Is the amount of RAM (>= 8GB) a factor for data integrity?

[Jon Smark]

I'm building a 6x3TB array in RAID-Z2, to be used mostly as a personal backup and media server. I've yet to decide on the amount of RAM. I know that 8GB is the absolute recommended minimum, but I wonder if 8GB is also enough to ensure data integrity in this particular setup. In other words, would 16GB be better for data integrity, or would it only matter for performance?

 

[m0nkey_]

16GB RAM has been the sweet spot for some time. If you can install 16GB, do it.

 

[melloa]

2nd that.

 

[nojohnny101]

I would say it depends on your use case. For instance, I have a FreeNAS box that I built just to serve as a replication target (see sig for details). I have been running 8GB in it no problems for over a year now. I feel safe doing this because it is running no shares, no plugins, no jails, etc. just receiving snapshots.

If you are using the box to serve multiple functions that FreeNAS was designed for, follow the rough guideline of a rule (1TB raw storage per 1GB of RAM). This was created for a reason and I can assure you wasn't plucked out of thin air.

Have fun.

 

[MatthewSteinhoff]

I wonder if 8GB is also enough to ensure data integrity

Probably. Give it a shot.

If you do go with 8G, make sure to use sticks such as you can increase RAM to 12-16G without having to throw out the sticks you already purchased.

Still, RAM is cheap. I wouldn't run less than 16G.

Cheers,
Matt

 

[rs225]

8GB is not going to destroy your data. Neither is raidz2 going to guarantee it. Keep your irreplaceable data in a separate dataset that you can easily backup or replicate.

 

[pschatz100]

If you go with 8Gb, you can check the swap partition activity under Reports | Memory to see if the swap partition is used. If not, then 8gb is probably OK. I ran with 8Gb for a long time - however, I recently upgraded to 16Gb when I came across some memory on sale.

At today's prices, memory is not very expensive compared to the other components of your system.