About to pull the trigger on HDD's. Anything I should know?

[CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet]

I've finally found 3TB WD Red's for a decent price. I plan to buy 7 to go along with the one I already have. I'll be using them in a single ZoL vdev... I might be talking the talk but I'm still new to the world of home servers so is there anything I've missed? Any reason I shouldn't place my order?

[EDIT] Please forgive the stupid question, I'm just a little nervous as it's a lot of money to spend and I just want to make sure I've not overlooked something.

 

[anodos]

Make sure you have enough space and sata or SAS ports for them. :)

 

[CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet]

Thankfully I'm not that big of a noob* :). I have 8 SAS ports and 6 SATA ports (on my S.M. X10SL7-F)... I will have to finally buy that extra HDD rack for my XL R2 though, that is if Fractal ever have it in stock.


*That has reminded my that I need some more SATA cables though.

 

[9C1 Newbee]

If you want to save a bit of cash, some of us have had decent luck with green drives. Not that reds are a bad decision. Keep in mind you will more than likely need to use wdidle on either flavor. Make sure you have power plugs and watts for the new drives. That's all I got.

 

[cyberjock]

No clue what a "single ZoL vdev" is..

 

[anodos]

No clue what a "single ZoL vdev" is..

I interpreted that as raidz-something-or-other. :)

 

[Ericloewe]

No clue what a "single ZoL vdev" is..

ZFS on Linux perhaps?

 

[cyberjock]

I don't know, but if he's going with ZoL he shouldn't be here.. our advice could be inappropriate...

 

[Ericloewe]

I don't know, but if he's going with ZoL he shouldn't be here.. our advice could be inappropriate...

It does explain the thread being under Offtopic.

If that's the case, I guess the forum's reputation is on the positive side after all.

 

[cyberjock]

If that's the case, I guess the forum's reputation is on the positive side after all.

Paint us in a good light again and you'll find your account banned. :P

 

[anodos]

Paint us in a good light again and you'll find your account banned. :p

Don't worry I'm sure we'll soon all find someone to troll to balance out the karma. :)

 

[philiplu]

I will have to finally buy that extra HDD rack for my XL R2 though, that is if Fractal ever have it in stock.

You can find that extra HDD rack from Puget Systems here, rather than direct from Fractal. In stock now. I bought one for the same case a couple months ago, but haven't bothered installing it yet - only need 8 slots for now, until I expand past a single 6-drive RaidZ2.

 

[CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet]

No clue what a "single ZoL vdev" is..

ZoL is ZFS on Linux (I believe I first read the acronym here, on this forum).

It does explain the thread being under Offtopic.

If that's the case, I guess the forum's reputation is on the positive side after all.

Seen as though my question doesn't specifically relate to FreeNAS but is still relevant to FreeNAS, I though OT was where I should post... as for the forum's reputation, let me just say that those rumors about you guys an girls are clearly only partially true.

You can find that extra HDD rack from Puget Systems here, rather than direct from Fractal. In stock now. I bought one for the same case a couple months ago, but haven't bothered installing it yet - only need 8 slots for now, until I expand past a single 6-drive RaidZ2.

Thank you! I never thought to check Puget. That's gonna save me a lot of waiting.


I have bit the bullet, bought the drives and (after spending a little too long just staring at them with a stupid grin on my face) I'm currently running extended SMART checks on the first three drives. Which raises another question, is it worth running a badblocks test on the drives? There seems to be a lot of conflicting arguments regarding the value and necessity of such scans. I'd appreciate hearing some of your opinions and any recommendations you might all have.

I don't mind running badblocks but obviously if there's no point in running it on 8x 3TB drives, then I wouldn't mind using the time for something more useful.

 

[9C1 Newbee]

....as for the forum's reputation, let me just say that those rumors about you guys an girls are clearly only partially true.

Oh you are gonna fit right in around here :D

I don't mind running badblocks but obviously if there's no point in running it on 8x 3TB drives....

Testing your drives is a great idea. There are a few threads that address this.

 

[philiplu]

I don't mind running badblocks but obviously if there's no point in running it on 8x 3TB drives, then I wouldn't mind using the time for something more useful.

I ran badblocks on my 8x4TB WD Reds. Took about 3 days in all. Sure, at the time I just wanted to start playing, but I decided to be very deliberate on setting up this new NAS to try to head off any problems later on. And the badblocks run was useful in more than just testing the drives. Badblocks got my drive temps up higher than I've seen them in later normal use, even scrubs. I was seeing drives hitting 42C running badblocks, when I was trying to keep them below 40C. That made me swap out the two 140mm Fractal Design fans that pushed air through the drives for something with better static pressure. I've got links to the replacement fans in this post. I was also trying to replace the 92mm fan on the SuperMicro 5-in-3 hot swap bay for something quieter, but decided I'd have to live with the noise of the stock fan to keep temps in those bays under control. Once I replaced the fans and restarted badblocks, temps were better (hit 40C, I think), and now in day-to-day use, temps run 33C to 37C, maybe 38C during a scrub.

 

[Ericloewe]

Testing drives is always a good idea. Weeds out most infant mortality and shipping damage. Also gives you an idea of how fast the drives are.