Server provisioning for FreeNAS, should i break hardware RAID5 for RAIDZ

[delecti]

I have another FreeNAS box on the network with no RAID just SATA disks.. b and this box has been rock solid for years. -i love it

Now i have an old domain server that has been freed up. It is an HP dl385
I have 6 disks @ about 150gb each. So this is not going to be a huge NAS but important as it will be running a datastore on a couple ESX boxes.


Should i disable the hardware RAID5 & let FreeNAS setup RAIDZ?

 

[cyberjock]

Per the manual.. yes. You did RTM, right? Section 1.1.6 if I remember correctly. So many people post this same question I can remember the section from memory!

 

[jgreco]

I'm going to disagree and say that it's a judgment call; right now, there are some issues with things like replacing failed disks, and a mature system such as what's available on the DL385 has some advantages. Once FreeNAS incorporates zfsd, that'll be a different story, I think.

 

[Stephens]

Judgements calls work a lot better when one is informed. If you're up for it, I'd be interested in reading what issues there are with replacing failed disks in FreeNAS. I did find some information on ZFSD. If he knows the pros and cons of each, he (we) can make that judgement call better.

 

[cyberjock]

Judgements calls work a lot better when one is informed. If you're up for it, I'd be interested in reading what issues there are with replacing failed disks in FreeNAS. I did find some information on ZFSD. If he knows the pros and cons of each, he (we) can make that judgement call better.

+1 here. I've never had a problem with replacing disks. Nor have I seen anyone have a problem with replacing disks as long as they followed the manual and didn't try to do things they couldn't do like do a hotswap with hardware that doesn't support hotswap.

So, as long as you don't try to do what you can't do, it should work. But feel free to provide some examples of issues with replacing disks.

I've scoured through the tickets and I haven't seen any that are being actively tracked and examined. If replacing disks was broken it would be BIG news, and a major deal breaker for everyone using FreeNAS. What good is redundancy if you can't restore it?

I still stand by my first answer until I get some good examples of it not working.