Hiya folks,

 

I've recently hit the wall on my current 6 bay NAS and have decided an unraid server is the best path forward. My components are still about a week out but I'm looking for a couple suggestions on where to start and how to best to transfer things over.

 

Current Config:

• Qnap TVS-671
• (6) HGST 4TB NAS drives (0S03664) in RAID5
• Using 17.6 out of 18TB (usable)... only 400GB left, Yikes!

 

I also have (2) 4TB WD Blacks, that are mirrored in a separate docking station and full, and (1 or 2) 2TB's WD Greens that I may or may not use in the new server.

 

New Build:

• Norco 4224
• Asus Z9PA-D8
• Seasonic 1050XP3
• (1) E5-2670
• (4) 8GB ECC RAM
• (3) LSI 9210-8i

 

My plan is to order (3) shuckable 8TB drives, transfer everything on my NAS over to the new drives and build the new server using the (6) HGST's plus (1) of the WD Blacks. Once the server is up and running transfer everything on the 8TB's and other 4TB Black over, and either shuck the 8TB's and add them to the new array or return them in exchange for 3 to 4 more HGST 4TB's.

 

I've thought about building the server around the 8TB drives but I'm a little leery about using Seagate's. Seagate's are the only drives to have failed on me in the past so I'm not too comfortable with having them in my server permanently. Also I'm not sure if I like the idea of having 3 slower 8TB's in my server and how that will affect the performance and parity checks of the 4TB array.

 

I'm looking for recommendations on which route to take...

 

Build the server using the 8TB's and add the 4TB's to the new array, after all my data is transferred over?

 

...or use the 8TB's as temporary storage so I can build the server using my current 4TB's, and continue using 4TB HGST's for expansion?

 

Another thought would be to buy (4) new HGST's, instead of the 8TB's, and build the server around those. However, I'm not sure if I'll have enough drive space available to migrate everything off my NAS, so I can move my current HGST's over.

 

Thanks for any suggestions, I'm really looking forward to this build and getting out of the corner I've built myself in to. 

Edited March 22, 20179 yr by RallyAK

So you don't currently have a backup solution for your Qnap, that's not a good thing, you always want some kind of backup if your data is important.

 

One thing you could do which would take longer, is slowly, one by one, upgrade the drives in your Qnap with larger ones. So lets say you decided to buy 6TB drives to replace the 4TB ones, you replace them one at time and as you swap out a 4TB for a 6TB, you have a 4TB to use for unRAID.  Now I know you probably weren't planning on using your Qnap but you could use it as a backup for your data once your unRAID server is up and running.

 

You could go the 8TB route, but if you shuck them they lose their warranty, just FYI.

 

Your thought of buying four new 4TB HGST's would not give you enough space to migrate all your data, you would have to buy six. However if you bought three 8TB internal drives that would be enough room. You could set them up in unRAID without a parity drive to start, then buy another 8TB later for parity.

 

1 hour ago, ashman70 said:

So you don't currently have a backup solution for your Qnap, that's not a good thing, you always want some kind of backup if your data is important.

 

One thing you could do which would take longer, is slowly, one by one, upgrade the drives in your Qnap with larger ones. So lets say you decided to buy 6TB drives to replace the 4TB ones, you replace them one at time and as you swap out a 4TB for a 6TB, you have a 4TB to use for unRAID.  Now I know you probably weren't planning on using your Qnap but you could use it as a backup for your data once your unRAID server is up and running.

 

You could go the 8TB route, but if you shuck them they lose their warranty, just FYI.

 

Your thought of buying four new 4TB HGST's would not give you enough space to migrate all your data, you would have to buy six. However if you bought three 8TB internal drives that would be enough room. You could set them up in unRAID without a parity drive to start, then buy another 8TB later for parity.

 

 

Nope, no back up solution for the Qnap. I know how bad that sounds but nothing critical is on there, just media that can all be replaced if something bad happened. All my critical data is on the WD Black's which are mirrored.

 

Thanks for the suggestion on swapping the 4TB's for 6TB's on the Qnap, that's a great idea however I plan to sell the Qnap after everything is transferred over to offset some of the cost of the new server, and 6TB HGST are still too expensive IMO. 

 

After I wrote the OP, I thought of one more option which I think I'll go with.

 

Purchase (4) 4TB HGST's and (1) 8TB Seagate external. Build the server using the new 4TB's, without parity to start, transfer as much as possible over to unraid and put the rest on the 8TB. That should cover everything I need to get off the Qnap, so I can move the (6) 4TB's over. Once all (10) HGST's are in unraid, I'll transfer my critical data on the WD Black over and either use the Blacks as parity drives, or keep one as a spare and the other as a VM/Docker drive.  

 

I might hold on to the 8tb and use it as cold storage for critical data, or return it if I'm not happy with it.

Edited March 22, 20179 yr by RallyAK

I don't know if this occurred to you either, but if that Qnap has a 64 bit intel processor which I believe it does, it can run unRAID natively, I mean there may be a few things you have to do to make it happen, but its possible.

 

Good luck with your build.

51 minutes ago, RallyAK said:

All my critical data is on the WD Black's which are mirrored.

Mirror != backup

3 hours ago, ashman70 said:

I don't know if this occurred to you either, but if that Qnap has a 64 bit intel processor which I believe it does, it can run unRAID natively, I mean there may be a few things you have to do to make it happen, but its possible.

 

Good luck with your build.

 

That hadn't occurred to me, I didn't know it was possible tbh. I'm running an i7, so good to know it's a possible to run unraid if I decide to keep it. Thanks!

 

2 hours ago, jonathanm said:

Mirror != backup

 

Yep, I get that... 

 

So, now that I have a plan to transfer everything over. Next questions...

 

Does it matter how the initial 10-12 drives are balanced across the 9210-8i controllers? 3-4 drives on each or 5-6 on 2, leaving the third controller out as a spare for now?

 

Also, does it matter how the drives are dispersed across the front of the server, from a heat/ventilation standpoint? Bottom to top, left to right, skip a row?

 

How about using one of the 4TB WD Black's as a cache drive? Are there disadvantages using such a large drive for caching?

Edited March 22, 20179 yr by RallyAK

According to Backblaze, Seagate's reliability has increased pretty substantially.  WD Reds have gotten pretty bad (even though I've had good luck with all the reds in my array).  I've switched to HGST, tho, because of Backblaze's reliability reports.