Disk expansion strategies - pros and cons

TrueNAS General
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Greetings all. I am in need to increase my storage space on my TrueNAS server. I built it in 2019 when it was FreeNAS and pretty much it’s been set it-and-forget it. I use it mainly for document storage and as a Plex server. I started with 2 4GB WD Red drives mirrored.

I recently noticed that I am about out of space. My case, Fractal Design Core 3000 ATX Mid Tower Computer Case w/ 3 Fans, has room for more drives (although I have misplaced the extra mounting hardware, so that could make my decision for me).

My question is, for someone who has pretty much forgotten how all this works, is it better to replace the existing two with two bigger drives? For example, I could replace them both with 12TB drives. That should last me a while. I will have to search the forums for a tutorial on how exactly to do that.

Or should I add more drives and keep my existing drives? This sounds more complicated because I could end up with 2 4TB drives (the existing ones) and 2, let’s say, 8 TB drives. Now things are mismatched and I’m not sure how to set up the drives and not screw up my existing data.

I’m sure it could come down to personal preference, but I guess I’m looking for pros and cons. Obviously price of drives matters some, but I think my main goal is what can I do with the least chance of screwing something up and the most chance of things working again.

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Simpler is probably better in your case. Replacing a 4TB with a 12TB for both drives in the mirror pair. I would do an in place upgrade by connecting the two 4TB and, at least one 12TB in your system and then go through the document section for your version of Scale and the drive replacement. That keeps your current mirror intact while the 12TB gets its data. Once that is finished, move on to the second replacement of the 4TB with the next 12TB. If you have space, you can do both at the same time.
End result is a mirror VDEV with 12TB drives. At the end you will have to do an EXPAND operation as I don’t expect auto-expansion to happen.

25.04 Docs. change version in upper right if necessary.

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And I must be losing my mind. That Fractal case was for a different server many moons ago. My current server was built out of a Dell PowerEdge T30. But I do have 2 more empty slots in there so your suggestions still work. I just wanted to make my post more accurate to my actual scenario.