Hello Guys.
I’m going to do 8x RAIDZ-2 pool and i’m having 6x EXOS X16 and 3x EXOS X24 (both 16TB). The EXOS X24 are white labelled from Seagate (meant for OEM sale but isn’t from Dell/HP etc).
I see two options only:
I’m not sure what should i use as i plan to use one of the drive as spare. Any insights would be veryu helpful.
Shouldn’t really matter, since all X24 will get sized down to the size of the X16.
It would only matter for the future if you want to replace the X16 with other X24 drivers to increase the capacity.
In your first option you have to replace 6 drives, in you second only 5.
Note that nn in “Xnn” is the generation, not the capacity.
Both are 16TB
Yes, right. Any suggestions please?
8-wide or 9-wide raidz2 is fine, and if you’re doing 8-wide it doesn’t matter which drive you keep as cold spare.
Hmm. I see. These drives are white labelled from Seagate. Will it be less reliable than the standard retail models or any less than X16 models?
They should not, and anyway you’re trusting two or three of them into the pool…
Yes, but for example, if I use 5*X16 + 3*X16the X24 is more prone to failures, and also OEM labelled then, if more than two X24 fails, then the pool would be completely dead.
Basically, I wanted to know what is more reliable? X16 or X24. Both, 16TB models. Here’s a picture of the X24 drive.
All you can do is look at Backblaze data, if your models are listed, and make decisions on your VDEV layout. Just make a decision based on the risk you are willing to take, Raid-Z(1,2,3) and how you back up all your data.
Backblaze is probably the best data you will find at this point
I was looking into that but my model isn’t listed on their stats:
X24 ST16000NM002H-3KW133
I’ll tell you what i have:
8*X18 16TB (Brand New, retail). Was purchased two years back almost.
6*X16 16TB (Still being used in the existing pool but will be tested again for SMART before deployment in the new NAS, retail). Was purchased back in 2022.
3*X24 24TB (Brand New, OEM labelled but from Seagate, non-Dell/HP). Was purchased last year.
For the layout, here’s i plan:
2x VDEVs. 8 disks in each VDEV in RAID-Z2.
For doing this, i just have two options:
Now, if the X24 are more prone to failure, and if i use option 1, then let’s say if both the X24 fails, then i can still replace and resilver the pool. However, if i use option 2, then let’s say if all three X24 fails (rare but no experience with X24 yet), then the whole data is loss.
I’ve attached the picture of the X24 drive in the above post.
You are asking for a Fortune Teller. Seagate is probably the only one that could make an educated guess from their RMA statistics on those models.
Just make a choice. Keep excellent back ups of your data. Be prepared in case of a pool or system failure. That is all you can do. If you can’t have back ups of all your data, sort it into what can’t be replaced and what can be recreated or isn’t as important.
Gotcha. Makes sense. Thank you for your input!
IMO the only reason that Seagate Whitelabel drives through OEMs, is that too few customers want to buy Seagate directly.
15 years ago, my storage dealer (at the time) had a crisis w Seagate drives. He not only blew up at Seagate, he blacklisted Seagate.
Dealer migrated his clients, inc myself, to Hitachi drives. Years later, when WD discontinued Hitachi drives, I started using WD Pro/Red drives. I don’t remember ever RMAing a WD drive. I’m currently using WD Red Plus drives w TrueNAS.
