SOLVED Upgrade dilemma - Hardware or HDD first

[Jayos]

I have been avidly reading many of the great posts and articles here in the forum. This has led me to understand that I have been running FreeNAS for a few years, upgrading along the way and have been very lucky with my hardware.

The original decision taken was if I lose my data due to hardware failure, non ECC RAM etc... I have a backup of all my important data and may just lose a few movies and music that I store.
As time goes on I have managed to consume 80% disk space so will need to upgrade the HDD's. looking at 3x 4TB WD Red in Raidz1. Or 4x 3TB WD Red would work out cheaper and provide more usable storage.
What drive configurations would you recommend?

This will leave me with the 3x old 2TB HDD's which I could use for additional backup space.
However, I have started to play around with additional functionality setting up jails etc. I am feeling a little vulnerable and if anything were to go wrong so after reading the hardware guide and many posts am considering upgrading to the following:

Either - Supermicro X11ssm-F, ASRock C236 WSI Rack
Xeon E3 v6 CPU
32GB ECC RAM

I would prefer the mini ATX form factor and have also seen the Asus P10S boards but am curious if anyone has had any experience with them?

As I cannot upgrade the hardware and HDD's at the same time I am trying to decide which to upgrade first, logic tells me to get the hardware done first. What do you think?

 

[Ericloewe]

What do you think?

How is the pool currently configured? 3x 2TB in RAIDZ1?

What drive configurations would you recommend?

Something with RAIDZ2.

As I cannot upgrade the hardware and HDD's at the same time I am trying to decide which to upgrade first, logic tells me to get the hardware done first.

The pool should be okay, if you have a spare drive ready to replace failing drives. So, hardware + spare (it could even be one of the new, larger drives) sounds to me like the better option.

 

[Stux]

I know you said you couldn't, but I'd do both and leave the old system as a backup for the new system

 

[Ericloewe]

If I really had to arrange priorities, they'd be:

1. Spare drive (and replacement spare drives should the first one be needed)
2. New hardware
3. New set of disks for a new pool

 

[Jayos]

How is the pool currently configured? 3x 2TB in RAIDZ1?

Yes, but thinking of increasing pool to 4x 3TB to gain more usable data space.

Ideally, the old system would make a great backup for the important data and maybe that's something for the future .
Thanks for the advice, it's really helpful.

 

[SweetAndLow]

Yes, but thinking of increasing pool to 4x 3TB to gain more usable data space.

Ideally, the old system would make a great backup for the important data and maybe that's something for the future .
Thanks for the advice, it's really helpful.

With those new disks you should be using raidz2 not raidz1. Chances of losing a disk during rebuild in raid z1 is very high with larger disk.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[Jayos]

With those new disks you should be using raidz2 not raidz1. Chances of losing a disk during rebuild in raid z1 is very high with larger disk.

Thanks, will definately go raidz2
The ASRock C236 WSI is looking favourite at the moment.
Considering an i3 6100 as it's lower watts, much cheaper. Will I be losing much compared to E3 1225 v5 except the extra cores?

 

[SweetAndLow]

Thanks, will definately go raidz2
The ASRock C236 WSI is looking favourite at the moment.
Considering an i3 6100 as it's lower watts, much cheaper. Will I be losing much compared to E3 1225 v5 except the extra cores?

They all use the same watts when idle, this is why looking at watts is useless I'm making a decision. Choose based on what max processing you need.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[melloa]

As time goes on I have managed to consume 80% disk space

I'd say that direct the answer to your question to HDDs.

But if you can keep things from exceeding 85%, I'd do as @Stux said, build a new system with raidz2, keeping the old as back-up or while getting the new one running.

 

[Jayos]

Hardware ordered, went for:

• Asrock Rack C236 WSI Motherboard
• Xenon E3-1220v6
• 2x16GB Crucial CT16G4WFD824A ECC DDR4