SoonerLater
Explorer
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2013
- Messages
- 80
I have just ordered an ixSystems Mini-XL+. It has eight hot-swap 3.5" drive bays (plus a few 2.5" bays). It was my original thought to configure it as a 5-drive Z2 pool using 4 TB drives. With three empty drive bays to start with, I would have room to expand the original pool or add another when I run low on storage (which won't be for many years). I only use this for media storage for a family. I don't run any jails. It's just SMB shares.
But then I started thinking... maybe the thing to do is to build a 4-drive Z1 pool and have a hot-spare (or a shelf spare). I configure my existing server to notify me if a drive starts to die. Since this is a hot-swap system, as long as I have a spare, it's very likely I could replace a failing drive very quickly so could probably live with Z1 level of redundancy (as opposed to the Z2 I've used for years). And going this route, I could have another Z1 4-drive pool in the future. Two years from now, at least 6 TB and maybe even 8 TB or 10 TB drives will be as cheap as 4 TB are now, probably. Except for needing backup to a different destination / host (ideally cloud based), this Mini-XL+ could satisfy my needs for a decade.
Thoughts?
But then I started thinking... maybe the thing to do is to build a 4-drive Z1 pool and have a hot-spare (or a shelf spare). I configure my existing server to notify me if a drive starts to die. Since this is a hot-swap system, as long as I have a spare, it's very likely I could replace a failing drive very quickly so could probably live with Z1 level of redundancy (as opposed to the Z2 I've used for years). And going this route, I could have another Z1 4-drive pool in the future. Two years from now, at least 6 TB and maybe even 8 TB or 10 TB drives will be as cheap as 4 TB are now, probably. Except for needing backup to a different destination / host (ideally cloud based), this Mini-XL+ could satisfy my needs for a decade.
Thoughts?