My Situation:
Currently I am running no productive Truenas installation. I plan to virtualize Truenas Scale on my Proxmox host.
I have a dedicated HBA that will get passed through to the Truenas VM. The Host has enough RAM and CPU Power, I probably will start with 6 Cores and 64 GB ECC RAM (exclusively for the Truenas VM).
I figured out, the best Balance for me between "Price to Storage ratio", performance and redundancy is 6 HDDs in a RAID-Z2 configuration.
Now the catch: I plan to use used HDDs, because I have them spare and currently I do not need more Storage. I plan to expand the Pool with Time.
Every time a drive will break i will replace it with a bigger one. I know, that the usable capacity of all disks will be the capacity of the smallest disk in the array.
The 6 HDDs are all 3.5" WD Red with 3 TB, the age and power on Hours vary from Disk to Disk, because some were used in different systems.
But actually, I think this is a good thing, because it makes it less likely, that more than two drives fail at the same time.
I Know many people do not like to use used HDDs, I can understand that, am fully aware of the risks and I know about the importance of a good Backup solution.
Now to the Real question:
Before I use the HDDs in my productive environment, I want to test them and prepare them as good as possible for the Truenas System.
I do not want to test if the Drives are in perfect condition, I know they are not! I am also fine with one Drive likely to die soon, because of redundancy and Backup, I just want to be prepared as good as I can be.
As far as I know there are multiple tests that will delete all Data on the Disks, for example any type of write test, so I have to test everything before I use them in my NAS.
And before that I also want to update the Firmware (if available) of all the Hard Drives, should I do that before all the Tests, or after that?
I have the option to connect a single or multiple Drives to a machine with any OS (Linux, Windows, Parted Magic,...) and let it run for Days if needed.
I want to gather all helpful information about used Hard Drives in this Thread.
Sorry if my English is not perfect, it is not my native language, but I hope all informations are clear.
Thanks in advance for any contributions!
Currently I am running no productive Truenas installation. I plan to virtualize Truenas Scale on my Proxmox host.
I have a dedicated HBA that will get passed through to the Truenas VM. The Host has enough RAM and CPU Power, I probably will start with 6 Cores and 64 GB ECC RAM (exclusively for the Truenas VM).
I figured out, the best Balance for me between "Price to Storage ratio", performance and redundancy is 6 HDDs in a RAID-Z2 configuration.
Now the catch: I plan to use used HDDs, because I have them spare and currently I do not need more Storage. I plan to expand the Pool with Time.
Every time a drive will break i will replace it with a bigger one. I know, that the usable capacity of all disks will be the capacity of the smallest disk in the array.
The 6 HDDs are all 3.5" WD Red with 3 TB, the age and power on Hours vary from Disk to Disk, because some were used in different systems.
But actually, I think this is a good thing, because it makes it less likely, that more than two drives fail at the same time.
I Know many people do not like to use used HDDs, I can understand that, am fully aware of the risks and I know about the importance of a good Backup solution.
Now to the Real question:
Before I use the HDDs in my productive environment, I want to test them and prepare them as good as possible for the Truenas System.
I do not want to test if the Drives are in perfect condition, I know they are not! I am also fine with one Drive likely to die soon, because of redundancy and Backup, I just want to be prepared as good as I can be.
As far as I know there are multiple tests that will delete all Data on the Disks, for example any type of write test, so I have to test everything before I use them in my NAS.
And before that I also want to update the Firmware (if available) of all the Hard Drives, should I do that before all the Tests, or after that?
I have the option to connect a single or multiple Drives to a machine with any OS (Linux, Windows, Parted Magic,...) and let it run for Days if needed.
I want to gather all helpful information about used Hard Drives in this Thread.
Sorry if my English is not perfect, it is not my native language, but I hope all informations are clear.
Thanks in advance for any contributions!
