How big HDDs are supported by FreeNas (ST16000VN001)?

[Tenek]

Hey Guys,

I'm successfuly running FreeNas build on top of supermicro and HGST Ultrastar 7K6000 HUS726060AL4210. Now when I have more time, I'm worried if my super build will fail and I don't have secondary backup copy. If MB or bus adapter fails, how critical is it having ZFS import/export feature?

If you think it must to have... I already have some spare parts, such as CPU and mother board that can hold at least 32GBs of RAM, but I need a new HDDs... I checked amazon and found 16TBs drives available (ST16000VN001). Does anyone have experience with such big drives? Do I need to go crazy here or default to more less standard drive size here? Please let me know what size/brand you would recommend me to go with, I would need at least about 32TBs of backup space.

Thansk! Denis.

 

[danb35]

If MB or bus adapter fails, how critical is it

Not critical at all, as long as it doesn't do so in a way that trashes the data on your disks--which would be pretty unusual. Your pool is not tied to a specific motherboard, HBA, or the particular ports in use.

FreeNAS has no practical limits on disk size.

 

[blanchet]

I have 24 x Western Digital 14TB SATA disks (WD DC HC530 WUH721414ALE6L4)
They work very well on FreeNAS. I think that bigger disks should also work very well.

 

[Tenek]

Not critical at all, as long as it doesn't do so in a way that trashes the data on your disks--which would be pretty unusual. Your pool is not tied to a specific motherboard, HBA, or the particular ports in use.

I hope I will never need it, but technically if system fails I can reconnect HDDs to the new system and import existing pool?
But, good to know it is pretty safe overall, maybe I will just add more space to existing build then.

I have 24 x Western Digital 14TB SATA disks (WD DC HC530 WUH721414ALE6L4)

Great, glad these drives work out for you well. After second though I decided to stay with HGST WD Ultrastar family as I'm having a great success with it for many years (I'm thinking to get DC HC520).

Speaking about adding more space, is there any drawbacks in extending zfs volume (2 drives in mirror) by adding another 3 vdevs (another 3 mirrored pairs) VS recreating volume and have one vdev. Are there any drawbacks like performance or somethign like that in doing this?

Thanks again, Denis.

 

[blanchet]

• Multiple mirrored pairs provide more IOPS
• A single vdev provides more space

Indeed, the best choice depends on your workload.
For home usage, multiple mirrored pairs is probably the best solution, because you can increase the pool size by only replacing 2 drives.

 

[AndroGen]

Great, glad these drives work out for you well. After second though I decided to stay with HGST WD Ultrastar family as I'm having a great success with it for many years (I'm thinking to get DC HC520).

Hi Tenek,
You have mentioned that you are planning to go for a WD Ultrastar DC HC520.
What is your impression / experience with this HDDs?
I'm on the market for the set of HDDs for my NAS and evaluate these model as well - hence I would be glad to hear your feedback.

 

[ChrisRJ]

I checked amazon and found 16TBs drives available (ST16000VN001). Does anyone have experience with such big drives?

You should check the price of the equivalent Exos drive, since they are often cheaper than the Ironwolf. I am running 16 TB Exos, as I think are some others, and have no problems. You only need to be aware that they are not NAS drives but enterprise class. This means that (1) they like spin-down even less than NAS drives, and (2) they park the heads after a relatively short time by default (3 minutes?). In a data center the latter is not a problem because you hardly ever have 3minutes of inactivity. But in a home NAS that is different. So you probably want to increase that value.

 

[AndroGen]

I am running 16 TB Exos, as I think are some others, and have no problems.

I just had to send back ordered 12 TB Exos, as 40% of them were dead on arrival. Unfortunately the selling company did not spend enough effort to pack them well. And it looks like there is a shortage of them on the market, as some limit the availability to just few.
And because of this I am also looking on the WD Ultrastar DC HC510 or HC520 as an alternative, but apparently there is no much inform about these HDDs here, in this forum.
Otherwise, I feel, I would be good with 12 TB Exos

 

[ChrisRJ]

Interestingly it seems that "suddenly" 16 TB and 18 TB Exos drives are hard to come by. And certainly their price has exploded. Two or three weeks ago I could get an 18 TB Exos for 361 Euros and now the same dealer has it listed for 679 Euros. And the 16 TB model has gone from 345 to 489. I wish I had bought more than only one spare 16 TB recently (for 299 Euros).

 

[AndroGen]

Based on what I read - it is new explosion in the crypto currency mining space - now they have moved to HDDs - crazy.

 

[Spearfoot]

Hi Tenek,
You have mentioned that you are planning to go for a WD Ultrastar DC HC520.
What is your impression / experience with this HDDs?
I'm on the market for the set of HDDs for my NAS and evaluate these model as well - hence I would be glad to hear your feedback.

I've been using two of the 12TB HGST DC HC520 disks for about a year; they work great. I also own over a dozen older 2TB and 4TB HGST disks and they've been reliable, too (see 'my systems' below for details).

I consulted the Western Digital 'Power Disable Feature' document, here:

https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library/en_us/assets/public/western-digital/collateral/tech-brief/tech-brief-western-digital-power-disable-pin.pdf

And selected a 4kn model without the power disable feature -- model number 0F30141 HUH721212ALN600.

You want to purchase these disks from an authorized reseller; otherwise WDC/HGST may not honor the 5-year warranty. This is true of pretty much all disk manufacturers. So... beware the fly-by-night resellers on Fleabay, Amazon, NewEgg, etc. I bought mine from Provantage, but they don't have any in stock as I write this.

In general, I can't heap enough praise on HGST disks and I hope their quality doesn't go downhill now that they're a Western Digital subsidiary.

 

[AndroGen]

I've been using two of the 12TB HGST DC HC520 disks for about a year; they work great. I also own over a dozen older 2TB and 4TB HGST disks and they've been reliable, too (see 'my systems' below for details).
...
In general, I can't heap enough praise on HGST disks and I hope their quality doesn't go downhill now that they're a Western Digital subsidiary.

Thanks, your input is very much appreciated.
The situation on the HDD market has become crazy.
I had to reverse the direction towards Red Plus, as other options have prices rocketed up for 20-35% over last few days.
and yes, some strangely cheap offers have emerged on amazon and few other platforms...

 

[Spearfoot]

Thanks, your input is very much appreciated.
The situation on the HDD market has become crazy.
I had to reverse the direction towards Red Plus, as other options have prices rocketed up for 20-35% over last few days.
and yes, some strangely cheap offers have emerged on amazon and few other platforms...

I like the looks of the Seagate Exos-series disks and am considering buying them when the time comes. I don't own any, but @Chris Moore and others here on the forum have had good luck with them.