Parity or not

[robti]

Hi so atm I have 4x4Tb drives one as parity, now just ordered a 18tb drive and I was planning on using it as parity and then would have the 4tb drives as array but wondered about running without parity till I can afford to get another 18tb drive (couple of months) and then use this as a new parity drive. Opinions please ?

Thanks

[ConnerVT]

As I see it, it is dependent on a few things: 

 

How important is the data?  

Is the data backed up somewhere else?  (Parity is *not* a backup)

How critical is the server availability?  (The array can run emulating the data with the parity drive while you rebuild/recover)

 

I would say that unless you have 10+ TB ready to load on the server, or the existing 4TB are on the edge of failure, install the new 18TB drive now as Parity, take the current 4TB dive and add it to your array, then add any new drive to the array in the future.

[lodep09]

Running without parity in your RAID setup for a couple of months can be a viable option depending on your specific needs and considerations. However, it's important to understand the implications and risks involved before making a decision. Without parity, you will not have the ability to recover data in case of a drive failure during that period. If one of the 4TB drives fails, you could potentially lose the data stored on it. This means that if you don't have a backup of your data elsewhere, there is a higher risk of permanent data loss.

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Edited June 13, 2023 by lodep09

[kizer]

I've lost 3 drives since 2009, but it was super easy to swap out another drive and hit rebuild. Just keep that in mind.

Ironically I lost 2 data drives and 1 parity drive. They was not at the same time, but it does happen.