Newbie RAID questions

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

I have recently discovered the need to build a mass storage device and
am looking at building a RAID 5 sytem. Speed is not as important as
redundancy because this will be a personal server that will be used by
myself and family/friends. I'm thinking of having a seperate disk
(not part of the RAID subsystem) to install the OS and just have the
RAID as the data storage.

I was going to get a RocketRAID 454 from newegg.com but had some
specific questions.

1) If my motherboard fails, will I be able to transfer the RAID card
and disks (in their proper order) to another computer and keep the
data in tact? I fear that one of the default functions of a RAID
driver is to format the hard disks on a new or re-install, but,
because I'm new to RAID, I don't know all of the nuances.

2) is RAID cross-compatible? if I find a better card (and they exist
for quite a bit of money), can the card just be replaced if I keep the
same RAID configuration or are there usually/always proprietary issues
involved that would make this impossible?

Any additional information would be greatly appeciated.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

"tommy" <tommynospam@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:4f0df91b.0410050632.36892217@posting.google.com...
> I have recently discovered the need to build a mass storage device and
> am looking at building a RAID 5 sytem. Speed is not as important as
> redundancy because this will be a personal server that will be used by
> myself and family/friends.

Then more important than redundancy is a good backup scheme.

> I'm thinking of having a seperate disk
> (not part of the RAID subsystem) to install the OS and just have the
> RAID as the data storage.

Why not the OS there too?

> I was going to get a RocketRAID 454 from newegg.com but had some
> specific questions.
>
> 1) If my motherboard fails, will I be able to transfer the RAID card
> and disks (in their proper order) to another computer and keep the
> data in tact?

Usually, yes.

> I fear that one of the default functions of a RAID
> driver is to format the hard disks on a new or re-install, but,
> because I'm new to RAID, I don't know all of the nuances.
>
> 2) is RAID cross-compatible? if I find a better card (and they exist
> for quite a bit of money), can the card just be replaced if I keep the
> same RAID configuration or are there usually/always proprietary issues
> involved that would make this impossible?

Assume propietary issues will block such. Backup old RAID..restore to new
RAID.
You gotta have that backup anyway.

> Any additional information would be greatly appeciated.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

In article <4f0df91b.0410050632.36892217
@posting.google.com>, tommynospam@yahoo.com says...
> I have recently discovered the need to build a mass storage device and
> am looking at building a RAID 5 sytem. Speed is not as important as
> redundancy because this will be a personal server that will be used by
> myself and family/friends. I'm thinking of having a seperate disk
> (not part of the RAID subsystem) to install the OS and just have the
> RAID as the data storage.

Normally you put the O/S on a RAID1 pair and the data on
a second RAID (either RAID1 or RAID5). It still doesn't
solve the back up issue.

> I was going to get a RocketRAID 454 from newegg.com but had some
> specific questions.
>
> 1) If my motherboard fails, will I be able to transfer the RAID card
> and disks (in their proper order) to another computer and keep the
> data in tact? I fear that one of the default functions of a RAID
> driver is to format the hard disks on a new or re-install, but,
> because I'm new to RAID, I don't know all of the nuances.

Yes.

> 2) is RAID cross-compatible? if I find a better card (and they exist
> for quite a bit of money), can the card just be replaced if I keep the
> same RAID configuration or are there usually/always proprietary issues
> involved that would make this impossible?

RAID cards are often not cross-compatible... usually you
buy (3) of a particular model. One to use, one as a
spare, and the 3rd stored somewhere else.

Now for general rambling... let's say you need lots of
storage, but not more then 200GB in a single spot.
You're also not concerned about downtime too much as
long as you can pull stuff back from backups. Here's
how I might set things up:

System A (main storage):

2x250 GB 7200rpm 8MB 3yr warranty, RAID1
- O/S gets a 24GB partition, rest of drive as data,
mostly for user storage

1x250 GB 7200rpm 8MB 3yr warranty no-RAID
- "scratch drive", use it to store ripped media,
downloaded files, temporary files, nothing on this drive
gets backed up

Maybe add a second "scratch" drive if needed

System B (backup storage):
- older, slower box

2x30GB drives for the O/S, RAID1
- could also do 2x250

1x250GB
- backup drive 1, data from the primary system should be
rsync'd across daily, deleted files should be dumped to
another directory somewhere

1x250GB
- backup drive 2, even more storage to do rsync from the
main system daily (or hourly)

(add additional backup drives as needed)

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

"Toshi1873" <toshi1873@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.1bcdf1ea75eda4549899cf@news.giganews.com...
> In article <4f0df91b.0410050632.36892217
> @posting.google.com>, tommynospam@yahoo.com says...
> > I have recently discovered the need to build a mass storage device and
> > am looking at building a RAID 5 sytem. Speed is not as important as
> > redundancy because this will be a personal server that will be used by
> > myself and family/friends. I'm thinking of having a seperate disk
> > (not part of the RAID subsystem) to install the OS and just have the
> > RAID as the data storage.
>
> Normally you put the O/S on a RAID1 pair and the data on
> a second RAID (either RAID1 or RAID5). It still doesn't
> solve the back up issue.

"Normally"...no.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

> > I'm thinking of having a seperate disk
> > (not part of the RAID subsystem) to install the OS and just have the
> > RAID as the data storage.
>
> Why not the OS there too?
>

I wanted to do this because I wanted to keep the data disks os-free in
case I needed to transfer the raid to a computer already built that
does not have the same hardware configuration.