Do I really need RAID on my backup server?

R.O.S.S.I

R.O.S.S.I

R.O.S.S.I

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Hi all, we have an old server which we use for Veeam backups of all of our servers.

The machine has done various jobs over the years from being a database server, to a DC, to a file server etc so there is loads of legacy/junk stuff on there which I could do with clearing due to disk space running short for the backups.

At the moment our boot drive is in RAID 1 with 2 x 72GB drives (giving 1 x 68.3GB useable drive) and our data drive which stores the backups is RAID 5 with 4 x 146GB drives (giving 1 x 410GB useable drive).

I could really do with freeing up some extra space on both drives and was thinking the best way would be to format the machine and install 2008R2 fresh on it without anything else and just Veeam, but to also get rid of the RAID arrays to free up the extra drives (and give more space).

Would anyone advise against this? My rationale is the machine isn't accessed frequently and is only used for Veeam backups which are then ferried off to external hdds every day so RAID isn't really a necessity and we need the extra space!
 
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Just think of it in terms of what would you lose if a disk died?

- Time rebuilding the machine (at the minimum formatting the new drive and re-setting up directories and permissions)
- Time not being able to back up while you get a replacement drive
- Lost backups that hadn't been transferred to the external drives
 
Well the server is solely used now just for the Veeam backups. So every night it runs the backup schedule backing up our 7 VM servers, then the next morning they are copied onto external HDD's and kept off-site on rotation.

There wouldnt really be much in the way of config/rebuilding needed if the machine went down, just a reinstall and put Veeam back on and import the config to get us back to where we were prior to losing the system.

I didn't really want to have to spend any more money adding more SAS drives and the server could really do with being wiped anyway so thought this would be the most cost effective way of doing it.

Just wondering what other people thought really.
 
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If one of the disks died during the backup window, you would lose the most recent backups. How bad would it be if you needed to recover one or more of these? If that's not considered a big deal by your company, then I guess I'd argue why bother backing up at all...

I don't know... I just have the mentality that if it's worth doing, it's worth doing properly.
 
Hmmmm maybe it would be easier just getting some more drives, just had a quick scan on ebay and they aren't actually as expensive as I thought.

There are 2 slots free in the bays so I may just pop another 2 146gb grives in and replace the 2 x 72gb ones with 2 x 146gb and keep the RAIDS as they are.
 
Personally if it's covered under a good warranty and the backup is duplicated to another device then it all depends on the risk you want to take for a bit of space.. Our new backup server has 3x1.2TB 10k SAS drives in raid 0. Worse case we replace the drive and rebuild the raid but this gives us good read and write speeds.

We do however duplicate to a tape and also a DAS which has a raid 10 and another raid 10 just for Veeam backups.
 
The server itself is well out of warranty now, its about 7 years old i'm lead to believe, was built long before I even started at the place I am.

Think i'll just buy some more drives for it, will cost us a bit of money but like you said means its recoverable should any drives fail.
 
How much money? You could buy an ML310e Gen8 for around £400, add a couple of 3 TB hard drives and you would have something supported, with loads more space than you currently have.
 
I've decided to just format the server first and then add in the drives - £35 they are coming in at off Ebay for refurb ones. Would only need 2 really so £70 is better than shelling out £400 then more for drives to fill it.
 
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