Recommend RAID controller for server

[ColFlame]

Hey LTT peeps!

 

So I'm building a server for my Dad's office for tracking shipments for his business and I got pretty much everything ordered as per the tracking software's publishers requirements. However, I was planning on running a RAID 1 for the 2 SSD's for the software and OS and a RAID 1 on the 2 NAS drives. Do you think it's a good idea to get a raid controller (for error checking and what ever raid controller's do that is superior to the motherboard controller)?

 

Here's the link for the components: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rBHBkL

 

Note: Had to pick a water-cooled unit for the CPU because the server's being flown to Dubai and didn't want to mount a air cooled CPU on the Mobo. Also the HDD's are WD Red NAS 1TB drives, not Blues.

 

Any advice/help would be awesome!

 

Thanks!

[LinusTech]

I can't think of a good reason to use an add in card for raid 1. There's no parity calculation to offload.

Edit:if there's still time, air cool it - preferably with a headsink that can mount 2 fans. That will add redundancy rather than more points of failure.

[Me1z]

Unless you are completely opposed to used hardware, I'd recommend getting an LSI MegaRAID 9261-8i off of ebay. I have one in my storage server and now that I've sorted out the software I needed, it runs great. It's basically the best bang for your buck when it comes to 'hardware raid'. Brand new, they cost somewhere between $500-600, but you can get a used one as low as $200. One of the biggest benefits of 'hardware raid' cards is that they are basically their own self contained computers whose only purpose is managing your data. You can find cheaper raid cards, but for the most part all of these cheaper cards use 'software raid'. When you use motherboard raid controllers or 'software raid' cards, all of the management tasks are being offloaded onto your CPU. This is less than ideal because that means anytime your CPU is being fully utilized, your ability to read/write data to the drives in raid is impacted and more prone to hiccups. Whether or not getting a raid card is worth it is up to you to decide. How important is the data that the server will be handling, and if you think the features are worth the extra investment. For Raid 1 a dedicated card is a bit much, but to each their own.

[EmeraldFlame]

Honestly for RAID 1 there isn't a need for a dedicated hardware RAID card. RAID 1 has almost no overhead to it what-so-ever. It's literally just a straight pass-through. Dedicated RAID cards really help with RAID levels like 5 and 6 because they have to calculate parity data during write procedures and that can be fairly intensive, but for a RAID 1 or 0 there isn't really a benefit at all to having them, especially for the cost. They aren't cheap, heck even a used card is gonna be $150+. I have a LSI MegaRAID 9266-8i and used that was a $200 card off ebay. New it's like $700 or something crazy.

They only benefit you might have from a dedicated RAID card is ease of transferring the array to another machine in case of a MoBo failure. If a MoBo fails when you are using on-board RAID, it is pretty likely you will have to get a MoBo of that exact model to be able to access the data. The same can be said for RAID cards, if they die you typically need an exact model replacement. But, RAID cards tend to stay in production longer than MoBo's so they are typically easier to find replacements for. They also typically have lower failure rates. Plus with a RAID card, if a MoBo or CPU or something like that dies, you should be able to move the setup to another computer and be good to go to at least retrieve data off of it. Can't really do that with MoBo raid.

Still for a RAID 1 I would recommend on-board RAID with a good off-site back up solution.

[leadeater]

For the 2 SSD's your much better off using the onboard Intel RAID to keep trim support. Also the WD disk you have picked are not certified for hardware RAID either. Always best to stick to vendor recommendations when it comes to business/corporate installations. 

 

http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-701277.pdf

 

 

WD Caviar Blue Hard Drives are not recommended for and are not warranted for use in RAID environments utilizing Enterprise HBAs and/or expanders and in multi-bay chassis, as they are not designed for, nor tested in, these specific types of RAID applications

[ColFlame]

For the 2 SSD's your much better off using the onboard Intel RAID to keep trim support. Also the WD disk you have picked are not certified for hardware RAID either. Always best to stick to vendor recommendations when it comes to business/corporate installations. 

 

http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-701277.pdf

Yeah PCPartPicker didn't show the Red drives so I put Blue just as a filler. I bought WD Reds. Thanks for the input though!

[ColFlame]

Ok as far as I understand, for RAID 1 (and 0) there isn't really a benefit to have a RAID card other than for the fact that some of the raid processing will be done by the card itself instead of the CPU. Also RAID cards are more flexible in case of hardware failure as opposed to motherboard failure.

 

The server will be tracking and storing data, but it will also be sending the data out to other computers in the office (as far as I understood the GPS tracking software publisher's notes). So data loss on the server itself isn't as crucial as being able to run 24/7.

 

So go with the motherboard controller seems like the practical choice.

 

Thanks for the really rapid response guys! Really appreciate it!

[ColFlame]

I can't think of a good reason to use an add in card for raid 1. There's no parity calculation to offload.

Edit:if there's still time, air cool it - preferably with a headsink that can mount 2 fans. That will add redundancy rather than more points of failure.

 

Unfortunately I already bought the cooler. Think I should still return it and get something like a Noctua NH-D15?

[leadeater]

They only benefit you might have from a dedicated RAID card is ease of transferring the array to another machine in case of a MoBo failure. If a MoBo fails when you are using on-board RAID, it is pretty likely you will have to get a MoBo of that exact model to be able to access the data. The same can be said for RAID cards, if they die you typically need an exact model replacement. 

 

Not quite true especially for hardware RAID. I have migrated an existing RAID array from an X58 to X79 motherboard, Intel to Intel.

 

For hardware RAID I've migrated tons of arrays between cards across different ROCs/IOCs OEM, mostly between LSI and Adaptec. I've done this back in the old parallel SCSI days and on modern SAS/SATA. Have to remember when disks are put in to a RAID array there is a header written to each disk with the full configuration of the array. All you have to do is plug the disks, even  just 1, in to another RAID card and import the foreign configuration.