How much real-world usable storage does 10x 18TB RAID 10 provide?
This NAS planning scenario estimates 81.00 TB usable after a 10% reserve from 180.00 TB raw.
Is RAID 10 still worth deploying with 18TB drives?
It can be practical, but larger drives increase rebuild windows. Validate parity choice and backup policy before committing to the final layout.
Should I optimize this 10-drive plan for storage headroom or resiliency first?
For long-lived NAS pools, resiliency first is usually safer. Capacity can be expanded later, while a risky parity choice can force migration sooner.
Why include a 10% reserve when planning NAS available space?
Keeping free space improves filesystem behavior for snapshots, metadata, and write performance. Full arrays often perform worse and rebuild more slowly.