I'm building my NAS in a Fractal Design Node 804 which can apparently fit 10 3.5 Drives. So I was going to use 5x4TB drives on RAIDZ2 to start off and be able to expand later since I know ZFS doesn't allow expansion right now. But would there be any issues not using an even number of drives? I was thinking I should probably go for 6, but that would basically make expansion impossible later. I've been searching for a while and I've seen mixed responses, so I just want to make sure. Btw, I know this probably doesn't have anything to do with this, but since the server motherboard has only 4 SATAs and 1 M.2 and I will be using a LSI 9207-8i PCIE3.0 6Gbps HBA for the other drives.
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Advise for amount of drives in build on RAIDZ2
- Thread starter Chris221
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danb35
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4 TB disks aren't in a very good place in terms of $/TB these days, and five disks in RAIDZ2 is barely more space-efficient than a mirror. I'm thinking you'd be as well off shucking a pair of 16-20 TB external drives and putting them in a mirror. Expand as needed with fresh pairs of disks.
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ZFS expansion is a thing in the future, and I guess it's not the near one.
And, if the rumors are true, to me it looks like something more annoying than useful on pools who weren't specifically made with it in mind (which is something we still can't do now because we know way to little about it).
You better build a pool that doesn't hope on an unclear feature with an uknown release date for its storage needs.
And, if the rumors are true, to me it looks like something more annoying than useful on pools who weren't specifically made with it in mind (which is something we still can't do now because we know way to little about it).
You better build a pool that doesn't hope on an unclear feature with an uknown release date for its storage needs.
Well the reason why I want to go for more than four disks instead of mirror pairs is that I feel safer with the redundancy of RAIDZ2. Also the drives I'm getting are on discount right now and since I'm getting them from the manufacturer's site 4x4TB gives another discount.
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Yeah I've heard about the expansion and was going to go for 6 drives, but then I was thinking that no one is sure when it'll happen and I don't know if I want to add more drives in the future.
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6 drives is better for space usage.
From the calculator : 6 X RaidZ2 is 64.35% while 5 X RaidZ2 is 57.2%
And don't forget to buy a spare.
From the calculator : 6 X RaidZ2 is 64.35% while 5 X RaidZ2 is 57.2%
And don't forget to buy a spare.
Yeah I was thinking that 6 drives is better for storage than 5. But I would have to figure out how to utilize the other 4 drive bays in the future, especially if ZFS expansion doesn't release anytime soon.
MisterE2002
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you can not increase a pool with a single disk or change a Z1 into Z2. But you *can* add another vdev (sized like your first one) and increase the pool this way.
Yeah I know about adding another vdev, but if I go for 6 drives that won't be possible because the case can only fit 10 3.5s or if I go for 5 it reduces my space efficiency using RAIDZ2.
Oh yeah, I didn't think about that. I forgot there's much less air volume in the case I'm using for NAS build then my current gamming tower PC build.
