RAID 1 query

TriedandTested

TriedandTested

TriedandTested

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See below. Is this the setup i would require in order to have a RAID 1 setup? I'm quite new to RAID and the various options available so thought i'd ask.

I'm planning to have HDD1 and HDD2 in RAID 1 to add extra level of reliablility to a server and have the other two SATA HDD as storage.

Raid Connectivity:
C3 Integrated SAS/SATA, RAID 1, PERC 5/i Integrated, min1/max8 Hard Drives

1st RAID or SCSI Controller Card:
SAS 5/i and SAS 5/E Controller Documentation (English)

1st Hard Drive:
36GB, SAS, 3.5-inch, 15.000 rpm Hard Drive (hot plug)

2nd Hard Drive:
36GB, SAS, 3.5-inch, 15.000 rpm Hard Drive (hot plug)

3rd Hard Drive:
160GB, SATA, 3.5-inch, 7.200 rpm Hard Drive

4th Hard Drive:
160GB, SATA, 3.5-inch, 7.200 rpm Hard Drive

Do i also require: 'PERC 5/i, x4 Backplane, Integrated RAID Controller Card' as i'm advised that 'you must select appropriate PERC 5/i RAID controller which must match the type of a backplane you select for your system'. I'm not entirely sure what a backplane is to be honest.

Thanks.
 
Backplane is the physical board that your hotplug drives will attach to.

The config of that particular brand of server has got slightly more complex with the introduction of the x9xx line.

The options for backplane are either x4 or x6 drives for 3.5" disks or x8 for 2.5". In your case you'll want the x6 - you _could_ go for the x4, but for the sake of a tenner you'd be better off giving yourself the option of adding another two drives in the future.

If you're specifying RAID1 (the C3 part), then you also have to specify the PERC5/i integrated RAID controller card. The default selection is for the non-raid integrated SAS 5/i.

I notice you're going for SATA 160gb drives - are you not planning on mirroring these as well? Looks as though you're mirroring just the OS and not the data, which seems a bit odd.

Btw, the 'raid configuration' section of the order isn't that important - provided you order the correct drives and controller you can re-configure them however you like once it arrives.

So to sum up you should order:

Backplane: (design of the board which the drives attach to)
1x6 Backplane for 3.5-inch Hard Drives

Raid Connectivity: (how the drives will be configured from the factory)
C3 Integrated SAS / SATA, RAID 1 using add in PERC 5/i controller

1st RAID or SCSI Controller Card: (type of controller card)
PERC 5/i, x6 Backplane, Integrated RAID Controller Card

1st Hard Drive:
36GB, SAS, 3.5-inch, 15.000 rpm Hard Drive (hot plug)

2nd Hard Drive:
36GB, SAS, 3.5-inch, 15.000 rpm Hard Drive (hot plug)

3rd Hard Drive:
160GB, SATA, 3.5-inch, 7.200 rpm Hard Drive

4th Hard Drive:
160GB, SATA, 3.5-inch, 7.200 rpm Hard Drive
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the reply, very useful. Appreciated.

The two SATA drives are for storage which will in turn be backed up to tapes (looking at LTO2 drives). Is that not good practice? They would be backed up on a daily basis and then taken off site.

I'm basically doing a overhaul of the current setup here..it's rather dated and needs to much human intervention to work 'properly'.
 
If it were me I'd have both OS and data partitions mirrored. Tape backups are good for recovering from a failure, but RAID1 will prevent you from having downtime in the first place.

But it depends on your budget - we order absolutely shedloads of servers from that manufacturer and we always RAID everything (either 1 or 1/0).
 
The budget is certainly restricted! I think i'll stick with my current plans of RAID 1 on OS, backing up the rest.

These RAID setups...easy to sort out when it all arrives are they?! :p
 
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