03-16-2023, 09:52 PM
Hi Ed,
Thanks for the great response. NC has been a great source of info. I practically knew nothing in depth about NAS until recently, and it’s been fun getting up to speed.
Update - I’ve now bought the DS1522+, but currently unboxed whilst I try and source some drives!
I did indeed spot in the release notes for 7.2 the support for DS1522+ M.2 NVMe storage pools, so thanks for that. One less thing to ponder over. So now just a couple of snags bugging me (that hopefully you might have some insight on!?):
1) Noticed that the only officially supported 8tb IronWolf was ST8000VN004 - 3CP101. When looking for this model, I stumble across a few ST8000VNZ04/N004. Do we know if VNZ04 is the same as N004 perhaps? Likewise for ST8000VN0022? Even if we are confident that these are the same as the N004, will the NAS recognise them as supported? Regarding the 3CP101 bit, I’ve seen there is a ST8000VN004 - 2M2101 also (perhaps more). Again would this perhaps be officially supported? Is it a newer or older version perhaps? I read somewhere the 3CP101 runs hotter and slower than other versions?
2) Should I even be worrying about officially supported drives anyway? There seem to be so few listed and read folks have all sorts installed with no problems. Am I on the right lines with the IronWolf anyway, or can someone recommend an 8tb drive model that might suit my needs? I’m hoping to also try some VMs out before 7.2 and m.2 NVMe storage becomes available, so if there’s any suggestions on there also, would be appreciated.
3) Memory - Looking like getting some extra is definitely the way to go. I found a few threads which show most people are happy going with non official RAM and a few models that might work. One being ksm26sed8/16hd. Am I right in thinking memory is memory, and doesn’t matter too much which brand you get? Or is there a 1x or 2x 16GB RAM model that you could recommend or heard good things about?
4) Number of drives - My initial thought was to maybe just get 2 x 8tb, put them into a SHR, see how I go, and if I need more just add an extra 8tb drive in a few months. I figured I would still have 1 drive redundancy with either 2x or 3x drives, and perhaps spacing out the purchase also might help avoid a bad batch or drives potentially failing at the same time. Good idea? Or think I should just buy upfront?
5) If I go 2 x 8tb in SHR) - (similar to Raid1?) and then add another drive later (similar to Raid5?), does this cause issues or bigger delays adding the drive to the pool because it maybe has to convert everything to the SHR-Raid5 equivalent first before being able to add the new drive? Or is adding a 3rd drive easy enough in SHR, so not much to worry about?
6) Any absolute must-do things I have to set-up when configuring for the first time? I read BTRFS is probably a good idea? Should I be encrypting my storage pool from the off? Any major pros/cons with encrypted drives? Any weird indexing things I should be doing?
Sorry for the long follow up! Just really excited to get started, and massively appreciated your first reply, so hopefully I might hear from you again soon! Thanks
Thanks for the great response. NC has been a great source of info. I practically knew nothing in depth about NAS until recently, and it’s been fun getting up to speed.
Update - I’ve now bought the DS1522+, but currently unboxed whilst I try and source some drives!
I did indeed spot in the release notes for 7.2 the support for DS1522+ M.2 NVMe storage pools, so thanks for that. One less thing to ponder over. So now just a couple of snags bugging me (that hopefully you might have some insight on!?):
1) Noticed that the only officially supported 8tb IronWolf was ST8000VN004 - 3CP101. When looking for this model, I stumble across a few ST8000VNZ04/N004. Do we know if VNZ04 is the same as N004 perhaps? Likewise for ST8000VN0022? Even if we are confident that these are the same as the N004, will the NAS recognise them as supported? Regarding the 3CP101 bit, I’ve seen there is a ST8000VN004 - 2M2101 also (perhaps more). Again would this perhaps be officially supported? Is it a newer or older version perhaps? I read somewhere the 3CP101 runs hotter and slower than other versions?
2) Should I even be worrying about officially supported drives anyway? There seem to be so few listed and read folks have all sorts installed with no problems. Am I on the right lines with the IronWolf anyway, or can someone recommend an 8tb drive model that might suit my needs? I’m hoping to also try some VMs out before 7.2 and m.2 NVMe storage becomes available, so if there’s any suggestions on there also, would be appreciated.
3) Memory - Looking like getting some extra is definitely the way to go. I found a few threads which show most people are happy going with non official RAM and a few models that might work. One being ksm26sed8/16hd. Am I right in thinking memory is memory, and doesn’t matter too much which brand you get? Or is there a 1x or 2x 16GB RAM model that you could recommend or heard good things about?
4) Number of drives - My initial thought was to maybe just get 2 x 8tb, put them into a SHR, see how I go, and if I need more just add an extra 8tb drive in a few months. I figured I would still have 1 drive redundancy with either 2x or 3x drives, and perhaps spacing out the purchase also might help avoid a bad batch or drives potentially failing at the same time. Good idea? Or think I should just buy upfront?
5) If I go 2 x 8tb in SHR) - (similar to Raid1?) and then add another drive later (similar to Raid5?), does this cause issues or bigger delays adding the drive to the pool because it maybe has to convert everything to the SHR-Raid5 equivalent first before being able to add the new drive? Or is adding a 3rd drive easy enough in SHR, so not much to worry about?
6) Any absolute must-do things I have to set-up when configuring for the first time? I read BTRFS is probably a good idea? Should I be encrypting my storage pool from the off? Any major pros/cons with encrypted drives? Any weird indexing things I should be doing?
Sorry for the long follow up! Just really excited to get started, and massively appreciated your first reply, so hopefully I might hear from you again soon! Thanks