[CentOS] low end file server with h/w RAID - recommendations

[m.roth at 5-cent.us]

Richard Zimmerman wrote:
> hw wrote:
>>Next question: you want RAID, how much storage do you need? Will 4 or 8
>> 3.5" drives be enough (DO NOT GET crappy 2.5" drives - they're *much*
>> more expensive than the 3.5" drives, and >smaller disk space. For the
>> price of a 1TB 2.5", I can get at least a 4TB WD Red.
>
> I will second Marks comments here. Yes, 2.5" drive enterprise drives have
> been an issue. +1 for the WD Red drives, so far 3.5" w/ 2tb and 4tb
> drives, ZERO issues. I've had good luck with HGST NAS drives too.
> Unfortunately, that will come to an end soon (With WD owning HGST).
>
Yeah - the WD Reds, and there are Seagate also NAS-rated, are about 1.3 or
so times the price of consumer-grade, but work in servers (consumer grade
WILL NOT*), whereas enterprise-grade are about 3 times the price of
consumer grade, and the quality of NAS-rated vs enterprise isn't
especially noticeable.

* The big differences, in addition to quality, between NAS-rated, or
enterprise-rated, vs consumber/desktop grade are this: the desktop REALLY,
REALLY want to spin down, whenever they can, and, most significant: TLER
(time limit error recovery, I think). The consumer or desktop or laptop
drives will, on encountering a hardware error, will keep trying for up to
two *minutes*. The ones meant for server give up and relocate the sector
after seven *seconds*. Servers gag and actively dislike a drive when it
takes too long....