FreeNAS RAID 1 hard disk capacity

[ando]

Hello!
I am starting so be kind please! :)

I'm looking to build a raid 1 mirroring nextcloud with FreeNAS with a capacity of 12TB.
According to different forums have been reading I actually gathered conflicting information that I need to confirm.

So my question is can I use 2x 12TB hard disk to build my mirror RAID, is it fully compatible with FreeNAS/nextcloud/any machine?
Or do I have to go through a different way?

Thanks for helping me!

 

[garm]

As long as the controller can handle the drive, ZFS can use it. The limits on a ZFS Pool is 2^128 bytes. But I would not use two drives, but four. Two mirrors is better than one and smaller disks are better than larger.

 

[wblock]

can I use 2x 12TB hard disk to build my mirror RAID

Yes. Whether you should use that layout depends on the intended use of the machine and feelings on redundancy. Typically, a machine with many mirrors like that is used for running virtual machines, but not always.

is it fully compatible with FreeNAS/nextcloud/any machine?

Sorry, I don't understand the question. Please give more detail on what is being asked.

 

[danb35]

Typically, a machine with many mirrors like that is used for running virtual machines, but not always.

OP isn't proposing many mirrors; he's proposing two disks, 12 TB each.

 

[Chris Moore]

with a capacity of 12TB.

If you actually need 12TB of capacity, you need more drives because you are not supposed to fill a ZFS file system beyond 80% capacity due to the copy on write nature of the file system AND a 12TB drive doesn't actually give you 12TB of capacity AND there is overhead to the storage that leaves you with even less capacity than that.

So my question is can I use 2x 12TB

No.

Or do I have to go through a different way?

Yes.

How much capacity do you really need? Why do you want to try to get there with just two disks?

 

[ando]

Thank you very much for all your help! I really appreciate it.

How much capacity do you really need? Why do you want to try to get there with just two disks?

8TB is the capacity i really need, the rest is only forecast. I have no conviction about the 2 disks, i went in my mind to the easiest way to get there,
with your help i realize that is clearly not the easiest / smartest way.

Sy my aim should be 4 disks x 4 TB ZFS, am i right?

 

[danb35]

Sy my aim should be 4 disks x 4 TB ZFS, am i right?

I'd say 6 x 4 TB in RAIDZ2. If you want fewer disks, 4 x 8 TB. Either of those would give you 16 TB, or 14 TiB, of pool capacity, which would give you 11.5 TiB with the pool 80% full (and, as @Chris Moore notes, you don't want to exceed 80% full).

FreeNAS will handle 12 TB disks just fine, but they don't seem like the best way to get where you say you're wanting to go.