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rustynails87

rustynails87

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RAID Help Please

I want to build a home file server. I am thinking 2 SSD's in raid 1 for my OS and installed programs on the server. Then I would want raid 5? for my shared files and such... I want atleast 5tb of storage for now with room for upgrade in the future.

Please help me on what kind of drives I would need for the storage portion.

What kind of RAID card would be the best for my situation?? I am not looking to spend like 300+ for the card.

Also would I be correct in using raid 5?
 
RAID1 for your system is perfect and I would recommand a RAID5 (at least 3 HD) for your data. Also, I recommand to use hardware RAID instead of software, more reliable. Choose any well know branding like DELL or HP. But why you want a SSD drive for your System? For the speed? Remember, a server is suppose to be online 24h and a SSD has a limited life time... Never see a server with SSD. Not sure why you want a server at home but a NAS would be enough if it's only for shared files... Regarding the HD for the RAID 5, if you want 5TB, your need 3TB drive and it would give you 6Tb of space.
 
ok very true i guess i will stick with hdd.

any certain things i should be looking for when buying the hdd?

also what raid card do you think i should go with?

I was thinking of building the whole system.
 
The RAID server should be a good enough backup as it is correct?

I mean if a drive fails on the OS or on the storage raid i can just pop in another hdd and it will rebuild the raid...
 
rustynails87 said:
The RAID server should be a good enough backup as it is correct?

I mean if a drive fails on the OS or on the storage raid i can just pop in another hdd and it will rebuild the raid...
Click to expand...

No! it's good for what you describe but what if your house floods, fire, burglary....etc. It's not a backup system.
 
Ok then I will do cloud backup. but this is getting away from what i am asking. please stick to the questions that i asked....

thanks
 
rustynails87 said:
The RAID server should be a good enough backup as it is correct?
Click to expand...

What happens if someone just "deletes" a file....intentionally, or "oops!"
Or say a file gets corrupted..and you have to go back a day or two or three....?

To look for your file storage for home...I suppose it depends on your budget, you could certainly go through tons of money creating massive RAID arrays with RAID 1 for the OS and RAID 5 or RAID 10 for the data..have SSDs....and a screaming system.

BUT...you running some massive heavy databases or something? For just file storage...sharing of files....I'd seriously want to spend my money someplace else..and just do a large RAID volume for this file server for your home network.

For a home file server...I'd get some business/enterprise grade spindle drives designed to be run 24x7 in DVRs...drives such as a Seagate Pipeline....low heat output, low power consumption, very quiet, 3 or 5 year warranty. Setup a nice RAID 1 with an Adaptec or Areca RAID controller card....in a low power consumption quiet dual core Atom or i3 based system.

Due to your need for higher capacity than what more drives come available in size wise...RAID 5 should be fine for you. Pickup 3x 2tb drives and you'll have just short of 4 gigs of storage presented to you.

What OS will you be using to store/host your data? Something like FreeNAS? Does its own RAID too....pretty decent software RAID. So you can save money on RAID controllers.
 
rustynails87 said:
The RAID server should be a good enough backup as it is correct?

I mean if a drive fails on the OS or on the storage raid i can just pop in another hdd and it will rebuild the raid...
Click to expand...
This is the very reason that I asked. RAIDs fail every day and are a backup alternative. I expect to see a huge influx of NAS units this year for data recovery for this very reason. People are going to be shocked when they get quote $5000-10,000 for data recovery because they chose not to invest a few hundred dollars into a good backup solution for their RAID.

It is no secret that drives form bad sectors. The larger the drive, the higher the odds. With a RAID, they only report a drive bad if they encounter a read or write error to a drive. So, if the bad sectors form in areas that are not being used, the drive will not be reported bad. But, when you do get a drive reported bad and replace it, the other drive(s) with bad sectors will also drop from the array before the rebuild completes when the rebuild tries to calculate parity from the bad sector. Now your RAID is offline, and your data is not accessible without doing data recovery. Any further attempt to rebuild the array will likely cause unrecoverable data loss.

So, RAID is great for minimizing down time, but if your files are not stored in at least 2 different locations (not in two different partitions), you do not have a backup.

As for the cloud, I highly doubt that you will have enough bandwidth and money to use the cloud to backup the volume of data that is typically stored on a RAID.

Anyway, yes, I went off the original topic...but only because I am trying to do you and everyone else a favour by giving an advance warning.
 
Stupid Question

Well I think want to run a raid 1 setup.
but should i just keep it just the 2 disks or should i boot off a single drive then do a raid 1 for the backup files (3 discs)?

I am also going to be running windows 7
 
rustynails87 said:
Well I think want to run a raid 1 setup.
but should i just keep it just the 2 disks or should i boot off a single drive then do a raid 1 for the backup files (3 discs)?

I am also going to be running windows 7
Click to expand...


Why do you want RAID 1? Is it a server?

Typically you only use RAID 1 if you can't afford any downtime, not as backup. If uptime isn't a concern there is little reason for it, just set up regular backups.

*edit* oops, missed that this was the server subforum :) For a very low use server you can partition and keep OS and Data on one array. Otherwise you'll want 2.
 
Last edited:
I want the server to be up 24x7 and ideally i would want to backup the OS and the files in the share....

what would be my best raid configuration(s)?
 
RedFoxComp said:
Typically you only use RAID 1 if you can't afford any downtime, not as backup.
Click to expand...


I have to disagree. Raid 1 is a pretty good way to complement your backups...there's never a time when having a second layer of redundancy/backup is a bad thing.
 
rustynails87 said:
I want the server to be up 24x7 and ideally i would want to backup the OS and the files in the share....

what would be my best raid configuration(s)?
Click to expand...

the configuration i have seen the most is you have 2 small fast disks in Raid one that you install the OS on, and then a Raid 5 array for your data.
 
Pair of large disks RAID 1 will be fine for a home server...hold both the OS and data. Since you're running a desktop operating system, and I'll guess desktop grade hardware...that'll get the job done.

For some better performance...4x drives...first pair, smaller, don't have to be fast, RAID 1 for the OS, second larger pair, faster disks, RAID 1 for the data storage (you'd move your libraries there).
 
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