Joining 2 RAID6 = Less security

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Freak1

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 9, 2009
Messages
191
Hi Guys.

I been reading some about JBOD and want to use it to join 2x10TB RAID6 arrays to 1 large partition. But will that meen 2x more chance for loosing all data? I have backup solution but i still don't like to loose 2 arrays. Can a HighPoint RocketRAID 3560 Have 2 RAID6 arrays and join them in JBOD?

Here is the setup:
Asus P6T6
Xeon W3570 3.20 Ghz
6GB DDr3 1333mhz
Asus en9500gt 512mb
HighPoint RocketRAID 3560
12x2TB WD Caviar RE4-GP RAID6 12x more later
6xRaidSonic ICY Dock MB-455SPF
2xIntel 32GB SSD RAID 0


Also will my setup benefit from changing RAM to ECC Reg?
 
How would you join 2 arrays ? JBOD means Just a Bunch of Drives. JBOD Is actually an array that writes data on many disk without parity or anything like that. Im not really sure what you mean by joining 2 arrays with JBOD on 1 controller. I've worked with many controllers and I don't really see how you could do that/why you would do that.

What I would do is move the data to an other storage array and create just 1 big raid 6. However instead of having 2 array that could lose 2 drives, you would only have 1 array that could lose two drives so it's less resilient.

My recommandation is that if you can afford to have two different partition instead of 1 big, it would be best.

Ecc reg is a no brainer for a server or workstation. The big question is can you afford it and do you really need it ?

What's the particular application for this machines, it could help point you in the right direction.
 
Thanks for the feedback alext5

How would you join 2 arrays? JBOD means Just a Bunch of Drives. JBOD Is actually an array that writes data on many disk without parity or anything like that. I’m not really sure what you mean by joining 2 arrays with JBOD on 1 controller. I've worked with many controllers and I don't really see how you could do that/why you would do that.
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That’s why I’m asking, I simply don’t know if and how it can be done. When i asked here on hardforum earlier http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1450328 is was told 1 big array would likely result in array going corrupt or something else. Sins i made that thread I changed drives to enterprise discs.

I would like to have 1 big partition if at all possible without doubling my chances for getting a bad array.

Ecc reg is a no brainer for a server or workstation. The big question is can you afford it and do you really need it ?

What's the particular application for this machines, it could help point you in the right direction.
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So far its only file/Media server it has installed Windows 2008R2 and it is running 24/7.
 
Two RAID 6 volumes can be "joined" with RAID 60, aka RAID 6+0:
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Yes i know that and i was also considering that. But my controller does not support 60. Seems like there is no good way to make 1 bit partion i will need to have 2 and even more i will ad more drives later.
 
I don't know what OS you are using, but you might be able to combine hardware RAID (to manage multiple RAID 6 volumes) with software RAID 0 to create a RAID 60.
 
I have never used it (I am mostly a linux guy), but Windows does have software RAID capability using disk manager. I'd say it is worth a try to set up your RAID 6 volumes with your Highpoint, and then see if you can RAID 0 them with disk manager in Windows. You'll have to backup any data on the RAID 6's and copy it back after you RAID 0 them.
 
Freak1 said:
Thanks for the feedback alext5

I would like to have 1 big partition if at all possible without doubling my chances for getting a bad array.

So far its only file/Media server it has installed Windows 2008R2 and it is running 24/7.
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In your case unless an application requires to have a big partition I'd suggest not to join them (using Windows Raid 0 - Windows could do it by considering each array as 2 individual drives). Performance should be decent given your system specs.

The other question I have is, at the moment are you able to do partitions bigger than 2TB in Windows anyway ? Last time I tried it I couldn't find a way to do it with Windows 2008 (not R2). In my opinion I don't think there would be a way to do it with NTFS since it's not a 128Bit file system (like ZFS for example).

Knowing that, if you can not do partitions larger than 2 TB, there would no benefit except from a visual standpoint.

I even got a limitation where Windows 2008 had problems partitioning disks larger than 2TB. To get around this limitation I had to do many volumes than spanned on the raid 5 array.

As for the RAM, unless the server is mission critical (in the enterprise not your home) I'd say that there is no benefit for using ECC Reg RAM.
 
alext5 said:
The other question I have is, at the moment are you able to do partitions bigger than 2TB in Windows anyway ? Last time I tried it I couldn't find a way to do it with Windows 2008 (not R2). In my opinion I don't think there would be a way to do it with NTFS since it's not a 128Bit file system (like ZFS for example).

Knowing that, if you can not do partitions larger than 2 TB, there would no benefit except from a visual standpoint.

I even got a limitation where Windows 2008 had problems partitioning disks larger than 2TB. To get around this limitation I had to do many volumes than spanned on the raid 5 array.
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That's not correct. The limitation of 2TB is not in NTFS, which supports volumes many times larger, but rather is a limitation of MBR-based partitions. You can easily create a GPT or Dynamic-disk based volume that is larger, with the theoretical maximum being 2^64 -1 clusters, with 64kb clusters being the max. That's a 16 exabyte partition ;) The 64-bit address space is still huge.
 
Vertigo Acid said:
That's not correct. The limitation of 2TB is not in NTFS, which supports volumes many times larger, but rather is a limitation of MBR-based partitions. You can easily create a GPT or Dynamic-disk based volume that is larger, with the theoretical maximum being 2^64 -1 clusters, with 64kb clusters being the max. That's a 16 exabyte partition ;) The 64-bit address space is still huge.
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Thank you for pointing it out, I wasn't a 100% sure since new firmware in Sun Microsystem SANs give the opportunity to 2TB + LUNs.

Can you boot from a GPT partition ?
 
In your case unless an application requires to have a big partition I'd suggest not to join them (using Windows Raid 0 - Windows could do it by considering each array as 2 individual drives). Performance should be decent given your system specs.
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I like it to be 1 big partition but its not a requirement. Im not quiet sure what you meen? I should not join them in RAID0 but rather just have them as 2 partitions?

Thank you for pointing it out, I wasn't a 100% sure since new firmware in Sun Microsystem SANs give the opportunity to 2TB + LUNs.

Can you boot from a GPT partition ?
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No you can't boot from a GPT.
 
Freak1

What you will want to do if you really want one large partition is to either use Spanning or Software RAID0 in Windows Server2008.

Yes you can address volumes larger than 2TB, but you must use GPT
No you cant boot from GPT. But why would you boot from your data store anyways? Thats just dumb!

Do you have data on these volumes yet?
 
Do you have data on these volumes yet?
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I do but its is also on other drives so i can easily remake the whole thing.

Software Raid 0 in w2k8 seems like a good way to go.
 
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