I've a 6x3TB RAIDZ2 vdev with 3 disks showing "Self-Test Log error count increased " errors on a home server.
Time to replace them!
With that many of them needed to be replaced, and with 4TB being the minimal HDD size with regards to price per TB, I'd like to transition to a 2x 4disks RAIDZ2 vdevs layout.
One with 4x4TB and the other with the 3x3TB still functioning drive + a new 4TB or 3TB if I can still find one.
First off, is it a good idea?
Having multiple RAIDz2 vdev seems to be what is advised on ixsystems blog posts and forum threads.
Now I'm not sure what the difference is between a 4disk and a 6disk RAIDz2 vdev, but it seems to me that I'd be better off with smaller vdev (in term of HDD qty) with regards to the limits of my case and motherboard. More flexibility. (though I don't need all that space and probably won't for the near future I think)
Now in practice, I know that worst case scenario I could do with a 4TB backup for the entire Pool I have.
The ASROCK C2550D4I I'm using has available:
8xSATA3 port
4xSATA2 port
I'm using 6 of the SATA3 for the vdev, +1 for the boot-pool SSD that could well be put on a SATA2.
Maybe my best guess would be to build a new 4x4TB RAIDz2 vdev, plug this on the SATA2 to start with (even though my case can fit 8x3'5 drives only), backup/restore or transfer the existing pool to a new pool on this vdev, then just dismantle the existing 6x3TB VDEV and move the new one to the SATA3 ports.
Would this work as I expect?
Is there a cheaper option?
Buying 3x3TB drives doesn't makes sense. But I could buy 3x4TB and replace the disks within the existing VDEV.
I would lose 1TB per disk, and 1more TB for each new failing disk this until the last of the 3TB disk dies. And I would still have this not very flexible 6disks vdev. Not very appealing .
Time to replace them!
With that many of them needed to be replaced, and with 4TB being the minimal HDD size with regards to price per TB, I'd like to transition to a 2x 4disks RAIDZ2 vdevs layout.
One with 4x4TB and the other with the 3x3TB still functioning drive + a new 4TB or 3TB if I can still find one.
First off, is it a good idea?
Having multiple RAIDz2 vdev seems to be what is advised on ixsystems blog posts and forum threads.
Now I'm not sure what the difference is between a 4disk and a 6disk RAIDz2 vdev, but it seems to me that I'd be better off with smaller vdev (in term of HDD qty) with regards to the limits of my case and motherboard. More flexibility. (though I don't need all that space and probably won't for the near future I think)
Now in practice, I know that worst case scenario I could do with a 4TB backup for the entire Pool I have.
The ASROCK C2550D4I I'm using has available:
8xSATA3 port
4xSATA2 port
I'm using 6 of the SATA3 for the vdev, +1 for the boot-pool SSD that could well be put on a SATA2.
Maybe my best guess would be to build a new 4x4TB RAIDz2 vdev, plug this on the SATA2 to start with (even though my case can fit 8x3'5 drives only), backup/restore or transfer the existing pool to a new pool on this vdev, then just dismantle the existing 6x3TB VDEV and move the new one to the SATA3 ports.
Would this work as I expect?
Is there a cheaper option?
Buying 3x3TB drives doesn't makes sense. But I could buy 3x4TB and replace the disks within the existing VDEV.
I would lose 1TB per disk, and 1more TB for each new failing disk this until the last of the 3TB disk dies. And I would still have this not very flexible 6disks vdev. Not very appealing .