Is it OK to gradually change drive type in a Z2 array?

Hecknologist · February 5, 2016

Hi guys, my NAS is currently out of action, as two of the four [Seagate 2TB desktop] drives spat out "irreplaceable failed sectors" or something similar. One of the drives is covered by warranty but one isn't and needs replacing.

Question: Can I replace the Seagate 2TB with a Seagate NAS 2TB drive?

Yes I know I shouldn't use non-NAS drives in a NAS but money is tight and I can't afford to replace the whole array. If using mixed drives is OK I'll gradually replace the old drives with better ones.

Other info: Array is not built yet. Going to use Z2 (ZFS). Specs of NAS: HP Proliant m110 G6, Xeon X3430, 16GB DDR3 ECC, 4 x 2TB Seagate barracuda.

alpenwasser · February 5, 2016

So, if the array isn't built yet, you're not so much asking if you can replace drives, but if you can build an array with mixed drives in the first place? While it's generally not recommended, you can do it, yes. If the drives have different RPMs, you might get a bit weird performance characteristics though, hard to say.

As for desktop drives in RAID, well, you know that already, decision is yours of course. But yeah, you can mix drive types in ZFS pools and vdevs, I've done that as well.

Hecknologist · February 6, 2016

13 hours ago, alpenwasser said:

So, if the array isn't built yet, you're not so much asking if you can replace drives, but if you can build an array with mixed drives in the first place? While it's generally not recommended, you can do it, yes. If the drives have different RPMs, you might get a bit weird performance characteristics though, hard to say.

As for desktop drives in RAID, well, you know that already, decision is yours of course. But yeah, you can mix drive types in ZFS pools and vdevs, I've done that as well.

Yes, good point. It will be a mixed build rather than a replace. I'll go for similar performance drives and hope for the best. Thanks for your input.