How to: Install and setup FlexRAID on your windows storage system.

[sNaKeBiTe]

Hey looney,

 

do you know if tRAID runs with ALL functionality under windows 8.1?

 

I'm asking because currently I'm running Raid-F on Win 8.1 and thumbnails and network shares don't work at the same time. (See my posts here and here to which I never got an answer by Brahim)

I'm really sick of this and considering to buy a tRAID licence, since Raid-F probably won't get any more updates. I'd really hate to invest any more money in this since other users have the same problem too and it is clearly bug in the program. I would change to a different solution but a dedicated file server is too expensive and as far as I know, other software RAID solutions (for example Windows Storage Spaces) need empty discs for initialization, which I don't have.

[tbrezniak]

When you are discussing flexraid are you referring to there transparent raid or there raid over file system? Also great tutorial!

[looney]

When you are discussing flexraid are you referring to there transparent raid or there raid over file system? Also great tutorial!

RAID over file system.

tRAID did not exist yet at the time of writing

[tbrezniak]

Thanks for the quick response looney. Can I ask which raid do you recommend to use raid over file system or traid? I will be using 4 drives to make a raid to act as a backup for my media server.

[looney]

Thanks for the quick response looney. Can I ask which raid do you recommend to use raid over file system or traid? I will be using 4 drives to make a raid to act as a backup for my media server.

for a media server i would still recommend raid over file system.

[hatbrox]

I read most of the posts in this thread and I see that all questions or the tutorial focuses on scenarios where all the drives are of the same size.

 

I see that it is possible to span multiple disks in a a single PPU but I can't see if there i a any valid scenarios in doing so.

 

I have 6 3TB drives and 5 4TB drives (I should buy another 4TB drive...)

 

I wanted to create 2 or 3 DRUs and one PPU, I could not find a good DRU/PPU layout.

 

The best I came up with was:

 

PPU1: 4,4,3,3 (total size = 14 TB)

DRU1: 4,4,3,3 (total size = 14 TB)

DRU2: 4,3,3 (total size = 10 TB)

 

My plan was to buy an extra 4 TB drive for DRU2 later, if and when needed.

 

My questions are:

does it make sense to span several disks in one PPU? ( it is possible, after all)

does it make sense to mix drives size in a single PPU?

 

another solution would be to put 9 drives as single UoR:

2 PPU (1x 4TB disk each)

9 DRU (3x 4TB + 6x 3TB)

But that's a bit ugly.

 

a more general question: in Flexraid, are all the parity data only store in the PPU?

 

thanks,

 

HB.

[looney]

I read most of the posts in this thread and I see that all questions or the tutorial focuses on scenarios where all the drives are of the same size.

 

I see that it is possible to span multiple disks in a a single PPU but I can't see if there i a any valid scenarios in doing so.

 

I have 6 3TB drives and 5 4TB drives (I should buy another 4TB drive...)

 

I wanted to create 2 or 3 DRUs and one PPU, I could not find a good DRU/PPU layout.

 

The best I came up with was:

 

PPU1: 4,4,3,3 (total size = 14 TB)

DRU1: 4,4,3,3 (total size = 14 TB)

DRU2: 4,3,3 (total size = 10 TB)

 

My plan was to buy an extra 4 TB drive for DRU2 later, if and when needed.

 

My questions are:

does it make sense to span several disks in one PPU? ( it is possible, after all)

does it make sense to mix drives size in a single PPU?

 

another solution would be to put 9 drives as single UoR:

2 PPU (1x 4TB disk each)

9 DRU (3x 4TB + 6x 3TB)

But that's a bit ugly.

 

a more general question: in Flexraid, are all the parity data only store in the PPU?

 

thanks,

 

HB.

 

Hey, my old setup used to be 18x2TB and 4x4TB.

 

I just had all the 2TB's and 2x4TB as seperate DRU's and used 2x4TB as PPU's

 

So in your case I would put all the 3TB drives in seperate DRU's and put one or two 4TB drives in as PPU's (remaining 4TB drives DRU)

 

As long as the PPU(s) are the same size or bigger than the largest DRU you are good to go.

[hatbrox]

Hi,

 

thanks for your reply.

 

> As long as the PPU(s) are the same size or bigger than the largest DRU you are good to go.

I understand that principle but wouldn't it be more efficient to span multiple disks in a individual PPU and the same with DRU?

I read on flexraid wiki that spanning offer better performance.

[looney]

Hi,

 

thanks for your reply.

 

> As long as the PPU(s) are the same size or bigger than the largest DRU you are good to go.

I understand that principle but wouldn't it be more efficient to span multiple disks in a individual PPU and the same with DRU?

I read on flexraid wiki that spanning offer better performance.

When I tested it on my initial system I did not see a significant speed improvement while spanning drives.

That's why I took the easy route with my old server.

[Scratch]

Hey all, was having a read back over this prompted by a sudden loss of power to my server yesterday.  Thought I'd add some times for reference.

 

Current pool (due to grow to 2x the size or more over time, many empty bays):

 

1 x 3TB PPU, 3 x 3TB DRU~3.7TB of data used

 

Quick Validate:Name: Validate ProcessStart Date: Wed Sep 23 14:01:03 GMT+100 2015End Date: Wed Sep 23 14:03:46 GMT+100 2015Duration: 00:02:42Throughput: 38376.65 MB/sThe validation process is reporting 4 new, 4 changed, 0 deleted, and 0 corrupted files!Update:Start Date: Wed Sep 23 14:05:17 GMT+100 2015End Date: Wed Sep 23 14:07:40 GMT+100 2015The validation process is reporting 1 new, 0 changed, 0 deleted, and 0 corrupted files!Validate:The validation process is reporting 4 new, 0 changed, 0 deleted, and 0 corrupted files!Name: Validate ProcessStart Date: Wed Sep 23 14:09:00 GMT+100 2015End Date: Wed Sep 23 18:31:22 GMT+100 2015Duration: 04:22:21Throughput: 396.20 MB/sVerify:Start Date: Wed Sep 23 06:07:04 GMT+100 2015End Date: Wed Sep 23 12:17:10 GMT+100 2015Duration: 06:10:06Throughput: 83.61 MB/s

Dem verifies, currently running it weekly but thats silly so I'm going to edit my scheduler.