Looking for community brainpower.
I have a pretty large file server. Right now it’s in a combined pair of 5x2TB RAIDZ1 volumes. My plan is to add an 5x8TB RAIDZ1, move over all the files and configurations, wipe the old pool, and repurpose those. At the moment the server is running an older version of FreeNAS. Considering updating that to TrueNAS. Not sure what the risk to my data and permissions will be with that (using Windows permissions for a number of things)
But that aside, I was wondering what kind of burn in I should run on that new array? I was figuring leaving them powered on for a week to be sure none of the drives fail before I start moving data around. I was considing some sort of read/write load, but I’m not sure if that’s nessessary or a good idea.
Feel free to comment on any of the above ramble. Messing with this server makes me nervous. The platform is an Opteron 4000 with a somewhat anemic 16GB of memory, and I recall struggling with finding a version of FreeNAS that actually put up with that processor back in the day, so upgrading it has been put off in favor of stability. But I’m running out of storage now, and if I’m going to mess with it anyway; now’s the time.
Thank you all for any and all insight.
I would highly recommend you to get higher density HDDs, 3x16TB instead of 5x8TB. That might also give you the opportunity to move again away from external storage controller or at least avoid you purchasing another one.
Pretty much the only “burn-in” test you need to do is to write the full size of the drive (use dd) and run a long SMART test. If that passes you’re good to go as far as testing goes.
Can’t say much about TrueNAS but both FreeBSD 12, 13, 14-CURRENT will run fine on your setup even if its starting to get a bit old.
Burn in for HDD is a good idea, it is best practice in enterprise for new systems.
Our test runs 24H but I can’t give you the script, maybe try this one.
I would recommend to use the old disks as a cold backup, only a Raidz without backup is not the best idea for important data.
Edit: and maybe you should disconnect the old pool during the burn in 
See:
https://perfectmediaserver.com/hardware/new-drive-burnin/
as well as “How to test purchased drives” from
Personally I do a combination of badblocks and SMART
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