Hard Drive Selection for 100TB Array

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briandm81

Active Member
Aug 31, 2014
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So it's finally time to expand my storage! This will be used for back-ups and media playback. Here are my FreeNAS (11.1) specs:

Processor(s)(2) Intel Xeon E5-2670 @ 2.6 GHz
MotherboardSupermicro X9DR7-LNF4-JBOD
Memory256 GB Samsung ECC Registered DDR3 @ 1600 MHz
ChassisSupermicro CSE-846TQ
ChassisSupermicro CSE-847E16-RJBOD1
HBASupermicro AOC-2308-l8e
HBALSI 9200-8e
Solid State Storage(2) Intel S3700 200GB SSD
Hard Drive Storage(8) HGST Ultrastar 2TB Hard Drives (SATA)
Hard Drive Storage(20) HGST Ultrastar 3TB Hard Drives (SAS and SATA mix)
Hard Drive Storage(10) HGST Ultrastar 3TB Hard Drives (SAS and SATA mix)
Network Adapter(2) Intel X520-DA2 Dual Port 10 Gbps Network Adapters

I plan to put all of my new drives in my 847 which is SAS2 with all SATA drives today. It is connected to the 2308-l8e with a pair of cables that I can't remember the number of (I want to say 8088).

Now to the actual question... I would like the new array to storage roughly 100TB. I've come up with a few options:
DriveTBQtyPriceTotal PriceRaw StorageRaidZ LevelRaidZ StoragePrice Per TB
Ebay White Label
12​
12​
$ 215$ 2,580
144​
3​
108​
$ 23.89
DC HC520
12​
12​
$ 238$ 2,855
144​
3​
108​
$ 26.43
DC HC530
14​
12​
$ 290$ 3,479
168​
3​
126​
$ 27.61
Exos X16
16​
10​
$ 290$ 2,900
160​
2​
128​
$ 22.65
DC HC550
16​
10​
$ 360$ 3,600
160​
2​
128​
$ 28.12

The Exos X16 is the most price attractive option with the least amount of drives. This let's me add another 100TB without any trouble. Will this work properly with my controller and expander? Any issues with FreeNAS 11.1 (I've been delaying my upgrade to TrueNAS just because...it ain't broke)?

If I opt for the Ultrastar drives, will these work? I've read they have a new format of SATA power connector and I can't seem to figure out if it will work. I tried searching before I posted!!!

Thanks in advance!!!
 

Spearfoot

Active Member
Apr 22, 2015
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If I opt for the Ultrastar drives, will these work? I've read they have a new format of SATA power connector and I can't seem to figure out if it will work. I tried searching before I posted!!!

Thanks in advance!!!
You must be talking about the Power Disable Feature (PWDIS). Western Digital has a PDF available that lists which drives do or do not have it, at least for a subset of their available models.


I'm not certain PWDIS is a problem on older backplanes like yours (and mine, I also have a Supermicro SC846 chassis).

I've purposely selected drives from the reference above that do not have PWDIS: 10TB DC HC520 SATA drives (part number OF30141, model HUH721212ALN600).

But I also use some 12TB DC HC530 SAS drives (part number OF31002, model WUH721414AL4204) that -- as nearly as I can tell -- do have the PWDIS feature, and they work fine in all of my Supermicro chassis, too.

You can dig through the drive specs to research which particular models have PWDIS, but WD's specs often aren't very clear about this.

 

briandm81

Active Member
Aug 31, 2014
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I've bought 8 of these:
So far, no DOAs. Ask me in 2-3 years about my experience :)

Pros: 5 years warranty and enterprise-oriented drives
That seems like a great price. I was thinking about doing 2 vdevs of 6 drives. Then if I need more space I can just add a third vdev with 6 more. Thanks!!!
 

msg7086

Active Member
May 2, 2017
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If I opt for the Ultrastar drives, will these work? I've read they have a new format of SATA power connector and I can't seem to figure out if it will work. I tried searching before I posted!!!
But you use backplanes, not SATA power connectors. Backplanes usually don't have 3.3V power at all, so it's an irrelevant issue.

Even if you use regular PSU and regular SATA power connectors, all you need to do is to remove the 3.3V power input from the plug, or snap off the 3rd pin from the plug.

I got 11x Exos X16 16TB drives in my NAS and they work great.

 

T_Minus

Build. Break. Fix. Repeat
Feb 15, 2015
7,625
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IIRC Toshiba were high % failures on BB yearly HDD test sheet when they ran them.

I would go with the highest capacity you can as it sounds like you may need to upgrade again soon and that gives you the room, pay a bit more now to have room to expand in future w\out selling and re-buying will pay for itself IMO
 
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briandm81

Active Member
Aug 31, 2014
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IIRC Toshiba were high % failures on BB yearly HDD test sheet when they ran them.

I would go with the highest capacity you can as it sounds like you may need to upgrade again soon and that gives you the room, pay a bit more now to have room to expand in future w\out selling and re-buying will pay for itself IMO
I actually just checked the August stats. One of the 14TB toshiba is the single most used drive at BB. It has a below average rate of failure (favorable). There’s another 14TB model with a higher rate, but they have less than 2000 drives compared to 32k of the other drive. Seems like a decent set of data to say they could be solid drives.
 
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