raid-z2 or raid-z3?

[andrewjs18]

I'm running 6X 4TB hitachi drives in my system. I originally set it up for raid-z3, but will be deleting the zpool so I can do proper burn in tests with badblocks before putting any meaningful data on it. during this time, I'd like to hear your thoughts on whether I should go with raid-z2 or raid-z3.

I'm not too concerned about speed. I'll basically be backing up a few web servers and a few windows machines to the freenas box on a nightly basis and then pushing that data to an offsite linux server once everything is stable.

suggestions/opinions?

 

[Bidule0hm]

If you're paranoid --> RAID-Z3

If you're normal --> RAID-Z2

:)

 

[andrewjs18]

If you're paranoid --> RAID-Z3

If you're normal --> RAID-Z2

:)

I'm thinking I may go raid-z2 for the extra space. I think with the raid-z3 pool I had set up, it was giving me around 9.9TB of space. so I'm guessing with 6X 4TB drives in raid-z2, it will give me ~14TB of space.

 

[Bidule0hm]

Look at the link in my signature about the calculator if you want to test different configurations before to chose one ;)

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I'll basically be backing up a few web servers and a few windows machines to the freenas box on a nightly basis and then pushing that data to an offsite linux server once everything is stable.

If the FreeNAS is purely a backup destination, and it's also backed up offsite, I see no reason to go beyond RAIDZ2. Under the circumstances, you could even make a case for RAIDZ1 (if it dies you still have 2 more copies of the data).

 

[DrKK]

I'll weigh in on this, with the following caveat: If we rank the more prominent answerers in the community on a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 means favors extra space at the cost of added danger, and 10 means will only suggest rock-solid over-paranoid RAID configurations, I am somewhere around a 3. i.e., I will suggest things that people around an 8 (like marbus90) will find appalling. So factor that in to my advice.

If I were running 6x4TB on reliable drives with good track records, I would not hesitate to run it as RAID-Z2, but I would have the most important data on the pool independently backed up on Glacier, or even, some external 5TB drive or something, just for a little safety zone.

That's what I would do.

 

[andrewjs18]

I'll weigh in on this, with the following caveat: If we rank the more prominent answerers in the community on a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 means favors extra space at the cost of added danger, and 10 means will only suggest rock-solid over-paranoid RAID configurations, I am somewhere around a 3. i.e., I will suggest things that people around an 8 (like marbus90) will find appalling. So factor that in to my advice.

If I were running 6x4TB on reliable drives with good track records, I would not hesitate to run it as RAID-Z2, but I would have the most important data on the pool independently backed up on Glacier, or even, some external 5TB drive or something, just for a little safety zone.

That's what I would do.

I'm running 6 hitachi drives..according to backblaze, it's their most reliable brand they use in their server pods.

right now my plan is this: backup my servers and a few windows machines to the freenas box everyday, then I'll push that data in the early AM hours to an offsite server that has a 4tb hitachi drive installed inside of it.