Drive configuration help needed

[sunflashx]

I just added a 5 drive bay to my system and a IBM M1015 controller.

I've got an existing 6 drive RAIDZ1 array. Currently I set up my new drives as their own pool just to test the hardware. It's also currently just got some old 300G drives in it. I'll probably fill it with 2TB drives.

Should the number of drives in each vdev in a combined pool be the same? Like two pools of 5 drives... Or should I just add the new 5 drive vdev into my pool? Better fault tolerance to just leave them as seperate pools?

Any thoughts on an ideal drive arrangement?

 

[paleoN]

Should the number of drives in each vdev in a combined pool be the same? Like two pools of 5 drives...

Yes, they should and the same level of redundancy, i.e. raidz2.

Better fault tolerance to just leave them as seperate pools?

Yes, 2 separate pools gives you greater redundancy assuming you backup to the other pool regularly. A 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] separate NAS would give you even greater redundancy still.