What does 2X2 TB mean?

[Ariewok]

Hi there,
Just a real quick question. Been looking at a bunch of different dedicated servers, and on some I see the term "2X2 TB" listed. On others, it just flat out says 2 TB.

What does "2X2 TB" mean? It seems logical that it would mean 2 drives with 2 tb each in a RAID setup, but other sites show their "2X2 TB" as 2 TB of storage. Just plain confusing.

Thanks!

Images:

 

[R_1]

RAID-0 2 drives in RAID combining the total storage, failure of one drive destroys all data. increased read and write abilities, no redundancy, dangerous without backup
RAID-1 Mirroring - 2 drives doing the same thing at same time, drive 1 saves file A drive 2 saves file A, Drive 2 deletes file B, drive 1 deletes file B, but simultaneously. what happens to one happens to the other. you lose 1 drives capacity, 1 drive fails all data is still on 2nd drive and system can still work.

2x2TB will mean 2 drives of 2TB capacity each
I assume all will come with 2 drive but the configuration of the RAID, either 0 or 1, will determine the total capacity

that image is confusing

which websites?

 

[Ariewok]

RAID-0 2 drives in RAID combining the total storage, failure of one drive destroys all data. increased read and write abilities, no redundancy, dangerous without backup
RAID-1 Mirroring - 2 drives doing the same thing at same time, drive 1 saves file A drive 2 saves file A, Drive 2 deletes file B, drive 1 deletes file B, but simultaneously. what happens to one happens to the other. you lose 1 drives capacity, 1 drive fails all data is still on 2nd drive and system can still work.

2x2TB will mean 2 drives of 2TB capacity each
I assume all will come with 2 drive but the configuration of the RAID, either 0 or 1, will determine the total capacity

that image is confusing

which websites?

The image isn't that confusing, I'm just dumb/I don't know what I'm doing even though I'm getting paid for this...
-_-

On the side of image 1 it mentions the RAID 1 setup, and image 2 doesn't say anything about what RAID it's running, but I'm assuming RAID 0-2, unless "SoftRaid" is something else.

#1 is 1&1, and #2 is OVH. Any others that you would recommend?

 

[USAFRet]

That would appear to show that you are buying 1TB of drive space. Or 2TB for that bottom section.
Theoretically, two 1TB drives in a RAID 1, or 2 x 2TB in RAID 1.

In reality, what they use on their back end should have little impact.
What matters is the actual uptime you are contracted for, and the amount of drive space.

You are buying 1TB of space, with 99.x% uptime. How they manage that on the backend is of little consequence.

And I'd be very surprised if you were getting 2 actual physical hard drives, rather than "X_TB of space in their farm"


Talk to them, and ask for particulars. In writing.

 

[Ariewok]

That would appear to show that you are buying 1TB of drive space. Or 2TB for that bottom section.
Theoretically, two 1TB drives in a RAID 1, or 2 x 2TB in RAID 1.

In reality, what they use on their back end should have little impact.
What matters is the actual uptime you are contracted for, and the amount of drive space.

You are buying 1TB of space, with 99.x% uptime. How they manage that on the backend is of little consequence.

And I'd be very surprised if you were getting 2 actual physical hard drives, rather than "X_TB of space in their farm"


Talk to them, and ask for particulars. In writing.

How much does it matter that I actually get 2 drives? I mean, would that be for backing up on the 2nd one, or just extra storage?

 

[USAFRet]

That would appear to show that you are buying 1TB of drive space. Or 2TB for that bottom section.
Theoretically, two 1TB drives in a RAID 1, or 2 x 2TB in RAID 1.

In reality, what they use on their back end should have little impact.
What matters is the actual uptime you are contracted for, and the amount of drive space.

You are buying 1TB of space, with 99.x% uptime. How they manage that on the backend is of little consequence.

And I'd be very surprised if you were getting 2 actual physical hard drives, rather than "X_TB of space in their farm"


Talk to them, and ask for particulars. In writing.

How much does it matter that I actually get 2 drives? I mean, would that be for backing up on the 2nd one, or just extra storage?

Two 1TB drives in a RAID 1 is 1TB of drive space for you to use. They are mirrored, automatically.
But it is NOT a backup.

 

[Ariewok]

That would appear to show that you are buying 1TB of drive space. Or 2TB for that bottom section.
Theoretically, two 1TB drives in a RAID 1, or 2 x 2TB in RAID 1.

In reality, what they use on their back end should have little impact.
What matters is the actual uptime you are contracted for, and the amount of drive space.

You are buying 1TB of space, with 99.x% uptime. How they manage that on the backend is of little consequence.

And I'd be very surprised if you were getting 2 actual physical hard drives, rather than "X_TB of space in their farm"


Talk to them, and ask for particulars. In writing.

How much does it matter that I actually get 2 drives? I mean, would that be for backing up on the 2nd one, or just extra storage?

Two 1TB drives in a RAID 1 is 1TB of drive space for you to use. They are mirrored, automatically.
But it is NOT a backup.

So what do you mean? By mirroring, I assume you saying the have the same data on them, correct? I guess if it's all on the same server, then nothing's really "backup"...
What's the point of mirroring? Just a thought, but would it allow multiple people to pull data off at quicker speeds, because the download can be shared on both the drives?

So, if I were to actually back it up, it would be best to have 2 different companies, but also decent if it all runs off the same hosting company. Right?

 

[R_1]

mirroring prevents data loss in the case of a single drive failure.
it is not a backup in that a virus or malware will populate both drives simultaneously, power damage will strike both drives simultaneously. it prevents a single drive from taking all the data in case of a single drive failure. mirroring is only as fast as a single drive.

 

[USAFRet]

A RAID 1 mirror simply mirrors the data across 2 or more drives.
If one dies, the system can keep running.

But if a file is deleted by accident, or virus, or other corruption...it is gone.

Speed? The whole rest of their infrastructure matters far more than this theoretical RAID array.

 

[Ariewok]

mirroring prevents data loss in the case of a single drive failure.
it is not a backup in that a virus or malware will populate both drives simultaneously, power damage will strike both drives simultaneously. it prevents a single drive from taking all the data period. mirroring is only as fast as a single drive.

Ok... so essentially I'm helping this guy do research, and he's trying to run a business streaming TV off the internet. I don't need mirroring (I don't think), so would the best option be to go with OVH (image 2)? All of 1&1s servers do have mirroring, and since OVH is pretty trusted, I'm not too worried about the data. I'll talk to the guy and see if he needs backup, but otherwise I should be set.

 

[USAFRet]

and he's trying to run a business streaming TV off the internet.

I'm hoping he has a good legal team and deep pockets.

 

[Ariewok]

and he's trying to run a business streaming TV off the internet.

I'm hoping he has a good legal team and deep pockets.

It's actually legit... It's out of some country where it's legal and he's like streaming Chinese TV or something. It seems really sketchy though.

 

[USAFRet]

and he's trying to run a business streaming TV off the internet.

I'm hoping he has a good legal team and deep pockets.

It's actually legit... It's out of some country where it's legal and he's like streaming Chinese TV or something. It seems really sketchy though.

In any case, you're looking too deep into the weeds.
Don't worry about how many drives, in what RAID array if any.

"I need XTB drive space, and 99.X uptime, and XX gigabytes of data transferred per month. How much does this cost?"
How they manage the backend makes no difference to you.

 

[Ariewok]

Well, he's kinda vague about it. Here's what I know.

Needs to be dedicated, and under $100 a month...
So yeah, I don't know a lot. And I don't think he really does either. I'll get some more info off him though. I mean, I think he just wants a server, and doesn't know all the techy stuff behind it.

 

[Ariewok]

It's more of a "I need a server, you figure out what I want sort of deal."

 

[Ariewok]

In any case, you're looking too deep into the weeds.
Don't worry about how many drives, in what RAID array if any.

"I need XTB drive space, and 99.X uptime, and XX gigabytes of data transferred per month. How much does this cost?"
How they manage the backend makes no difference to you.

Ok, one more question. What is burst bandwidth?

So far, OVH seems like a good option, but there's couple more things.
So, for the basic hosting package, they offer "Traffic: 250 Mbps bandwidth (burst 1 Gbps) unlimited"
Pretty much what this is saying is 250 Mbps at a time, with 1 Gbps "burst", and unlimited data transfer monthly.
Thanks.

 

[USAFRet]

In any case, you're looking too deep into the weeds.
Don't worry about how many drives, in what RAID array if any.

"I need XTB drive space, and 99.X uptime, and XX gigabytes of data transferred per month. How much does this cost?"
How they manage the backend makes no difference to you.

Ok, one more question. What is burst bandwidth?

So far, OVH seems like a good option, but there's couple more things.
So, for the basic hosting package, they offer "Traffic: 250 Mbps bandwidth (burst 1 Gbps) unlimited"
Pretty much what this is saying is 250 Mbps at a time, with 1 Gbps "burst", and unlimited data transfer monthly.
Thanks.

Burst - short period of time, really fast...small files
And then it goes to the contracted for 250mbps.