Best way to set up these disks to achieve my goal ?

[cbray]

Hi youins
I'd like to know, and/or get others' opinions on the best way to configure my disks.

I have 6 identical drives (size shouldn't matter).
I want reasonable data loss protection and reasonable speed.
Basically safe and quick.
Total storage size only needs to be the size of one disk(larger is ok too).
My current setup is 5 disks in RAIDZ2 and 6th disk as spare.
Using 500GB disks this gives me 1.3TB storage size which is more than enough.

What are the drawbacks or advantages to using this setup?
What would be a better configuration and why?

I should have addressed this directly to matthewowen but here it is publicly :).

Peace,
CB

 

[ProtoSD]

That is exactly the same setup I have (except 2TB disks), so I'm curious to hear other opinions also. I can say I think we suffer from the non-optimal ZFS magic disk number :), where I think it would be better if we had 6 disks in a Z2, and a 7th spare.

 

[cbray]

Disk sizes... do women really care?

I thought the ZFS Magic number was 5? Gotta search the posts again...
I'm just trying it out on 500s because we're in beta. I am also setting up another machine with 7 80GB disks, just for fun. :)
I have a stack of 1TB and 2TB ready to play any time I think we're ready.
I'm just trying to get a handle on ZFS theory...

Peace,
CB

Additional Question on topic:

What advantage do I gain by running my 6th drive as a 'SPARE' as opposed to simply mounting it physically in the chassis but not connecting data and power cables?
By not connecting the cables to it, I imagine it's life expectancy to be greater than by plugging it in as 'SPARE' and running it on empty 'til needed.
Also by having it as 'SPARE', will ZFS/FreeNAS simply use it automatically when needed or another drive fails?
Please explain this to us?

Thanks Again!
CB

 

[cbray]

I was sure matthewowen01 would have some advice here, I guess he hasn't seen it yet?

 

[ProtoSD]

Well I think the plan is for FreeNAS to automatically do the replace, but I don't think FreeNAS is at that point yet.
I also have my 6th 'spare' drive installed and unplugged, guess you could call it a 'cold' spare, but I agree, it extends the life time, assuming it's not gonna die a quick death, and it's a little less power that gets used.

Do a search for the optimum # of drives, I'm sure mattwowen01 gets tired of answering the same questions over and over.

Maybe we should start collaborating on a FAQ.