Raid Upgrade Advice

[EvilAlchemist]

I have officially ran out of storage so it is time for an upgrade.

Current Config: 8 x WD 640GB AAKS Drives In Raid 5 --> Perc 5/i
Several JOBD drives in a second system

Here is were I need a few good suggestions ..

Option 1 : Use Perc 5/i with some new 2TB Drives
Option 2: Use Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 with new 2TB drives and stablebit drivepool
Option 3: Use IBM 1050m or LSI controller with stablebit drive pool and new drives
Option 4: ???

O/S is Server 2008 R2 x64

Really need some help figering out what is the best option.

Will be used for TV and Movie Storage.
Some TV I want a backup for (hence the RAID 5) with other files not (movies = JBOD)

$$$ is not a huge issue , just want to build it right to start with and go from there.

Just as a planning note, in the future I want to be able to add more drives the the array.

 

[FrostBite]

Option 2 and 3 (I think you mean IBM M1015) would be the easiest and cheapest route, and you can still use your OS.

 

[Billy_nnn]

Have a look at Snapraid!

You get to pick which folders/drives you want to protect (just don't pick more than one folder from each drive )

As to which extra card - option 2 or 3 should be fine, depends on cost really.
Don't overlook a motherboard upgrade either - moving to one with 8 SATA ports onboard may be a viable path in some cases.

 

[ST3F]

Will be used for TV and Movie Storage.
Some TV I want a backup for (hence the RAID 5) with other files not (movies = JBOD)

$$$ is not a huge issue , just want to build it right to start with and go from there.

Just as a planning note, in the future I want to be able to add more drives the the array.

Same use as me !

My investigations : http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1701573

The HBA Cards you select don't have any external port to connect to JBOD.
Have a look at LSI SAS 9205-8e HBA LSI SAS 9207-8e (PCIe 3.0) for 8 external ports to connect to JBOD or LSI SAS 9202-16e HBA

Cheers.

St3F