On 3/9/25 06:26, Eben King wrote:
On 3/2/25 14:35, David Christensen wrote:
AIUI SMR does not work well for OS (e.g. /tmp, swap) and general-purpose
(e.g. /home) disks that see frequent small random write workloads. I
prefer small high-quality 2.5" SSD's (Intel SSD 520 Series 60 GB) for my
OS and /home disks, and put my bulk data on a file server. I would re-
purpose that HDD for images -- CMR should be okay for large sequential
write workloads.
Oops -- that should have been "SMR should be okay for large sequential
write workloads."
I tried to shop carefully and believe all my HDD's are CMR. But this
strategy only works up to certain sizes -- I believe the largest HDD's
are SMR or something even more sophisticated.
?MR=Shielded / Conventional Magnetic Recording? How do I tell a priori
which drives are SMR and which are CMR?
STFW I see:
https://www.seagate.com/products/cmr-smr-list/
https://blog.westerndigital.com/wd-red-nas-drives/
https://toshiba.semicon-storage.com/ap-en/company/news/news-topics/2020/04/storage-20200428-1.html
When making a disk drive purchase, I recommended researching the exact
model(s) you are considering.
> SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
> No self-tests have been logged. [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]
Are you running tests periodically?
I haven't been, but perhaps I should add that to my after-backup routine.
My SOHO file server runs 24x7, so I try to run SMART tests every month
or two. I try to test the rest of my disks quarterly to semi-annually.
I have glanced at smartd(8), but have yet to try it because it seems to
prefer sending reports via e-mail (?). I have yet to figure out how
fetch root mail messages from my daily driver mail client (Thunderbird).
My WAG is that I need to install an IMAP server on each machine whose
root mail I want to read (?).
David
