Hi Guys
I'm planning to build a FreeNAS box and wondering whether to use WD Green drives which is relatively cheaper compared to recommended WD Red drives. I have read that Greens will fail because they lack TLER feature. But I have also read that TLER is not mandatory for a software RAID.
What are your openions about this?
Cheers
The only RAID array I have EVER had fail had 2x WD Greens...... could have been anything but just saying.....
I would say the extended warranty alone justifies the price difference for Reds.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1500505 says
"Do i need to use TLER or RAID edition harddrives?
No and if you use TLER you should disable it when using ZFS. TLER is only useful for mission-critical servers who cannot afford to be frozen for 10-60 seconds, and to cope with bad quality RAID controller that panic when a drive is not responding for multiple seconds because its performing recovery on some sector. Do not use TLER with ZFS!
Instead, allow the drive to recover its errors. ZFS will wait, the wait time can be configured. You won't have broken RAID arrays, which is common with Windows-based FakeRAID arrays."
+1. Always spend more for a longer manufacturer warranty. Always.
Also, always test your drives before putting them in. Send them through at least a 24 hour burn with ATTO before slapping them in raid and calling them "reliable".
Just get the reds simply for the longer warranty. Or spend $10 more and get the Blacks or RE4's. Either way, I would not get the greens if you want to expect reliability with your array.
http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.file-systems.zfs.user/14429
The suggestion that TLER must be avoided is misleading. As the poster states, TLER is acceptable for use in mission critical systems. ZFS has its own error correction, and TLER will not interfere with that. This poster discourages TLER drives solely because of the negligible cost difference.
Thanks guys. I think I will go with REDs