[GLLUG] Software RAID advice

[Alain Williams]

On Sat, Jan 06, 2018 at 03:02:12PM +0000, Greater London Linux UUG wrote:
> I'm setting up a new server which I'm going to be sysadmining on an
> ad-hoc basis.
> 
> One requirement is RAID and looking into software RAID/mdadm leaves me
> a little confused. All the examples I looked at put the system
> directories (eg. / and /boot etc) on a non-RAID partition and the rest
> /var /home on RAID.
> 
> I'm assuming I can use software RAID across entire devices right?
> 
> I'm aiming for between 2Tb and 4Tb of space. What RAID level would you
> recommend for least noise/least amount of overall maintenance.

RAID 1 (mirroring) because:

* simplest. If a disk breaks, replace and rebuild the mirror

* another 4TB disk is not expensive, so no point of going to the complication of
RAID 5 or something.

> The server I'm looking at purchasing will be a second-user purchase -
> some of these have hardware RAID built-in - I should always go with
> hardware RAID over software right?

NO: always go for s/ware RAID over hardware RAID.

There is not a standard way of doing hardware RAID, ie different motherboards
can do it in different ways => if/when the motherboard breaks you might find
that a new motherboard will not understand the RAID format - especially if from
a different mobo manufacturer.

> Lastly, does anyone has suggestions for servers which have low-noise?
> This server will be running in a home office environment.
> 
> One I've seen available locally is FUJITSU Server PRIMERGY TX100 which
> specifically mentions the low-noise aspect:
> https://sp.ts.fujitsu.com/dmsp/publications/public/ds-py-tx100-s3.pdf
> 
> Thanks!
> 
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-- 
Alain Williams
Linux/GNU Consultant - Mail systems, Web sites, Networking, Programmer, IT Lecturer.
+44 (0) 787 668 0256  http://www.phcomp.co.uk/
Parliament Hill Computers Ltd. Registration Information: http://www.phcomp.co.uk/contact.php
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