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We have a bunch of Dell R730xd systems with H330 controllers in them in our data center, and would like to stock some spares to allow us to replace broken disks quickly. (We do have warranty on these servers, but not the gold plated stuff so it will take a day reinforcements to arrive)

Dell is asking ridiculous prices for spare drives, so I'm looking for third party replacements. I'd rather not buy used or refurbished ones on eBay.

We currently have the following drives in our systems: TOSHIBA MG04ACA4 FJ2D. According to smartctl, these have are Dell branded.

Does anyone know if we can put in the unbranded versions of these disks? (4 TB 7200rpm 512n SATA 3.5").

Note that we are running ZFS on Linux on these disks, and are using the raid controller just to provide a JBOD.

ewwhite
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jap
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1 Answers1

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You can use whatever you want if you're in JBOD mode. However, the barrier to getting actual Dell drives is really low. Spares on eBay with Dell carriers are under $300.

Refurbished disks are fine. What do you think the replacements Dell (and HP) sends you are? They're certainly not new. They're usually remanufactured and tested drives.

ewwhite
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