keith

I have researched RAID configurations before and have now researched ZFS configurations. I have a much better understanding now thanks to your breakdown and the comments on this thread, thanks so much! I will likely start with two mirrored drives and in the future add two more drives, either as another mirrored pair or in raidz2.

I'm very familiar with PCs but new to servers. I've bought components for a new home server build, including two 14tb HDD. My build supports up to 5 drives. The early access FAQ says: Expandable pools require a minimum of 3 devices and can be grown one device at a time. Non-expandable pools can be created with 2 devices. Does this mean that I will be unable to add hard drives in the future if I only use the two drives I currently have? If I want to add drives in the future, would I then have to backup the data from the server before I can recreate a new bigger pool? I'm wondering if I should buy a third drive now to minimize the hassle it would take to add drives in the future.