Add hard drive to single raidz3

[cameronkeel]

All,

I have 14 drives, a mix of 3tb and 4tb. I just purchased enough 4tb to finish replacing all the 3tb drives. My question is twofold. Once I replace all drives with 4tb can I then expand to use all available drive space.

Also, I have the ability to add a 15th drive (3 external 5 bay towers). Is it possible to add that drive to the same single vdev raidz3?

thanks in advance for the solutions/answers.

CK

 

[Alecmascot]

It should auto expand when the resilver is finished.
No

 

[danb35]

Is it possible to add that drive to the same single vdev raidz3?

No, it is not. And 14 disks is a very wide vdev--expect very poor performance as it fills.

 

[cameronkeel]

Thx for both responses. If I have enough extra drives laying around to copy data what would you suggest as a configuration, using 15 4Tb drives.

for information, this is just in my house. back up of some data, photography (important) and then some movies/TV shows for Plex.

 

[danb35]

Well, that depends. If those "external 5-bay towers" connect via USB, I'd say scrap the whole thing and use more suitable hardware, as USB just isn't that compatible with long-term stable connection. But if they're something else--SAS, perhaps--there's still the question of how to configure that many disks. A 7-disk and an 8-disk RAIDZ2 vdev, striped together, is the best I can think of--the GUI will warn you about such a mismatched configuration, but will still allow it, and there's no likely real harm there.

 

[cameronkeel]

They connect via eSATA

 

[danb35]

And thus use SATA port multipliers, I suppose.

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[cameronkeel]

thx Danb35 for the info. I'm using a HA-DAT-4ESPCIE - Sans Digital card which is PCI-e just like the H200 and H310. Not trying to be argumentative, just trying to understand.

I've been using this setup for about 10 years or so. Not sure if I am seeing any performance issues, but it isn't used that hard, just me and my wife, and mostly Plex and my photography portfolio.

As I know this system is getting older, I'd love some input on an affordable upgrade in hardware.

 

[Davvo]

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