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Which drives for small business raid 5?

J

jebo_4jc

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - April 2011
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We're looking into building a server, and the motherboard of choice at the moment is the Tyan Tiger K8WE, which has 4 Sata II/300 ports onboard.
This is for a really small business--it will be rare for more than 2 users to access the server at the same time. We will be running MS Small Business Server, exchange, etc., (no web) for about 5 accounts.
Having said all that, which hard drives should we use? I didn't think the extra speed associated with SCSI is really necessary in this case, but if scsi is still the better option we could grab a scsi controller (or we could upgrade to the bigger Tyan mobo, though it is E-ATX which is annoying, in this case).
Thanks.

Edit: I just realized the board doesn't include Raid 5 sata at this point, though that feature may be enabled through BIOS updates in the future. Hmm.
 
Perhaps RAID 10 or 01 is available? That's probably the next best option. I would suggest near-line SATA drives like the Seagate NL35, Western Digital WD4000YR, or Maxtor MaXLine III for their increased mean time before failure (MTBF) over desktop drives.

Anyways, despite all this, it's crucial that your business employs a separate backup system. RAID only offers redundancy at best, which is not enough for a complete data protection suite. A separate backup system is a must, preferably an off-site solution too.
 
xonik said:
Perhaps RAID 10 or 01 is available? That's probably the next best option. I would suggest near-line SATA drives like the Seagate NL35, Western Digital WD4000YR, or Maxtor MaXLine III for their increased mean time before failure (MTBF) over desktop drives.

Anyways, despite all this, it's crucial that your business employs a separate backup system. RAID only offers redundancy at best, which is not enough for a complete data protection suite. A separate backup system is a must, preferably an off-site solution too.
Click to expand...
Good suggestions, thanks.
We currently backup to tape every night, and may be exploring other options here as well.
 
Okay, that sounds good as it is. I hope your tape backups are also being stored off-site in case of fire, flood, theft, etc. Having a redundant array is nice for getting online quickly but the importance of a real backup system can't be overstated.
 
jebo_4jc said:
This is for a really small business--it will be rare for more than 2 users to access the server at the same time. We will be running MS Small Business Server, exchange, etc., (no web) for about 5 accounts.
...
Edit: I just realized the board doesn't include Raid 5 sata at this point, though that feature may be enabled through BIOS updates in the future. Hmm.
Click to expand...
The raid 5 would be in software anyways, and recent Server OSes offer raid 5 in software anyways. You wouldn't be able to boot from this array, though - you'll need (and probably want anyways) a seperate boot disk. I know the expense of 3 disks may seem unreasonable to go for at this point, but if/when it comes time to expand, having a seperate boot disk will make it far easier to upgrade.

And why do you need a k8we for 5 users? A single opteron, or a single p4, or a dual p3, would be way more than enough to handle 5 users, unless you're pushing a jillion emails a day or have a huge calendar or something else weird. If you're looking for a place to save money, that's it - a dual p3 board+procs+mem will be about $200 on eBay; last I checked the cheaper k8we was $430 for just a board. PCI-X is still a good place to go for a controller, and stuff for it is only going to get cheaper in the coming years. Followed by much more expensive when it becomes antique, of course, but in the meantime you've saved a bundle. I'd guess you could build 2 dual p3s for the cost of the one dual opteron, and have money left over.

 
If you end up with a RAID solution, remember to keep at least one spare handy :)
 
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