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Just so I make sure I have all this right before dropping $1,000 on this setup:
Thunderbay 6 TB3
4 4TB drives
2 8TB drives
1 M.2 Drive
I am not sure what RAID to use, but have a few questions:
-I read here that RAID 5 is fast for read AND write. Most other places say RAID 5 offers no write speed benefit due to the overhead (the parity writes and checks). If I get a theoretical 600MB Read, what should my write speed be?
-I can put 6 disk in the TBay and set up multiple RAID, correct? IE 4 HDs for a big storage drive and 2 SSDs for a fast Video editing drive?
-Mixing drive capacities and brands isn't a problem per se, I loose capacity and its not best practice, but it won't necsarrily be slower or more at risk?
Thanks...a bit nervous to pull the trigger without confirmation of these.
Posted : 19/02/2019 6:45 pm
The max RAID 5 volume you can get is 5 x 4TB (one disk for parity) is 20TB.
Then you could create a new volume with 4TB on the two larger disks if you want.
You can of course mix and match other volumes, RAID types, sizes, etc.
The first volume on the disks is fastest. If you got 600MB/s reads, you should get close to that with writes with SoftRAID.
Posted : 20/02/2019 3:23 am
Topic starter
After reading more and thinking about my needs (reliable DAS of media and archive files) I will likely go with:
-6 bay enclosure
-6 4TB disks in RAID 5 (WD Blue?)
-external M.2 drive (or the Thunderbay with M.2) for my video editing projects.
I thought about starting with just 3 or 4 4TB in RAID 5, but it seems adding more disks is not supported. Only adding larger disks, correct?
Any thoughts on WD Red vs Blue vs Black? I am thinking of Blue. Software RAID doesn't need TLER (so I read) and these will only be used for a few hours at time and not every day. Definitely not 24/7 NAS or file server.
Posted : 20/02/2019 9:26 am
Only replacing disks with larger ones, correct, and all must be the same size before the volume can be expanded.
I don't understand the "red vs blue vs black" WD marketing. No you do not need TLER, but out side of that, the colors appear to be mostly marketing fluff to differentiate pricing. It costs money to have multiple assembly lines, so all these drives are probably manufactured on the same line.
Don't see you listing a backup strategy in your setup. Make sure you incorporate multiple backup strategies!
Posted : 20/02/2019 1:24 pm
Topic starter
Only replacing disks with larger ones, correct, and all must be the same size before the volume can be expanded.
I don't understand the "red vs blue vs black" WD marketing. No you do not need TLER, but out side of that, the colors appear to be mostly marketing fluff to differentiate pricing. It costs money to have multiple assembly lines, so all these drives are probably manufactured on the same line.
Don't see you listing a backup strategy in your setup. Make sure you incorporate multiple backup strategies!
I found a great article on the ThunderBay 6 ( https://macperformanceguide.com/Reviews-OWC-Thunderbay6-RAID5-vs-Thunderbay4.html)
Based on that I'll be going with a 5 x 4TB RAID 5. That gives me room to grow. The 6th bay will have a 10TB drive for backup. I also have two 8TB external drives for off site backups. I use Carbon Copy Cloner to run those daily or when connected (off site drives). I also use OneDrive (video masters) and Amazon (Photos). I have 3 copies, sometimes 4 or 5 in various locations and devices. I don't trust my data to any one device or location. However its gotten hard with 7+ enclosures and drives. Time to consolidate with a RAID for primary storage and use the bigger drives for backup to get the total devices I mange down 3 or 4.
Posted : 20/02/2019 1:56 pm
