Thinking of moving from a Synology NAS to FreeNAS

[NJMorf]

I've currently got an entry-level 2-bay Synology DS216j NAS containing 2x 3TB WD Red drives in a Synology Hybrid Raid. The NAS is primarily used for backup and Plex: it's underpowered for the latter so I'm considering replacing it with a FreeNAS solution running on something like the HPE ML10, Dell Poweredge T30 or Lenovo Thinkserver TS150. The NAS is also getting a little full but the drives are less than a year old, so I'd rather keep using them than make them redundant. I'm curious about how I could do this and how simple it would be to transfer the data across.

From what I've read, I think that if I used an equivalent of the SHR I'm currently using (RAID-Z1, I think), I'd need to add two more drives in order to increase the overall capacity (i.e. it doesn't support expanding by a single drive at a time), and that while these could be larger than the 3TB drives I'm using, I'd only be able to use the same amount of space as the smallest drive in the set. Correct?

I also assume that once I've created a RAID-Z1, there's no way to convert it to a -Z2 or -Z3 if I wanted additional resilience: I'd have to recreate the array as a new array. Correct?

My ideal situation would be to prep the new system with probably a new pair of 3TB disks, copy the data from the Synology, then wipe the old disks and add them to the new system to increase the overall capacity. Is this a reasonable plan? Would it matter if the new disks were not the same brand as the old, e.g. if I put in Iron Wolf drives instead?

Thanks in advance.

 

[danb35]

If you have two disks with any redundancy at all, they're mirrored (aka RAID1). The equivalent to that in ZFS is not RAIDZ1 (which is comparable to RAID5), but simply mirrors. You could reuse your current disks (though you'd need to format them), and add additional mirrored pairs of disks whenever you choose.

I also assume that once I've created a RAID-Z1, there's no way to convert it to a -Z2 or -Z3 if I wanted additional resilience: I'd have to recreate the array as a new array. Correct?

Correct.

Is this a reasonable plan?

Seems an entirely sensible plan, though check $/TB on the new disks--you might be better off buying a pair of larger disks instead.

Would it matter if the new disks were not the same brand as the old,

Not in the least.

 

[NJMorf]

Thanks for the info. As for the larger disks: right now I'd prefer to save 30 quid per drive than a couple of quid per terabyte, so the smaller drives will do.