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Software RAID in NAS Server

villo
Go to solution Solved by Atlantisman,

Thanks both for the input.

 

 

I think I'd prefer RAID 5 as it offers more than sufficient performance and redundancy with more available storage than RAID 10. Thanks for the additional info about Freenas, I will look into it further. 

 

 

Would just like to ask you expand more on point 1 if possible. Does this mean I will have the option do perform a config backup of Freenas, save it externally and restore it later if the flashdrive fails?

Yes, you will have the option to do config backups in freenas. Also the freenas equivalent to RAID5 is ZFS RAID-Z, functionally the same thing as raid 5 but everything is handled in the background by freenas, and this is why you need quite a bit of RAM to run freenas effectively.

 

EDIT: typo.

Hi,

 

I was searching the forum and internet but could not find a conclusive/reliable answer to my questions regarding Software RAID in NAS. 

 

I'm planning on building a NAS system using HP Proliant Microserver with 4 drives in software RAID 5 and an additional small drive running the OS. I would like to know:

 

  1. What happens to the Software RAID 5 if the OS drive fails? Will it be recoverable if I replace the OS drive?
  2. How can I tell if one of the drives in RAID 5 fails?
  3. I am planning on using software RAID 5 since the MB on the Microserver does not support hardware RAID 5 - what hardware RAID card would you recommend for my set-up, if any?

All the best,

-villo 

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I recommend you put freenas on your server. The file system is very flexible and resilient to hardware changes/failures. 

 

 

1. If you have freenas, then you usually put it on a flash drive, if it fails, get a new flash drive and put free nas on it and all you have to do is import your volume set (config backups are also nice.)

2. If you have freenas it will alert you, this can be an alert that is only seen on the web gui, or you can tell it to email you the alerts.

3. Software raid means you will not be using a raid card, and freenas is built to not use a raid card.

 

Let me know if you have more questions, these can vary, depending on the OS you end up loading up.

CPU: i7 3770k @ 4.8Ghz Motherboard: Sabertooth Z77 RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance GPU: GTX 780 Case: Corsair 540 Air Storage: 2x Intel 520 SSD Raid 0 PSU: Corsair AX850 Display(s): 1x 27" Samsung Monitor 3x 24" Asus Monitors Cooling: Swifttech H220 Keyboard: Logitech 710+ Mouse: Logitech G500 Headphones: Sennheiser HD 558 --- Internet: http://linustechtips.com/main/uploads/gallery/album_1107/gallery_12431_1107_23677.png My Setup:  http://linustechtips.com/main/gallery/image/7922-1-rkcf7io/ -- NAS: 3x WD Red 3TB Drives (RAIDZ-1), 5x 750gb Seagate ES HDD(RAIDZ-1), 120gb SSD for caching, OS: FreeNAS --  Server 1: Xeon E3 1275v2, 32GB of RAM, OS: ESXi 5.5 -- Server 2: Xeon E3 1220v2, 32GB of RAM, OS: ESXi 5.5

 

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+1 freenas

-1 raid 5.  Should go raid 10 considering theres 4 drive bays anyway, plus it gives you better redundancy AND performance.

 

The N54L has an internal USB slot so there's pretty slim chance of knocking the OS out by accident.

Also Freenas has a reporting tab where you can graphically see the performance of the cpu, memory, disks... etc.  Also gives you status alerts, even emails I believe, although I have not set this up.

CPU: i7 4770K 4.2Ghz, Mobo: Asrock Fatal1ty Z97x Killer, GFX: EVGA GTX 780 Ti SC ACX (x2 SLI), RAM: G.Skill 1600Mhz CAS 9 16GB, DSK Intel 530 120GB OS, Crucial M500 120GB, WD 1TB Blue, WD 1TB Green, PSU: Corsair AX1200i, Case: Obsidian 750D. 

SERVER HP ProLiant Microserver N54L, FreeNAS: ZFS, 8TB (4x 2TB WD Red), RAID Z2, 16GB ECC RAM, 1Gb/s Link Aggregated:  Running as NAS, Plex, & ownCloud

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Thanks both for the input.

 

+1 freenas

-1 raid 5.  Should go raid 10 considering theres 4 drive bays anyway, plus it gives you better redundancy AND performance.

 

The N54L has an internal USB slot so there's pretty slim chance of knocking the OS out by accident.

Also Freenas has a reporting tab where you can graphically see the performance of the cpu, memory, disks... etc.  Also gives you status alerts, even emails I believe, although I have not set this up.

 

I think I'd prefer RAID 5 as it offers more than sufficient performance and redundancy with more available storage than RAID 10. Thanks for the additional info about Freenas, I will look into it further. 

 

I recommend you put freenas on your server. The file system is very flexible and resilient to hardware changes/failures. 

 

 

1. If you have freenas, then you usually put it on a flash drive, if it fails, get a new flash drive and put free nas on it and all you have to do is import your volume set (config backups are also nice.)

2. If you have freenas it will alert you, this can be an alert that is only seen on the web gui, or you can tell it to email you the alerts.

3. Software raid means you will not be using a raid card, and freenas is built to not use a raid card.

 

Let me know if you have more questions, these can vary, depending on the OS you end up loading up.

 

Would just like to ask you expand more on point 1 if possible. Does this mean I will have the option do perform a config backup of Freenas, save it externally and restore it later if the flashdrive fails?

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Thanks both for the input.

 

 

I think I'd prefer RAID 5 as it offers more than sufficient performance and redundancy with more available storage than RAID 10. Thanks for the additional info about Freenas, I will look into it further. 

 

 

Would just like to ask you expand more on point 1 if possible. Does this mean I will have the option do perform a config backup of Freenas, save it externally and restore it later if the flashdrive fails?

Yes, you will have the option to do config backups in freenas. Also the freenas equivalent to RAID5 is ZFS RAID-Z, functionally the same thing as raid 5 but everything is handled in the background by freenas, and this is why you need quite a bit of RAM to run freenas effectively.

 

EDIT: typo.

CPU: i7 3770k @ 4.8Ghz Motherboard: Sabertooth Z77 RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance GPU: GTX 780 Case: Corsair 540 Air Storage: 2x Intel 520 SSD Raid 0 PSU: Corsair AX850 Display(s): 1x 27" Samsung Monitor 3x 24" Asus Monitors Cooling: Swifttech H220 Keyboard: Logitech 710+ Mouse: Logitech G500 Headphones: Sennheiser HD 558 --- Internet: http://linustechtips.com/main/uploads/gallery/album_1107/gallery_12431_1107_23677.png My Setup:  http://linustechtips.com/main/gallery/image/7922-1-rkcf7io/ -- NAS: 3x WD Red 3TB Drives (RAIDZ-1), 5x 750gb Seagate ES HDD(RAIDZ-1), 120gb SSD for caching, OS: FreeNAS --  Server 1: Xeon E3 1275v2, 32GB of RAM, OS: ESXi 5.5 -- Server 2: Xeon E3 1220v2, 32GB of RAM, OS: ESXi 5.5

 

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