Actually, I thought of another way to get one RAID group: wipe the filer, install 4.x on it, and then uprev it... B-)

I am a big fan of having only one configuration, where possible. My other filers are at 4.3.4 right now, and when I upgrade those to 5.1Dx, they will have only one RAID group. I see no reason for this one to be special.

My F630's have among them thousands 'n' thousands of hours of run time. I have yet to see a single disk failure, let alone a double-disk failure (knock knock). And I have no plans to put more shelves on them.

Finally, if I have one more RAID group, that'll mean one more hot spare plus one more parity disk. When you take into account the purchase of my entire F630, two disks set aside for safety have an opportunity cost (at list prices) of just over $12,000. Is that safety worth $12,000 to me?

Well, maybe it is: the not-backed-up-yet data on the rest of a RAID group could exceed $12,000 in replacement value. And maybe it isn't: these failures seem unlikely enough to make that $12,000 feel like earthquake insurance in Bismarck, N.D. Guess this is for me to figure out, huh?

Brian