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Raid 5 Best Practice
I have 3 PE servers, and each server is setup with RAID 5 a bit differently (3 different techs setup each server). Below the servers are my questions.
Server 1
PERC 6/i Integrated
Connector 0 = 4 physical disks
Connector 1 = 1 physical disk as a global hot spare
Virtual Disks = Disk 0 RAID 5
Server 2
PERC 5/i Integrated
Connector 0 = 4 physical disks
Connector 1 = 1 physical disk, hot spare configured as "No"
Virtual Disks = Disk 0 RAID 1 (2 disks from connector 0) & Disk 1 RAID 5 (2 disks from connector 0 & 1 disk from connector 1)
Server 3
PERC 3/DC
Connector 0 = 5 physical disks
Virtual Disks = Disk 0 RAID 5 (all physical disks)
Questions:
1. Why would a server be setup with RAID 1 and RAID 5? (server 2)
2. For server 2, can i take the physical disk on connector 1 and make that a hot spare or just leave it alone?
3. For server 3 can I take the last physical disk and make that a spare or just keep it in the array?
4. What is best practice for a RAID 5 configuration and 5 physical disks?
theflash1932
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January 4th, 2010 18:00
1. This is a fairly common (and recommended) setup for Exchange and database servers ... while there are differing opinions on the actual pros and cons of RAID 5, in theory, it is still redundant but offers better read/write performance and capacity than a RAID 1, while the OS array is protected by a redundant RAID 1.
2. The disk on connector 1 is currently participating in the RAID 5, so it would be recommended to leave it alone, unless you plan to redo the configuration. The fact that the array is comprised of disks on different controllers is a non-issue, as the controller is more than capable of managing multiple arrays across multiple channels.
3. Again, if the RAID 5 is using all 5 disks, then you should not remove it, unless you plan to reconfigure the array. Removing it and setting it as a HS now will only cause that drive to rebuild into the array as it currently is.
4. RAID 5 with 5 disks is a perfectly acceptable configuration - it just depends on what it is being used for and what your requirements are. For example, if you use five 73GB drives in a RAID 5, you will have around 272GB of total storage. If you do a RAID 1/5 config, you will have 68GB/136GB (202GB total). If it houses ultra-critical data, you could configure a four-disk RAID 5, with a HS, giving you two-disk redundancy, rather than one-disk redundancy that a RAID 1 and 5 have.