Which server hard drives?

[ITGuyNW]

Hi all

 

I'm looking to replace some server hard drives for larger capacities (4tb+). What's the word on the street for the best manufacturers/models these days? Looking at both 2.5 and 3.5 sizes.

 

Thanks

[3s-gtech]

Spinning rust? Or SSD? The 'best' will be SSDs, if you can budget for them. Samsung and Intel are very strong in this space, but you're looking at £600+ a drive for SATA.

[PotNoodleTech]

For live server workloads I only use Intel SSDs. For backup I use a Mixture of 7200rpm "NAS" style drives.

 

If you want 4TB SSDs the cost will be prohibitive.

[ITGuyNW]

Looking mainly for storage/backups. Need something robust.

[3s-gtech]

I’ve got on okay with WD Red drives for my backup devices. They do die, but last a good few years and they’re not expensive. Avoid SMR like the plague.

[PotNoodleTech]

7200RPM SATA then probably unless you want to spend big money on the enterprise SAS.

 

I've used several makes, Western Digital, Seagate had a couple of faliures with them all.

[mavhc]

https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-storage/resources/hard-drive-test-data

[ToyHeartsFan]

Have you actually asked your suppliers what drives they have available in the capacity and speed you want because there might not be a lot of choice?

 

SAS ?

2.5" / 3.5"?

7,200 / 10,000 /15,000 ?

6Gbps / 12 Gbps ?

 

If you need 4TB drives for your array then SSD is probably out due to cost but its what I got the last time I ordered a server.

 

What RAID configuration are you using, how many drives are in the array? 4TB drives are going to take a long time to rebuild if one fails, does your array have a spare hot swap so it rebuilds itself if one fails in the middle of a school holiday?

 

I would also consider what drives your server manufacturer provide so they are supported by their firmware update tools rather than just grabbing third party ones.

 

I've had drives fail in brand new servers just after it had been commisioned and I've had 10 year old servers never skip a beat; I don't think anyone can say ohhh you must get a Seagate or go for Fujitsu it won't fail because someone else will come along and tell you of the time their DC or MIS server went down because drive x failed and it took them 3 days to get an official order approved and another 2-3 days before it was delivered.

 

I think I got a bunch of large seagates for an old raid 10 NAS when I needed more space for backups and got one spare that sat on a shelf until needed (which it was) but they were just enterprise class SATA drives and I would only use SAS in an actual server.

 

 

4TB+ 10k+ SAS drives are going to cost a pretty penny and you should consider getting a spare and leaving it on a shelf even if your array includes a hot spare for fall over even if you have an understanding business manager that's willing to order a replacement drive on the school credit card for next day delivery when one fails which is almost guaranteed to happen eventually.

 

 

 

 

Just saw your update "Need something robust."

Hate to tell you but there's no such thing, you spin something at 7,200 - 15,000 RPM eventually or within hours as I've had happen in a brand new server its going to break regardless of what name is on the label.

[ITGuyNW]

Well yes but it used to be the case that some were much better than others at given times. I used to get WD drives, then Samsung, then Seagate. It was more of a general consensus on who people are buying in 2024 rather than specifics.

 

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Honestly don't know why I bother posting here some times haha

[mavhc]

Use software raid, then it only has to rebuild the used parts of the drive