Extendible/expandable RAID 10 array possible?

stringsonfire

stringsonfire

stringsonfire

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18 May 2011
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London, UK
Hi all

Is there a way to extend a RAID 10 array? I'd Like to buy 4 x 6TB drives now, and add further pairs later (when I can afford them). Is there any way this is possible? I'm planning to use Windows Server 2012 R2, but can use another OS or Hardware RAID if this can't be done otherwise.

If it's not possible, is there any close alternative?

Thanks!
 
I assume you are referring to using Storage Spaces as you mention Server 2012.

From what I can see from a quick Google search its not possible.

As you are asking specifically about RAID10 would I right in assuming you require decent performance are you just looking at it from a redundancy standpoint?

A lot of people suggest StableBit Drivepool although I personally haven't used it.

Depending on what other services the server will be running FreeNAS/NAS4FREE offers the ability to "add" disks to a RAID10 volume.
 
Not Storage Spaces in particular, no, just RAID10, for a mix of both performance and redundancy. I'll look into StableBit Drivepool, thanks. I'll need to run various VMs, and have a 2012 R2 License, so was hoping to use that
 
You could try Xpenology.com and run a custom Synology install? I've got that installed on one of my supermicro servers with 12 hotswap bays and it does everything I need including a hybrid raid option which provides pooling and parity (but not the speed increase you get with normal raid). It will also do normal raid levels and iSCSI although it won't do block level iscsi just file based as there is an issue with the way it runs... Just a thought, and its also free!
 
As this will be a VM store I'd suggest looking at hardware raid.

Any form of Software RAID on windows is going to be awfully slow, the only software raid option that will offer the sort of peformance you'd want would be ZFS and that would complicate matters a whole lot
 
Currently with 4x2tb in raid 10 copying from a windows pc to a share mounted using samba i am stretching my gigabit connection with a pretty much constant 112MB write speeds.

I Appreciate samba is slowing the process a touch and there is some network overhead hence not getting 125MB but its fast enough.

(Having sad that my boardhas 2 lan ports and so does my server so binding them together is tempting but i have no idea of how much improvement this will make)
 
I dont have the links to back it up but i cant see why it wouldnt redistribute.
So far in my 2 years of running this raid array ive had 1 drive fail and im hoping to raise funding soon to add another pair of drives as im just implementing a cctv server so need some spare room.
 
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