ZFS Drive Spindle Speeds

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TheBay

New Member
Feb 25, 2013
220
1
0
UK
I have been collecting 5K3000's 2 TB drives, but now all my sources are exhausted.

I need to create a RAIDZ2 array which will have 6x 2TB drives, 4 of these are original Hitachi 5K3000 drives, the other 2 are Toshiba 2TB but re-branded Hitachi 5K3000.

The issue I have here is this build is I have 4x Hitachi 5K3000's which have a spindle speed of 5940rpm and firmware A10, the 2x Toshiba versions of the 5K3000 have a spindle speed of 5700rpm and firmware AB0.

So I'll have to keep buying Toshiba's as you cannot buy the original 5K3000.

Is this going to cause me any problems?. Interestingly all the drives geometry settings are identical so believe they use exactly the same platters and are bit for bit the same size.
 

gea

Well-Known Member
Dec 31, 2010
3,141
1,182
113
DE
I have been collecting 5K3000's 2 TB drives, but now all my sources are exhausted.

I need to create a RAIDZ2 array which will have 6x 2TB drives, 4 of these are original Hitachi 5K3000 drives, the other 2 are Toshiba 2TB but re-branded Hitachi 5K3000.

The issue I have here is this build is I have 4x Hitachi 5K3000's which have a spindle speed of 5940rpm and firmware A10, the 2x Toshiba versions of the 5K3000 have a spindle speed of 5700rpm and firmware AB0.

So I'll have to keep buying Toshiba's as you cannot buy the original 5K3000.

Is this going to cause me any problems?. Interestingly all the drives geometry settings are identical so believe they use exactly the same platters and are bit for bit the same size.
no problem, even if disks are more different
You will find problems only:
- when you try to replace a disk with a smaller one
- when you try to replace a disk in a ashift=9 vdev with a modern 4k sector disk

Due to the last point, I would force the vdevs to ashift=12 either with editing sd.conf or by using a real 4k disk when creating a vdev and replace then with a 512B one. (In some years you will not be able to buy any 512B disk with 2 TB)
 

TheBay

New Member
Feb 25, 2013
220
1
0
UK
no problem, even if disks are more different
You will find problems only:
- when you try to replace a disk with a smaller one
- when you try to replace a disk in a ashift=9 vdev with a modern 4k sector disk

Due to the last point, I would force the vdevs to ashift=12 either with editing sd.conf or by using a real 4k disk when creating a vdev and replace then with a 512B one. (In some years you will not be able to buy any 512B disk with 2 TB)
Nochmals vielen Dank!

Very reassuring, If anyone knows the answer it's you :)

I'm sure the 5K3000's run fine at ashift=12 Now I know I can keep buying these drives.