Can you have 5 drives in RAID1?

[newbie12]

According to this, the answer is a sounding *yes*, but others are arguing that it is NOT possible, and only works on even number of drives and not odd numbers. Well, it should be possible, right? Because all drives get the same data copied over to(so effectively you would have 5 backup drives, except that they're all in one place rather than in their seperate boxes), so why doesn't odd number of drives work with RAID1? Please explain...

I was looking into getting an external hardware RAID enclosure for 5 or 4 drives, and have them all do RAID1, so effectively have a contingency plan if any one, two, three or four(if getting a 5 bay one)drives go dead at the sametime....

What do the experts here say about this?

 

[newbie12]

There is terminology that people used...

RAID 1 - means TWO drives mirror, but CLONE, hen it refers as more than two drives mirror
So the Q&A is correct
No one would call (MIrror) RAID1 with more than TWO HDD

The question was:
Can you have 5 drives in RAID1?

Yes, you can have more than 2 drives in a RAID 1 array. The word 'mirror' is meaningless.

I should have worded my question better, but yes, that was half of what I was trying to ask, the other half being whether or not it was able to span across more than two drives at once to create a single volume(like how you would create a RAID 0 array of 5 drives - so it adds the capacity of all 5 drives together to make one big drive/volume but instead of RAID 0, it's RAID 1 and of course instead of adding the capacities of the drives together, it will just clone them 5 times or 4 times(or however many times depending on how many bays you have), with one being the master and the other 4 being slaves/clones), instead of two more on the same device as shown in a previous image with that HighPoint RocketStor 6114V example image.... 😀

you can do it, but normaly that many drives would be configured in a raid 5, 6, or 10 array, or a 0 if your feeling rebellious and back up the drives on a weekly basis. I could see an advantage to that however. If you mirrored the data across 5 drives with one serving as the primary until that one fails, then you have 4 failures the raid can withstand before it goes kaput after the last failure. Try it for yourself man. As Miss. Frizzle from "The Magic School Bus" always says "Take chances! Make mistakes! Get messy!"

*gasps* The Magic School Bus .....the memories.... I should go back and watch all of it again for nostalgia! 😍

 

[colelouiscloud]

Well... A raid 10 can in fact have 5 drives that stripe 2 drives and then mirror them across the other striped drives... So yeah

 

[USAFRet]

I should have worded my question better, but yes, that was half of what I was trying to ask, the other half being whether or not it was able to span across more than two drives at once to create a single volume(like how you would create a RAID 0 array of 5 drives - so it adds the capacity of all 5 drives together to make one big drive/volume but instead of RAID 0, it's RAID 1 and of course instead of adding the capacities of the drives together, it will just clone them 5 times or 4 times(or however many times depending on how many bays you have), with one being the master and the other 4 being slaves/clones), instead of two more on the same device as shown in a previous image with that HighPoint RocketStor 6114V example image.... 😀

You're looking for 2 different solutions.

1. Capacity added. 5 x 1TB drives = 5TB usable space. A RAID 0 or JBOD

2. RAID 1 across multiple drives. 5 x 1TB = 1TB usable space.
There is no 'master/slave'. All drives are equal.


Or, you could just setup a regular backup schedule, and be done with it.

 

[colelouiscloud]

I should have worded my question better, but yes, that was half of what I was trying to ask, the other half being whether or not it was able to span across more than two drives at once to create a single volume(like how you would create a RAID 0 array of 5 drives - so it adds the capacity of all 5 drives together to make one big drive/volume but instead of RAID 0, it's RAID 1 and of course instead of adding the capacities of the drives together, it will just clone them 5 times or 4 times(or however many times depending on how many bays you have), with one being the master and the other 4 being slaves/clones), instead of two more on the same device as shown in a previous image with that HighPoint RocketStor 6114V example image.... 😀

You're looking for 2 different solutions.

1. Capacity added. 5 x 1TB drives = 5TB usable space. A RAID 0 or JBOD

2. RAID 1 across multiple drives. 5 x 1TB = 1TB usable space.
There is no 'master/slave'. All drives are equal.


Or, you could just setup a regular backup schedule, and be done with it.

I would honestly just rather set the backup schedule. Honestly, I think using any more than two drives in a raid 1 array is a waste of space unless you're really paranoid about your data, which most people really aren't.

 

[derekullo]

There is terminology that people used...

RAID 1 - means TWO drives mirror, but CLONE, hen it refers as more than two drives mirror
So the Q&A is correct
No one would call (MIrror) RAID1 with more than TWO HDD

Is there a fancier name for 3 drives in a raid 1, besides 3 way mirror?

 

[USAFRet]

There is terminology that people used...

RAID 1 - means TWO drives mirror, but CLONE, hen it refers as more than two drives mirror
So the Q&A is correct
No one would call (MIrror) RAID1 with more than TWO HDD

Is there a fancier name for 3 drives in a raid 1, besides 3 way mirror?

A RAID 1.
What does the name matter? 2, 3, 5 drives....performs the same function. Just with more waste of platter space.

 

[colelouiscloud]

There is terminology that people used...

RAID 1 - means TWO drives mirror, but CLONE, hen it refers as more than two drives mirror
So the Q&A is correct
No one would call (MIrror) RAID1 with more than TWO HDD

Is there a fancier name for 3 drives in a raid 1, besides 3 way mirror?

3 way failsafe lol

 

[newbie12]

Well... A raid 10 can in fact have 5 drives that stripe 2 drives and then mirror them across the other striped drives... So yeah

Wouldn't it mirror first then stripe, since 1 comes first before the 0, unless you're mistaken it for raid 01 which does opposite as you just explained....? So three drives will act as one, and that will stripe across the other two drives....effectively one side will have three drives, whilst the other two will be by themselves: III + I + I(Or it could be III + II - so group one, three drives raid 1 treatment and group two two drives, raid 1 treatment and raid 0 across group one and two)(or it could be any other configuration but I'm guessing the drives will need to be as even as possible, if there's an odd number of drives to go around), so III will get raid 1 treatment and the other I two will get raid 0 treatment with III together, since it's raid 10, not 01 otherwise it would be the opposite... ...which means if any one of those drives in I dies, that's the array gone....but if one drive dies in the III setup, then the array is still alive...until all three die, in which case the entire array will die with it....

Otherwise, how can you mirror and stripe at the sametime for the fifth drive? Am I thinking too hard? 😀

I should have worded my question better, but yes, that was half of what I was trying to ask, the other half being whether or not it was able to span across more than two drives at once to create a single volume(like how you would create a RAID 0 array of 5 drives - so it adds the capacity of all 5 drives together to make one big drive/volume but instead of RAID 0, it's RAID 1 and of course instead of adding the capacities of the drives together, it will just clone them 5 times or 4 times(or however many times depending on how many bays you have), with one being the master and the other 4 being slaves/clones), instead of two more on the same device as shown in a previous image with that HighPoint RocketStor 6114V example image.... 😀

You're looking for 2 different solutions.

1. Capacity added. 5 x 1TB drives = 5TB usable space. A RAID 0 or JBOD

2. RAID 1 across multiple drives. 5 x 1TB = 1TB usable space.
There is no 'master/slave'. All drives are equal.


Or, you could just setup a regular backup schedule, and be done with it.

I would honestly just rather set the backup schedule. Honestly, I think using any more than two drives in a raid 1 array is a waste of space unless you're really paranoid about your data, which most people really aren't.

What if your backup schedule included(or was) option 2....? 😛

 

[USAFRet]

What if your backup schedule included(or was) option 2....? 😛

With a strong backup routine, there is zero need for 5 drives in a RAID 1.

RAID, of any type, is not a backup.
It only helps in the case of a physical drive fail, and you actually need 24/7 ops. Until you can replace that dead drive.
It does absolutely nothing for the more prevalent cases of data loss. Accidental deletions, corruption, virus, ransomware, etc, etc.

 

[USAFRet]

Wouldn't it mirror first then stripe, since 1 comes first before the 0, unless you're mistaken it for raid 01 which does opposite as you just explained....? So three drives will act as one, and that will stripe across the other two drives....effectively one side will have three drives, whilst the other two will be by themselves: III + I + I(Or it could be III + II - so group one, three drives raid 1 treatment and group two two drives, raid 1 treatment and raid 0 across group one and two)(or it could be any other configuration but I'm guessing the drives will need to be as even as possible, if there's an odd number of drives to go around), so III will get raid 1 treatment and the other I two will get raid 0 treatment with III together, since it's raid 10, not 01 otherwise it would be the opposite... ...which means if any one of those drives in I dies, that's the array gone....but if one drive dies in the III setup, then the array is still alive...until all three die, in which case the entire array will die with it....

Otherwise, how can you mirror and stripe at the sametime for the fifth drive? Am I thinking too hard? 😀

With a RAID 1, the OS, and you the user, see 1 "drive". No matter how many physical drives are in this.
It is not 1 (primary) and then some number of secondaries.
You see 1 "drive".
One of those can fail, and the data still exists. All but 1 can fail, and the data still exists.

A RAID 10 is 2 x RAID 0, mirrored to each other.
So, in theory, you get the benefit of the RAID 0 performance, and the mirroring of the RAID 1.
At the expense of drive space.
4 x 4TB drives in RAID 10 = 8TB user space. 4 + 4 mirrored to 4 + 4.

And to protect your data, it still needs a real backup...

 

[colelouiscloud]

Well... A raid 10 can in fact have 5 drives that stripe 2 drives and then mirror them across the other striped drives... So yeah

Wouldn't it mirror first then stripe, since 1 comes first before the 0, unless you're mistaken it for raid 01 which does opposite as you just explained....? So three drives will act as one, and that will stripe across the other two drives....effectively one side will have three drives, whilst the other two will be by themselves: III + I + I(Or it could be III + II - so group one, three drives raid 1 treatment and group two two drives, raid 1 treatment and raid 0 across group one and two)(or it could be any other configuration but I'm guessing the drives will need to be as even as possible, if there's an odd number of drives to go around), so III will get raid 1 treatment and the other I two will get raid 0 treatment with III together, since it's raid 10, not 01 otherwise it would be the opposite... ...which means if any one of those drives in I dies, that's the array gone....but if one drive dies in the III setup, then the array is still alive...until all three die, in which case the entire array will die with it....

Otherwise, how can you mirror and stripe at the sametime for the fifth drive? Am I thinking too hard? 😀

I should have worded my question better, but yes, that was half of what I was trying to ask, the other half being whether or not it was able to span across more than two drives at once to create a single volume(like how you would create a RAID 0 array of 5 drives - so it adds the capacity of all 5 drives together to make one big drive/volume but instead of RAID 0, it's RAID 1 and of course instead of adding the capacities of the drives together, it will just clone them 5 times or 4 times(or however many times depending on how many bays you have), with one being the master and the other 4 being slaves/clones), instead of two more on the same device as shown in a previous image with that HighPoint RocketStor 6114V example image.... 😀

You're looking for 2 different solutions.

1. Capacity added. 5 x 1TB drives = 5TB usable space. A RAID 0 or JBOD

2. RAID 1 across multiple drives. 5 x 1TB = 1TB usable space.
There is no 'master/slave'. All drives are equal.


Or, you could just setup a regular backup schedule, and be done with it.

I would honestly just rather set the backup schedule. Honestly, I think using any more than two drives in a raid 1 array is a waste of space unless you're really paranoid about your data, which most people really aren't.

What if your backup schedule included(or was) option 2....? 😛

You are thinking way to hard man lol! A raid 10 would be when multiple striped drives are mirrored with other drives. A raid 1 will just mirror the data of one drive all across the other drives in the aray. For example, if I had 4 1tb hard drives paired in a raid 1, I would only have 1 tb of actual storage since the other drives are acting as failsafes incase one should fail. 4 1tb hdds in a raid 10 would equate to about 2 tb in storage since its 2 striped drives being mirrored to 2 more striped drives. You cannot stripe a traditional raid 1, period.

 

[newbie12]

Yeah, the email notification is getting slightly better...but still omitting some posts that came afterwards...as if it's rule is to only send email notification of a thread *once* if you've not read the thread/new post since that last email notification was sent and if any further post(s) are created after that email and you still haven't read it(ie logging in as ur username and actually go to the last post or just the last page of the post counts, I think?)....rather than sending an email notification every time someone posts/edits their own posts, regardless whether or not you've seen the new post(s) or not which is what some other forums do... Which is new to me, as I'm only used to notifications that get sent out as soon as someone post to a subscribed thread I had.... I'm guessing this is done to not annoy us users as much with spam notifications? If so - there is an option to only send every day or weekly or whenever I think...or was this on another forum? lol... But I am sure I ticked send notifications instantly, regardless if someone posts or not and I have either seen it or not since last notification...

...anyways...

What if your backup schedule included(or was) option 2....? 😛

With a strong backup routine, there is zero need for 5 drives in a RAID 1.

RAID, of any type, is not a backup.
It only helps in the case of a physical drive fail, and you actually need 24/7 ops. Until you can replace that dead drive.
It does absolutely nothing for the more prevalent cases of data loss. Accidental deletions, corruption, virus, ransomware, etc, etc.

Yes, but if you have say multiple RAID enclosures instead of a single one, that would still count as a backup, no? Otherwise...that would mean the only use for an external RAID enclosure is if you were to host something off there 24/7 and want 24/7 operational status and zero downtime even if you have more than one enclosure to do the job with......if going by what you're trying to say...

But yes, you're probably right, there is most likely no need for me to have 5 drives in RAID 1, not unless I'm running something that's critically important and must have zero downtime....which I'm not as I will be using these for cold storage and will do incremental backups every now and then onto them as I see fit. I will rarely do full backups onto bluray discs - coz you know write once and read unlimited times, until the disc breaks or something...hahahaha Plus since you can only read from it after writing, I will be able to use this on virus/malware infected computers, whilst with a RAID enclosure, I will not - unless there exists a write protection of sorts like on floppy diskettes and some USB flash drives where I can just flick the switch and tada - it has turned into a rom drive?

With a RAID 1, the OS, and you the user, see 1 "drive". No matter how many physical drives are in this.
It is not 1 (primary) and then some number of secondaries.
You see 1 "drive".

[strike]ok, so then what's with all this volume talk then? Using that same HighPoint RocketStor 6114V example image - well if you search for it on google and on their official site where they have the stock image I edited from, they illustrate two volumes - which unless I have interpreted wrongly, means you will see two volumes, so two "drives" of four drives in RAID 1 array configuration. [/strike]

Oh....I think I may have indeed interpreted it incorrectly - they were on about dual RAID 1 configurations which I must have overlooked after going back and reading where I took the image from: http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/series-rs6114v-overview.htm 😳 There should also be a facepalm emote in the smiley list.....oh well I'll just make one here: