Hardware Recommendation for Backup Server

[ChrisRJ]

Keep in mind that some SFP+ cards and switches are vendor locked, [..]

On the Intel X520 cards the drivers for FreeBSD and Linux allow to override the vendor lock. Not sure how this is with other cards ...

 

[afrosheen]

My question is (as the self-taught home hobbyist), do I simply connect a new CMR drive and 'replace' each drive one at a time until all six SMR drives have been replaced? Is there a better/smarter way?

Pick a drive, make sure the serial matches. Send it offline, shut down, pull it, insert new drive, power up. On boot go to disks, find the new one, format it. Then go back to your pool and use the replace disk function. It should start resilvering and when it's done, do it all again with another drive. I've done this in my box 3 times now. It holds more than ever and I never lost a block. :)

These are instructions for Raidz1 but I believe with a mirrored setup you could replace half the drives in a mirror on the first pass and speed up the process. But then again I haven't dealt with anything but Raidz1.

 

[Davvo]

These are instructions for Raidz1 but I believe with a mirrored setup you could replace half the drives in a mirror on the first pass and speed up the process. But then again I haven't dealt with anything but Raidz1.

The more appropriate course of action is to always maintain parity when replacing a drive, if possible. Especially with RAIDZ1 and 2-way mirrors due to the single parity drive (such configurations most of the times have at least a spare port available).

@on1ski if your drives are still under warranty there is a chance they could give you a better deal vompared to the market.

 

[afrosheen]

The more appropriate course of action is to always maintain parity when replacing a drive, if possible. Especially with RAIDZ1 and 2-way mirrors due to the single parity drive (such configurations most of the times have at least a spare port available).

Yep, ideally a standalone parity drive. But when you've maxed out the board it may not be an option. If even one drive in my pool fails during resilvering, that's it. Which is why I get ahead of the curve and replace them as a set. I'm not the best engineer of truenas but my little boxes work despite my mistakes.

 

[Davvo]

Yep, ideally a standalone parity drive. But when you've maxed out the board it may not be an option. If even one drive in my pool fails during resilvering, that's it. Which is why I get ahead of the curve and replace them as a set. I'm not the best engineer of truenas but my little boxes work despite my mistakes.

I was referring to in-place resilvering: not offlining and detaching the drive until it gets replaced, thus mantaining parity during the operation.