drives is pushing the limit of my comfort with RAIDZ2, especially with such large drives. My next vdev could then be a matching 8x8TB vdev.
What would or wouldn’t you do? I know this decision is somewhat subjective, but I am hoping the more experienced users can help eliminate some options that are a bad idea or suggest another option that I haven’t considered.