We received a quote for the following server setup :

Intel Xeon E5-2609V2

2 x WD RE 2TB SATA III

34 x WD RE 4TB SAS II

32 GB memory (ECC)

LSI MegaRAID 9271-8i bulk, 8 x SATA III/SAS II internal hardware RAID

LSI CacheVault voor 9266-9271 series

We wanne add (directly) a JBOD to that server, half filled with 8TB drives, we can extend later. They suggested :

LSI MegaRAID 9380-8e

22 x HGST Ultrastar 8TB He8 enterprise, SAS III

Now this was based on our previous server, which we setup as a ZFS server and did not have much "pleasure" from. (although the configuration was to blame I guess)

I have a few questions about this setup : - The argument to take 2x2TB is, use it as mirror for the system, since when a disk has to be replaced IO is sluggish during rebuild. Speed is not our real problem, space is, also we have a online backup, that will be only used as read platform (during problems). Would 36 x 4TB be a better choice ? (36 = 3*12 disk in a pool) - is 32 Gb memory enough ? (ZFS on linux, taking in consideration the JBOD at max capacity 44*8+32*4) - This is a raid controller, a JBOD/HBA (?) would be a better choice ? If so, what kind of JBOD should I be looking for ? - How would I best setup this system to be "ready" for upgrading the next 22 disks in the JBOD ? (its a 44 disk JBOD, 22 slots are filled)

Some more info based on the comments :