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March 20th, 2019 10:00

RAID configuration for backup repository

I am looking for more information about which RAID and how best to configure it. I have a new setup consisting a  R730xd server, 4 MD1420 disk shelves with 24x1.6TB 10K disk drives in each shelf, a H830 PERC controller.

The intent is to create the largest single volume to be used as a Veeam repository for backup data, therefore, RAID-10 is not a good option.  Fault tolerance is key, so do not want to use RAID-5. So, I was looking at RAID-6 and RAID-60.  The calculators I looked at said I could expect about 144TB with R-6 and 140TB with R-60.

I am new to setting up a RAID volume and using the PERC card so I have been seeking out advice. Not finding too much helpful information online about the PERC steps and whether R-6 or R60 is better.But it was explained to me the only way to do get a R-6 volume that large would be to create 4 virtual disks and then use Windows to combine them into a single volume, but that is not a good option because it would be combining software RAID over hardware RAID and is not a Dell best practice. I was then told that it was possible to create a single R-60 virtual disk that could be mounted as a single Windows volume but that it was not the best choice because it the virtual disks would be spanning the shelves and that isn't a good thing to do.

I know there are large RAID volumes out there. How is it done?

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6.2K Posts

March 20th, 2019 12:00

Hello

You can chain the MD units together. I show that you can chain up to four MD units per connector. It appears the H830 has a single connector, so you should be able to connect four MD units to it. I think there is an external HBA supported on the R730XD that has two connectors. You would be able to attach eight MD units to that controller. You should be able to locate more information on the MD1420 support page and the controller support page.

http://www.dell.com/support/

http://www.dell.com/storagecontrollermanuals/

Thanks

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