Poll: How many spare drives do you keep on hand?

Lou1 · 2025-01-23T00:41:36+00:00

Currently running 8 drives in my main box Keep 2 hot spares in the chassis Another 3 cold spares in anti-static on the shelf Thats like 38% spare ratio which feels high but I have been burned before B...

hankels

Member

52 VPS and counting

Joined:: Jun 2024
Posts:: 301
From:: Phoenix, US

1y ago · edited

8 #11

robertdle said:

What chassis fits 10 drives plus spares?

Supermicro 846. 24 bays, cheap on eBay, backplane is SAS2 so you're fine for spinners. I have three of them in my garage. Dual PSU, IPMI, the whole deal.

seedbox, NAS, tape, and three offsite

JokoNord

Member

Joined:: Jun 2024
Posts:: 190
From:: Jakarta, ID

1y ago · edited

#12

uma said:

3 weeks to Jakarta? Which carrier was that?

It was regular postal. I learned my lesson sir. Now I pay DHL and it comes in 4-5 days but the tax is crazy. For drives I use local distributor now, price is higher but I sleep better.

traffic worse than my packet loss

kate3

Member

Joined:: Jul 2024
Posts:: 208
From:: Utrecht, NL

1y ago · edited

#13

robertdle said:

Which ZFS version handles your ZED alerts?

2.1.5 on Proxmox. ZED is not version-specific, it is event daemon. You configure zed.rc and it emails or calls your webhook. I use Pushover for urgent, email for log.

virsh list --all | wc -l: 47

sarahjey

Member

Joined:: Jul 2024
Posts:: 149
From:: Ottawa, Canada

1y ago · edited

#14

Thank you everyone! I think I will buy one used drive and keep it cold. Badblocks takes how long? I have an old ThinkPad I can use to test.

learning on $5 VPS and prayers

panelkrakw

Member

Backup Paranoid

Joined:: Sep 2024
Posts:: 22
From:: Kraków, Poland

1y ago · edited

#15

sarahjey said:

Badblocks takes how long?

Depends on size and which test. Non-destructive read-write on 4TB took me 18 hours. Destructive is faster but you lose data obviously. I always do 4 passes. Paranoid? Yes. But I find problems before I trust the drive.

FyreJun

Member

Joined:: Mar 2024
Posts:: 120
From:: Osaka, Japan

1y ago

#16

Badblocks is obsolete for modern drives. Use smartctl long test and check reallocated sector count. If it is zero and power-on hours are under 30000, drive is probably fine. Save yourself the time.

panelkrakw

Member

Backup Paranoid

Joined:: Sep 2024
Posts:: 22
From:: Kraków, Poland

1y ago

#17

FyreJun said:

Badblocks is obsolete

Smart test does not stress the platters like badblocks does. I found drives that pass smart but fail under badblocks. You do you, I do 4 passes.

Lou1

Member OP

Joined:: Dec 2024
Posts:: 63
From:: Toronto, Canada

1y ago · edited

#18

sarahjey said:

Is it bad to buy used drives

I bought 20 used Constellations in 2018. 6 failed within a year. The ones that lived are still going but I cannot recommend. If your budget is tight buy smaller new drives. WD Purple or Red on sale from Canada Computers.

Lagos

Member

Joined:: Jul 2024
Posts:: 17
From:: Lagos, Nigeria

1y ago

#19

I keep zero spares. When drive fails I buy new one. My data is replaceable, mostly Linux ISOs and website backups that also live on S3. Different philosophy I guess.

uma

Member

99.99% or bust

Joined:: Jun 2024
Posts:: 324
From:: Dublin, IE

1y ago

2 #20

Lagos said:

Mostly Linux ISOs and website backups that also live on S3

S3 is not backup, it is storage. If you do not have versioning and cross-region replication configured you have a single point of failure. I have seen buckets deleted by compromised keys. 14 status pages taught me that lesson.

436 days. reboot is surrender.

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