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RAID question (how unusual, I know)

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Gawd
Joined
Dec 8, 2004
Messages
979
For a system running Windows 2k3 Server for a workstation, would you recommend against using (4)18gb 15k SCSI320 drives in a RAID 0 for the OS, (2)36gb 15k SCSI320 drives in a RAID 0 for programs, and (1) 400gb SATA drive for media and automated nightly backups?

I/Os are the most important aspect of this setup, not data integrity. I would be using dedicated hardware controllers for each RAID array and the MBs onboard SATA for the backup drive.
 
You probably dont need 72GB of space for your OS install. Might as well partition it out for data storage.

Other than that, it sounds like a damn nice setup.
 
Well unfortunately I want the speed that the striped (4x)18GBs offer. I wish they added 9GB 15ks to the new 320 lines. As little as data integrity matters to me, I'd still feel safer having them striped across 2 drives rather than 4+ just so I wouldn't have to worry about the pain-in-the-ass factor.
 
For something like an operating system I would imagine that the I/Os of a 4-drive array would be just under double that of a 2-drive array, depending on load.
 
minimum amount of drives for a RAID 5 is 3. its only 67% effecient though. you need something like 32 drives to get over 90% efficiency.

but run a raid 5 (parity) on those 4 drives and youll love it.
 
Kaos said:
minimum amount of drives for a RAID 5 is 3. its only 67% effecient though. you need something like 32 drives to get over 90% efficiency.

but run a raid 5 (parity) on those 4 drives and youll love it.
Click to expand...
I understand the concept of RAID5 and I understand that you only need 3 drives to achieve it. I was implying that with 5 drives and a good controller he should be able to achieve about the same speed as his RAID0 with 4 drives.

This is all merely speculation, but I'm pretty sure I'm right.
 
The RAID 5 idea would be good if I needed integrity but I really don't. It would just be as easy for me to backup everything and reinstall the OS in the event of a drive dying. The price-to-performance hit would be too much as well, considering I'm using the newest SCSIs I can get my hands on and not utilizing them to the full extent of their capability would keep me up at night hating myself. :) Besides, SCSIs are more reliable than their desktop brethren, right? Right? (slight sarcasm)
 
If you're backing up the data you care about and aren't worried about the data on those RAID0 arrays, there's nothing to stop you from doing that.

Sounds pretty fun to me actually. :)

The performance should be very impressive.
 
Yeah, I think so too.
I can't find any benchmarks of people doing that with their systems, though.
Anyone know where I can see some?
 
slowbiznatch said:
I understand the concept of RAID5 and I understand that you only need 3 drives to achieve it. I was implying that with 5 drives and a good controller he should be able to achieve about the same speed as his RAID0 with 4 drives.

This is all merely speculation, but I'm pretty sure I'm right.
Click to expand...


Even with the best hardware controllers raid5 or even raid50 will never approach raid0 or raid10 in terms of write performance or degraded performance.
 
Yeah. The only other RAID that comes close is the enigmatic and proprietary RAID 7 by SCC.
 
If you want benchmarks I can get them but I can tell you that raid0 is going to be faster.

For your setup I would recomend you go with an external enclosure. It provides a system that is engineered to hold hard drives. It provides them with a proper designed cooling system and often reduant back systems. As electrical signal continuity is actually something that is designed in which is not the case with little hard drive carriers used by amatures. Also most external enclosures have their own raid controller which will often give better performance then a internal one.
 
Yep, I already have the external stuff planned and plotted :). Probably going to have a split SCSI320 backplane with 2gb fiber channel to the system rack.
 
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