RAID enclosure help [Archive]

dave29

11-09-08, 05:02 PM

i am looking to buy a raid enclosure. most likely 4 bays to hold 1tb drives. this will be my first raid so any advice, suggestions, and enclosure preferences will be greatly appreciated. i am looking at this model.....

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/External_Hard_Drives/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=A2125416

the price is right in line, i would like to stay around $300 or less for the enclosure, but i can go higher if needed.

i will probably use WD GP 1 TB drives. i have had pretty good results with them so far.
thanks

P Smith

11-09-08, 06:22 PM

1st - the box you can buy for $202 here (http://www.premiertek.net/cat/enclosure35.htm)
2nd - what OS you'll run on it ?

dave29

11-09-08, 06:34 PM

i have vista ultimate on all my computers

P Smith

11-09-08, 06:48 PM

Well, I'm opposite to use SW RAIDs - had bad experience with Windows Server's SW RAID implementation, so after many years running server farm with HW RAID cards, I wouldn't expect vista to be the OS.
The box should be good for Linux PC; if you will add HW RAID card what will compatible with the UltraRAID Box and have vista drivers, then ...

dave29

11-09-08, 06:52 PM

i think i may be better off going in the nas route.
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/External_Hard_Drives/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=A2029012

i have a smll nas now(500gb) but i am going to start ripping blu rays and alot of other media so i am going to need some serious storage and i would like to access it from mulitiple pc's

P Smith

11-09-08, 07:16 PM

That would be good solution for your setup with multiple PC's.
Don't rush on Dell - too pricey, looks at other places -the exactly box could be 50% cheaper.

dave29

11-10-08, 06:41 AM

i'm just looking. im not set on dell, but with a quick google..... they do seem to be the cheapest

Richierich

11-10-08, 07:01 AM

I would run it RAID 1 unless you don't care about losing any recordings.

A lot of people get GREEDY and want more space and down the road one of your drives WILL CRASH & BURN it's just a matter of time and you will be sorry if you don't either offload your precious unrecoverable content or you run RAID 1.

I had a guy just the other day said he should have listened to me and he didn't and now he has lost 1.6 TBs of recordings that he can't recover.

dave29

11-10-08, 09:41 AM

P Smith

11-10-08, 10:12 AM

Don't worry - RAID-5 is right combination of reliability of data and sacrifice of available space. More disks in it - less loss in available space with same level of reliability.
There are 5 bay enclosures, if you'll go further and want add hot-spare disk and keep same 3 TB (or 4.5 TB for 1.5 TB disks) accessible space 100% up time.

dennisj00

11-10-08, 01:55 PM

i understand all the raid configs except raid5, what exactly does raid5 do?
from wikipedia:
RAID 5 (striped disks with parity) combines three or more disks in a way that protects data against loss of any one disk; the storage capacity of the array is reduced by one disk.

if the storage capacity is reduced by 1 disc, then how would the other 3 discs be backed up? or am i way off base here?

The disks aren't 'backed up'. . . RAID5 'stripes' the data across n+1 drives. For example, with 3 1-TB drives you get 2 TB of capacity (n=2). With the data (plus parity) split across the three drives (or n+1), any SINGLE drive can fail and you can replace that drive without loss of data.

I was working with an IT Manager several years ago and he proudly pointed to the raid array and said "Watch this" -- He pulled TWO drives and, of course, it FAILED!! (missed it by 1!!)

P Smith

11-10-08, 04:57 PM

"I was working with an IT Manager several years ago and he proudly pointed to the raid array and said "Watch this" -- He pulled TWO drives and, of course, it FAILED!! (missed it by 1!!)" - you shouldn't follow IT Manager, but Server Admin ! Some of the ITM are just bosses without IT deep knowledge. :(

dennisj00

11-11-08, 03:06 PM

My point exactly!