Definitive disk size on a 4000

[Kcmjr]

I've looked around the forums and have found a lot of information about what drives folks have installed in their 4000's. What I have yet to locate is a definitive explanation of the maximum size. I know the maximum is 1 to 1.2 TB, what I need to know is whether that's a disk limit, or a volume limit.

Basically would it be valid to set up with 4 1 TB disks as 2 RAID 1 volumes or would the maximum be 2 disks? Could I set up 4 1 TB disks as JBOD and be able access them?

[Sifter]

Originally Posted by Kcmjr

I've looked around the forums and have found a lot of information about what drives folks have installed in their 4000's. What I have yet to locate is a definitive explanation of the maximum size. I know the maximum is 1 to 1.2 TB, what I need to know is whether that's a disk limit, or a volume limit.

Basically would it be valid to set up with 4 1 TB disks as 2 RAID 1 volumes or would the maximum be 2 disks? Could I set up 4 1 TB disks as JBOD and be able access them?

Indeed, Ive heard others say you can do this.

[blue68f100]

Should work as long as you have a health power supply. It will take a very long time sync.

[Phoenix32]

Sorry, but I have to ask. I just can't help myself.

Are you freakin' Nuts!?!

Forget the days of sync time David already mentioned. Do you have any idea how long it will take to move that much data (or back it up) to a 4000 on that LAN connection?

I really don't mean to offend, honest, but you need to have your head examined me thinks.

[Kcmjr]

Actually I think it's a valid question. My plan is to use the 4000 and as an inexpensive file repository. Mostly smaller files and documentation for long term storage. I'm not worried about high volume transfers or heavy activity so a 100mb link is fine. I think it will work well for this purpose but I need to maximize the amount of storage available since it's all currently scattered around on various offline disks stuck in boxes and drawers. Hell I got it on eBay for $30, you just cant beat that with a stick. The seller didn't realize what they were going for and the way he listed it no one else noticed it. All I need to do is add some large drives and beef up the power supply and I think I'll be just fine for this application.

[Kcmjr]

In all honestly, I cant say that that the 2 GB configuration is what I actually plan to do, I was just wondering about the maximums. What I expect will happen is that I'll use 4 500GB disks to get 2 500GB RAID 1 volumes strictly to keep the costs of disks down. That way I can do one volume now and another later. I simply want to understand the limits so that if I decide to try it with 4 1TB disks I know what to expect.

And yes, I've been accused of being "freaking nuts" on more than one occasion...

[blue68f100]

There was at least 1 users that did the same setup your thinking about a while back, he posted on this forum (don't recall Id). Like Phoenix said these are no speed demons, more like cold snails.

[Kcmjr]

Just for the record... I installed 4 Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500 GB SATA Hard Drives with SATA to IDE bridges (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812186096). I set it up RAID 1 with 2 volumes/shares. It all works perfectly on SnapOS 4.0.860. The only issue so far is that Windows 7 doesn't like to copy files to it as expected. It copies folders or files individually but it won't copy an entire folder over. No problem though, I use a tool called Beyond Compare (www.scootersoftware.com) to do file/folder sync. That copies everything without a hitch.

Now I'm just wishing I had a 1 gig interface.... oh well....

[Terry Kennedy]

Originally Posted by Phoenix32

Forget the days of sync time David already mentioned. Do you have any idea how long it will take to move that much data (or back it up) to a 4000 on that LAN connection?

There's a potentially far more problematic issue - the SnapOS units don't have a lot of memory in them, and the amount of memory needed to check a disk for filesystem errors grows with larger drives. You can build a system that normally works fine, but will never recover from a corrupted filesystem - you'll get a message in the debug log about "falling back to swap-based fsck" and it will take weeks or longer to complete (if, in fact, the extra disk activity doesn't cause a further failure).

Seriously, if you're going to be buying new drives, get yourself some sort of modern BYOD (Bring Your Own Drives) file server like a Qnap and put the drives in that. You'll be a lot happier.