Failed hard drive replacement options when original model out of production

[evilandy]

Hi Everyone,

I have a 5x 2TB array made from ST32000542AS drives. I wanted to replace with another ST32000542AS but they are no longer made and out of stock everywhere.

How do people tackle these situations?

Can I add a 3 or 4 TB drive and increase my storage pool size?

Are there any important factors to consider when looking for an alternative?

Thanks,

EA

 

[cyberjock]

Just use another 2TB from a different brand or model.

 

[evilandy]

Is it that simple?

Do I need to match spindle speed rpm? SATA speed 3/6GB, sectors and so forth?

some drives, when formatted provide different amounts of available space would this matter?

Is this a good time to expand my storage with a larger hard drive? If I put 4 tb will my pool grow?

I really want to avoid losing data and have no means of backup.

Thanks,

Andrew

 

[evilandy]

All of these questions have been answered twice in the last 48 hours. Please search for my comments to those threads.

If it's quite a common post, is it worth making a sticky or adding something to the user guide. Maybe I wasn't using the right key words when I searched.

 

[cyberjock]

If you read the manual and actually understand how ZFS works, and how all this hardware and software works together to give you the "FreeNAS Experience" you could answer these for yourself. :)

 

[fracai]

Summary:

A single 3 or 4 TB drive won't increase your capacity, but if you replace every drive (one by one, waiting for the resilver to complete in between) you will increase capacity.

The only thing that really matters is that the number of sectors is equal or greater to what you have now.

Overall, it doesn't matter. Seeing as you don't have a backup, it must not be important data.

 

[Dusan]

The only thing that really matters is that the number of sectors is equal or greater to what you have now.

Even this isn't a hard requirement if the original pool was created with swap space partitions. If the new drive is few sectors smaller, it is possible to create a slightly smaller swap partition, so that the ZFS partition size matches the rest of the pool.

 

[Z300M]

Hi Everyone,

I have a 5x 2TB array made from ST32000542AS drives. I wanted to replace with another ST32000542AS but they are no longer made and out of stock everywhere.

How do people tackle these situations?

Can I add a 3 or 4 TB drive and increase my storage pool size?

Are there any important factors to consider when looking for an alternative?

I replaced an ST32000641AS by its nearest current equivalent, an ST2000DM001, without a problem.

You might want to consider one of Seagate's new designed-for-NAS drives -- a little more expensive but with a longer warranty than the current "desktop" drives.

You could replace the current one by a larger drive, but you won't gain any additional usable space unless you replace all the drives by larger ones..

 

[evilandy]

Summary:

A single 3 or 4 TB drive won't increase your capacity, but if you replace every drive (one by one, waiting for the resilver to complete in between) you will increase capacity.

The only thing that really matters is that the number of sectors is equal or greater to what you have now.

Overall, it doesn't matter. Seeing as you don't have a backup, it must not be important data.

Thanks, this is the answer I'm looking for. Cyberjock, sometimes, people come to the forum for a quick answer, even after reading the manual a few times. It's not about teaching people to read. I've been using FreeNAS for a long, long time, before the split in FreeNAS 7 to either FreeNAS 8 and NAS4Free and as experienced as I am, I get stuck now and again. I haven't made much in the way of posts for help at all. I can resilver and perform iperfs (for network speed read/write troubleshooting), I've posted a few solutions on the forum (or older FreeNAS 7 forum) and can complete most cli processes. I even experienced Open Media Vault and a few other systems before deciding to stay with FreeNAS which I'm pleased I did because it is excellent. I posted because I needed a bit of help.

A clear and concise answer helps. Thanks Fracai, this helps a lot.

 

[evilandy]

As mentioned before, if its a common question, why not make a sticky. Many people will be experiencing a failed drive at some point soon and a thread providing clear information would help.

 

[evilandy]

Hi, I'm thinking about the latest Seagate NAS drive, ST2000VN000. I can't remember if I used swap-space partitions (everything was set up a few years ago) so looked for a sector size match.

http://www.seagate.com/gb/en/internal-hard-drives/enterprise-hard-drives/hdd/nas-hdd/

ST32000542AS

http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/support/disc/manuals/desktop/Barracuda LP/100564361a.pdf

• Guaranteed sectors 3,907,029,168
• Bytes per sector 512

ST2000VN000

http://www.seagate.com/files/www-content/product-content/nas-fam/nas-hdd/en-us/docs/100724684.pdf

• Guaranteed sectors 3,907,029,168
• Bytes per sector (4K physical emulated at 512-byte sectors) 4096

The ST2000VN000 looks like a good match. Has good levels of power consumption, matches the spindle speed of 5900rpm (which I went for originally due to generating lower heat). I'm not sure about the emulation but figure if it can emulate 512-byte sectors, then can't see why this wouldn't work.

I'd like to thank everyone in this post for your help and support. It's my first time for not using an identical model when replacing a disk in the raid. Unfortunately, I don't have a backup and the data is worth a lot so I opted for one of the raidz with 1 disk failure redundancy. I can see why it would be useful for an additional FreeNAS server and Rsync so will also look into this an as option for the future.

If anyone spots anything I've missed, then your help will be highly appreciated.

I also hope this information helps others.

Thanks,

EA

 

[fracai]

Thanks, this is the answer I'm looking for. Cyberjock, sometimes, people come to the forum for a quick answer, even after reading the manual a few times. It's not about teaching people to read. I've been using FreeNAS for a long, long time, before the split in FreeNAS 7 to either FreeNAS 8 and NAS4Free and as experienced as I am, I get stuck now and again. I haven't made much in the way of posts for help at all. I can resilver and perform iperfs (for network speed read/write troubleshooting), I've posted a few solutions on the forum (or older FreeNAS 7 forum) and can complete most cli processes. I even experienced Open Media Vault and a few other systems before deciding to stay with FreeNAS which I'm pleased I did because it is excellent. I posted because I needed a bit of help.

A clear and concise answer helps. Thanks Fracai, this helps a lot.

This is why I respond to "FAQ" posts. If I have the answer and time, I'll post it. I've been there, and I know how frustrating it can be to feel like you've done the research and just can't see the answer.

As mentioned before, if its a common question, why not make a sticky. Many people will be experiencing a failed drive at some point soon and a thread providing clear information would help.

Many times this sort of information is indeed in the manual and that should serve well enough as a sticky. (I think your question regarding drive replacement is handled in Cyberjock's guide (I do not understand why this isn't more prominent on the FreeNAS site), if not the ZFS documentation or FreeNAS manual.)

The frustration that veteran posters reach when they see the same questions and same requests for new stickied information is generally along the lines of, "How long do I have to hold your hand? I started out where you were and got myself to where I am today without the help that you're asking for; why can't you do the same?" I can understand this and there are different lines on where that hand will be dropped.

In general, everyone should read: How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

 

[fracai]

Unfortunately, I don't have a backup and the data is worth a lot so I opted for one of the raidz with 1 disk failure redundancy.

The usual caveat is that RAID is not a backup (RAID protects from a failed drive, not from damaged data) and RAIDZ1 should be considered deprecated (the likleyhood of a second failed disk while resilvering a drive of the capacities that are in use today is significant enough that RAIDZ2 should be the minimum).

 

[gpsguy]

Do a: gpart show

To check the partitioning of your drives and whether you have a swap partition.


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