Raid & Raid controller considerations ??

[CRX-YEM]

so any help here. so far I think I'm either going 0+1 pro's i like that I can sustain multiple drive failures across differnet mirroed pairs, con's need more disk for larger disk space. Raid 5, I can use less disk for same drive space as raid 0+1 pros data can be regenerated etc...


ok so what about the controller, I guess I should look for one that has a reserve drive avaliable incase of a failure.


any input is appeciated

 

[Sabz5150]

Quoted post[/post]]
so any help here. so far I think I'm either going 0+1 pro's i like that I can sustain multiple drive failures across differnet mirroed pairs, con's need more disk for larger disk space. Raid 5, I can use less disk for same drive space as raid 0+1 pros data can be regenerated etc...


ok so what about the controller, I guess I should look for one that has a reserve drive avaliable incase of a failure.


any input is appeciated

If you are looking for a price-point answer to your problems, snag a PCI ATA133 RAID controller. They can handle up to four drives in a 0+1 format. For RAID 5, you will either need an ATA133 controller combined with software RAID (I trust Microsoft's software RAID 0%) or an Escalade RAID controller which supports up to 8 drives, either ATA133 or SATA. As with the vehicle, the controller card aint cheap.

How much drive space are you looking to get and how many drives do you want to use?

 

[CRX-YEM]

I was looking at getting 4 x 250 gb drive, I was looking into the PROMISE FastTrak TX4000 PCI IDE Controller Card RAID 0/1/10 JBOD =$110

since it's only 4 drive I was just going to house them in a computer case.

 

[Sabz5150]

Quoted post[/post]]
I was looking at getting 4 x 250 gb drive, I was looking into the PROMISE FastTrak TX4000 PCI IDE Controller Card RAID 0/1/10 JBOD =$110

since it's only 4 drive I was just going to house them in a computer case.

So you want 500GB of 0+1? Or 750GB of 5?

Personally I would opt for RAID 5. More drive space and you can lose one drive and still function.

 

[phunky.buddha]

Eek. I would recommend something that has its own processor and memory on board- like a TRUE RAID controller. Not these cheapo jobs that rely on some software driver to perform the RAID functions and only support 0, 1, or 1/0. Most of those are just cheap IDE controller cards with very basic RAID capability.

You might want to look into a BusLogic, Adaptec or LSI Logic card- there are other major name brands out there too (3Ware etc), but those are 3 of the big ones that offer true RAID cards, good reliability and can be had for not too much cash. Go with SATA if you can- that way you have the capability of talking to all device at the same time. If you get a 2 channel (4 device) IDE RAID card, you can still only talk to 1 device per chain at a time. That's just how IDE works- only one device on a cable can be active at a time. SATA is the same, but you only have one device per cable, so it's not an issue. SCSI can talk to ALL devices at once, but you probably don't want to drop the cash on a serious SCSI RAID.

SATA isn't really any more expensive than parallel IDE these days, so it's worth the investment. I would recommend going with RAID 5 and a true RAID controller. With level 5, you already have your spare. I wouldn't bother with a reserve on top of that, unless you're really worried about losing 2 drives at the same time.

 

[nfn15037]

My .02: I run an Adaptec SATA with RAID 5, same 4x250GB setup you are thinking about and it has worked flawlessly since day 0. No problems at all, not even a hiccup. HDDs are so reliable these days, I wouldn't be afraid to run RAID 0 on a non-server application.

 

[CRX-YEM]

Quoted post[/post]]

Quoted post[/post]]
I was looking at getting 4 x 250 gb drive, I was looking into the PROMISE FastTrak TX4000 PCI IDE Controller Card RAID 0/1/10 JBOD =$110

since it's only 4 drive I was just going to house them in a computer case.

So you want 500GB of 0+1? Or 750GB of 5?

Personally I would opt for RAID 5. More drive space and you can lose one drive and still function.

but with raid 10 I could actually lose 2 drives and still function. I'll have to think about it more. and I think I'm going 4x300Gb now.

 

[Sabz5150]

Quoted post[/post]]
Eek. I would recommend something that has its own processor and memory on board- like a TRUE RAID controller. Not these cheapo jobs that rely on some software driver to perform the RAID functions and only support 0, 1, or 1/0. Most of those are just cheap IDE controller cards with very basic RAID capability.

You might want to look into a BusLogic, Adaptec or LSI Logic card- there are other major name brands out there too (3Ware etc), but those are 3 of the big ones that offer true RAID cards, good reliability and can be had for not too much cash. Go with SATA if you can- that way you have the capability of talking to all device at the same time. If you get a 2 channel (4 device) IDE RAID card, you can still only talk to 1 device per chain at a time. That's just how IDE works- only one device on a cable can be active at a time. SATA is the same, but you only have one device per cable, so it's not an issue. SCSI can talk to ALL devices at once, but you probably don't want to drop the cash on a serious SCSI RAID.

SATA isn't really any more expensive than parallel IDE these days, so it's worth the investment. I would recommend going with RAID 5 and a true RAID controller. With level 5, you already have your spare. I wouldn't bother with a reserve on top of that, unless you're really worried about losing 2 drives at the same time.

 

[phunky.buddha]

Quoted post[/post]]
but with raid 10 I could actually lose 2 drives and still function. I'll have to think about it more. and I think I'm going 4x300Gb now.

Play the odds though. What are the chances of you losing two drives within 1 week of each other? With RAID, you're not supposed to just run it like normal after losing a drive- when one fails, you replace it. It's very unlikely that you're going to kill 2 drives at once, even if they're made in the same batch at the same factory. When one dies, just order another one. Newegg will have it to you within 3-4 days. Regardless, you'll still have WAY better fault protection than you would with a non-parity system.

Run the RAID 5.

Quoted post[/post]]

 

[posol]

raid 5 is old news.

raid 10 is overkill for your home system.


raid 6 is where its at.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/01/02/saf...id_controllers/


sata cards aren't cheap though... most are about 500 bucks.
+ the 6 drives you need at about 200 a pop....

 

[phunky.buddha]

Nothing new... I'd still run RAID 5 in the home system.

 

[CRX-YEM]

this is going to be for work
I found an adaptec card that's got a processor and ram on board, ~$200
and the 5x 300gb are like $125 each . not to bad really.