Can i mix and match drives of same size?

[eddie200112]

Is there any reason not to mix hard drives of the same size but are of different brand or models?
Specifically WD black drives and Seagate NAS 4TB drives.
Thanks

 

[danb35]

No reason not to.

 

[eddie200112]

Even with access speed differences. They can be in the same vdev even no problem?

 

[danb35]

No, there's no problem. As I understand it, vdev performance will be limited by the slowest device in the vdev, though.

 

[eddie200112]

OK thanks!

 

[jgreco]

No, there's no problem. As I understand it, vdev performance will be limited by the slowest device in the vdev, though.

That is exactly correct. Some of us view it as a good practice to build heterogeneous pools. If you have a run of bad drives from a manufacturer, where a bunch of them start going belly up around 12 months into service, it can become a real nightmare. I know folks it's happened to.

Hardware array manufacturers have typically promoted homogeneous arrays, in part because sourcing drives from multiple vendors is more complicated, and with hardware controllers, this can also lead to odd performance problems when they respond differently.

This is much less of an issue in the modern era, where drives are not on a common bus, and a system like ZFS is doing massively parallel I/O operations on a bunch of devices.

 

[HoneyBadger]

It's actually a good way to ensure you don't get a whole line of drives from the same batch that might fail at the same time.

If it was my preference I'd at least try to match the performance characteristics (eg: same RPM, similar throughput) but it won't hurt reliability unless you're throwing in a particularly poor drive (WD/Seagate Greens)

 

[jgreco]

Maybe of interest

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/HETEROGENEOUS-RAID-ARRAYS-WORK,1789-8.html

 

[eddie200112]

Appreciate the quick info everyone! was buying WD Blacks but thhe Seagate NAS went on sale cheaper today and newegg. Ill def mix and match then. definitely don't neeed them all failing at the defined date of obsolescence from the manufacturer :)

 

[jgreco]

definitely don't neeed them all failing at the defined date of obsolescence from the manufacturer :)

Ow. That's almost as cynical as me.

 

[HoneyBadger]

definitely don't neeed them all failing at the defined date of obsolescence from the manufacturer :)

I didn't know Kingston made hard drives.

 

[jgreco]

I didn't know Kingston made hard drives.

They actually used to make storage arrays. Kingston DataStor. Got some floating around here somewhere. You could fill them with DataExpress modules and integrate drives yourself, or, I'm pretty sure, buy it all preassembled from Kingston with drives.

 

[eddie200112]

Maybe you guys can answer me this while your here.. Since im going to have 12 drives. And I only have 10 SATA ports and then 8x SAS ports is it safe to span a vdev across the sata and sas controller? I would have 10 HDD's on Sata and 2 on SAS using RAID Z3

 

[danb35]

Once again, this isn't a problem.

 

[jgreco]

Maybe you guys can answer me this while your here.. Since im going to have 12 drives. And I only have 10 SATA ports and then 8x SAS ports is it safe to span a vdev across the sata and sas controller? I would have 10 HDD's on Sata and 2 on SAS using RAID Z3

Yup, do whatever you need. The SAS controller might be vaguely faster though.

 

[eddie200112]

I apologize I just wanted to be sure before I bought the last couple drives. Will be building next week. Finally! :)

 

[jgreco]

I apologize I just wanted to be sure before I bought the last couple drives.

Why would you need to apologize?

Quite frankly, the average user (I'm guessing: you) doesn't buy dozens or hundreds of drives a year and doesn't have a wealth of experience with racks of server class gear. And then there's of us who are technology cheapskates. I know many IT guys aren't really even aware that you can plug a SATA drive into a SAS bay. There's a ton of crap to know that you couldn't possibly know all about. There's a ton of crap *I* don't know about. Don't be shy about asking questions, but also don't be offended if you get a redirect to an information source that's already available.

Have a blast building your system. There's a guide to building your system in the hardware forum. It's modest but what's there is good advice. Good luck!

 

[eddie200112]

haha true just don't want to sound like an annoying noob.
What would anyone suggest for a case to install my 12 drive NAS in?
Ive been driving myself crazy over getting a large desktop tower or just buying a 4U rack unit with 12 internal bays. But finding a rack 10u or 12u rack I like that will fit a 25" deep 4U tray.

 

[ser_rhaegar]

eBay has decent supermicro 2, 3 and 4U cases for a couple hundred. Typically can get them with dual PSU and rails if you wait and watch for a deal. They can hold 12, 16 and 24 or more drives depending on the layout of the model you get.
Edit: the 4u are around 300 though

 

[eddie200112]

Is there a standard depth to a 4u rack it seems like I finding them in several lengths..