SSD w/ reallocated count slowly increasing: replace now or wait?

[VelcroBP]

I have a cache pool of 2 SSDs. One is starting to throw reallocated sector count errors about once a week or so. It is up to 4 now. I've attached the SMART report. My questions are:

 

1. Is this indicative of imminent failure?
   1. If so I will have to shrink back down to the single cache drive until I can afford to purchase a replacement.
2. Samsung_SSD_840_PRO_Series_S12PNEAD315804J-20220906-1008.txtIs parity the main/only benefit of a cache pool?
   1. I was thinking to replace the failing drive with a 512gb one. In that case, I could free up a physical drive slot in my server by just replacing the remaining SSD instead of adding the new and creating another pool.
   2. I don't really need the extra slot. I currently pre-clear new HDDs via a usb-SATA adapter and that seems to work fine. But it would be nice to have a warm spare.

[JorgeB]

2 minutes ago, VelcroBP said:

Is this indicative of imminent failure?

Difficult to predict, but a low number like that is usually not a big problem.

 

3 minutes ago, VelcroBP said:

Is parity the main/only benefit of a cache pool?

There's no parity for cache pool, if you mean mirror/raid1 it's mainly for redundancy in case a device fails.