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How bad is software raid for home use?

F

Fryguy8

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Sep 26, 2001
Messages
1,707
I'm looking to put together a raid5 setup, 1-2 TB and have redundancy on my data for backup purposes (not uptime purposes). Is software raid a viable solution for this, or should I be looking at other avenues for keeping my content backed up. Access speed is moderately important, going to be streaming some highbitrate stuff in some cases, possibly to more than 1-2 machines at once, while downloaded and normal usage etc.
 
So are you backing up onto this array, or storing your data primarily on this array as a means to avoid doing a backup?
Remember, RAID is for redundancy and uptime, and is *never* a replacement for a backup, software or hardware.
 
Raid is not an uptime device, and data isn't backed up until it's on a shelf, with no power applied. It's that simple.

That said: software raid is a fine way to go about consolidating your storage. If everything goes on one volume and gets backed up from there, that's okay. But if everything goes on one volume with no backup, all your eggs are in one basket.
 
unhappy_mage said:
Raid is not an uptime device, and data isn't backed up until it's on a shelf, with no power applied. It's that simple.
Click to expand...

How is having redundancy not about uptime?
If you don't have redundancy, you're down to restoring backups, which takes much longer than rebuilding a degraded array, often performed while still operational

Secondly, having an online backup solution, while still no replacement for tape or optical storage for longevity and security, is still better than maintaining no backups at all.
 
Sorry, I misspoke. I meant to say either "raid is not a backup" or "raid is an uptime device", and got a combination of the two phrases which means the opposite of either.:eek:

I agree that having an online backup is better than nothing at all, but you're deluding yourself if you think your data is safe while it's spinning.
 
unhappy_mage said:
Raid is not an uptime device, and data isn't backed up until it's on a shelf, with no power applied. It's that simple.
Click to expand...
unhappy_mage said:
Sorry, I misspoke. I meant to say either "raid is not a backup" or "raid is an uptime device", and got a combination of the two phrases which means the opposite of either.:eek:
Click to expand...
Vertigo Acid said:
Heh, just so long as you're not off the deep end ;)
Click to expand...

At first I thought u_m took some crazy pills :p

Catching simple english errors makes a world of difference when trying to explain things.
 
so if I want to have 1TB of data, and be able to recover from hard drive failures, and not have to double my storage space to maintain a full mirror, is software raid 5 a reasonable option?

I'm backing up to prevent hardware failures from screwing me, not for any other reason.
 
Fryguy8 said:
so if I want to have 1TB of data, and be able to recover from hard drive failures, and not have to double my storage space to maintain a full mirror, is software raid 5 a reasonable option?
Click to expand...

Buddy,
Read the previous posts. Raid is NOT backup and no you do not have to double your storage space to maintain a full mirror because mirroring is also Raid and NOT backup. If you want to backup, you need to double your storage space with a backup device.
This could be a tape drive and a bunch of tapes, a buttload of DVD's, an external array, another machine with a bunch of disks, online backup, etc.
The Raid array inside this machine is not backup.
This thread may give you some help.
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1022342

Fryguy8 said:
I'm backing up to prevent hardware failures from screwing me, not for any other reason.
Click to expand...
If you are using Raid 5 for backup, you are not backing up at all.

Thanks
Ribs
 
RAID can be used as a data preservation tool to protect against a common point of failure.

RAID5 can HELP protect against a single HDD failure. That said, it is not a backup. It does not protect against a catastrophic failure(fire, water, theft, bad PSU that fries a few HDDs, etc), viruses, software glitches, or user error(Oh shit, I didn't mean to delete that file).

As long as you understand that no data is safe without an off-site backup, you'll be fine.

For me, there is no data I have that cannot be replaced or I do not have an offsite backup for (My little brother has a mirror of nearly 70% of my data).


If you are going software RAID, go Linux.
To help protect against viruses and user error you can do the following:
1. Setup the Linux box as a fileserver with SAMBA.
2. If you do authenticated share logins, change the ownership and file permissions to a user who does not do authenticated logins so that all your windows clients can do is READ files.
3. For all file management, either use a SSH terminal, VNC, or a local console.


Here is my setup:
1. Linux fileserver uses open shares (no authentication). Therefore the user and group are nobody/nobody.
2. I have an upload directory on a separate HDD from the main array. I move the files I want transferred to the respective upload sub-directories I have created.
3. After transferring files, I run a script I have created. This script will move the files where they need to go, change the file permissions, and change the user and group ownership.

I would like to stress that my method only provides additional protection and is far from bulletproof.

Here is the script I use:
Code: 
echo "Moving Anime..."
mv -f /var/www/html/Upload/Anime/* /mnt/terabyte/Anime/
echo "Moving Movies..."
mv -f /var/www/html/Upload/Movies/* /mnt/terabyte/Movies/
echo "Moving Videos..."
mv -f /var/www/html/Upload/Videos/* /mnt/terabyte/Videos/
echo "Moving ISOs..."
mv -f /var/www/html/Upload/ISOs/* /mnt/terabyte/ISOs/
echo "Setting File Permissions..."
chmod 777 -R /var/www/html/Upload
chmod 755 /var/www/html/Upload
chmod -R 755 /mnt/terabyte
chown -R dew /mnt/terabyte
chown -R dew /var/www/html/Upload
chgrp -R users /mnt/terabyte
chgrp -R users /var/www/html/Upload
echo "Defragmenting..."
/usr/sbin/xfs_fsr
echo "Done."
 
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