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TrueNAS 6x 20TB RAID 5 NAS Calculator

Estimate usable TB, parity, and fault tolerance for TrueNAS NAS users using 6x 20TB in RAID 5.

Capacity Snapshot

Raw Capacity

120.00 TB

Usable Capacity

90.00 TB

Fault Tolerance

1 drive

Efficiency

83.3%

Balanced capacity and redundancy, but rebuild stress can be high on large disks. This scenario applies a 10% filesystem reserve.

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Alternative Mode Comparison

Mode Usable Tolerance Efficiency
RAID 5 90.00 TB 1 drive 83.3%
RAID 6 72.00 TB 2 drives 66.7%
RAID 10 54.00 TB 1 drive per mirror pair* 50.0%
RAID-Z1 90.00 TB 1 drive 83.3%
RAID-Z2 72.00 TB 2 drives 66.7%

TrueNAS / ZFS Planning Notes

TrueNAS and ZFS planners usually care about parity width, scrub cadence, and healthy operating headroom. Capacity is only one part of pool durability.

Brand / Region Glossary

vdev

A virtual device group in ZFS; multiple vdevs form a storage pool.

Scrub

Background integrity scan that verifies checksums and repairs parity mismatches.

RAID-Z Expansion

ZFS feature set and planning topic for growing parity groups safely.

NAS Cluster Guides

Related Long-Tail Calculators

Sequential Long-Tail Navigation

FAQ

Should I optimize this 6-drive plan for capacity 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.

How many disk failures can RAID 5 tolerate in this setup?

This setup can tolerate 1 drive. Real-world survivability depends on mirror placement, rebuild stress, and drive health.

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.

Is RAID 5 still worth deploying with 20TB drives?

It can be practical, but larger drives increase rebuild windows. Validate parity choice and backup policy before committing to the final layout.