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NAS storage setup

Hi, I'm after some configuration suggestions...

I'm building a Windows storage server for Solidworks, general file storage and backups... I was looking at a Thecus 2 bay solution, but due to a RAM requirement from Solidworks, I've moved to a 5 bay solution - the Thecus W5810.

 

Moving from the planned 2 bay to the 5 bay design proposes an interesting thought. I've ordered 2x 4TB drives with the plan of putting them in RAID 1.
As I now have an extra 3 bays available, is it better to populate a second RAID 1 (2 drive) or a RAID 5 (3 drive) when the first set of drives get full. Or, is it better to get additional drives now, creating a RAID 5 or RAID 6 from the full 5 drive setup? (Or, I guess adding more drives to the initial ones and formatting them into a new RAID array)

Thoughts...?

Apple, Piss Off! ~ Linus 2014

No, you're not hallucinating, or maybe you are... either way, I'm back. ~ Linus 2015

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RAID 5 is better in my opinion. You can rebuild the array if one drive goes down, whereas RAID 0 is done for.  If you can fill the slots now for RAID 5, go for it.

 

Remember to back up your data.

 

@Electronics Wizardy can help.

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Cool, thank you.

 

Providing I can work my way through the setup, which would be the best solution - 5 drives in RAID 5, RAID 6, or if I can get it to work RAID 5 + Hot Spare?

 

The plan is to take my existing Synology and use that as a backup for the Thecus...

Apple, Piss Off! ~ Linus 2014

No, you're not hallucinating, or maybe you are... either way, I'm back. ~ Linus 2015

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As Schischka mentioned, populating all 5 and using RAID 6 would be beneficial.


RAID 5 is fine but the issue is that when a drive does fail, the load on the remaining drives during a rebuild may cause another failure.

 

RAID 6 offers dual parity disks so if you happen to replace one, a second one failing during the rebuild is not catastrophic.

 

Not all RAID controllers offer RAID 6 functionality, so you'll want to verify that it's even an option.

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It is supposed to be able to do RAID 0/1/5/6

Apple, Piss Off! ~ Linus 2014

No, you're not hallucinating, or maybe you are... either way, I'm back. ~ Linus 2015

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1 hour ago, SCHISCHKA said:

if you can afford 5 drives then use raid 6 with one hot spare drive

Might as well run raid 1 you have 2 drives of usage capacity. 

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6 hours ago, SCHISCHKA said:

if you can afford 5 drives then use raid 6 with one hot spare drive

 

4 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Might as well run raid 1 you have 2 drives of usage capacity. 

For 5 disks RAID 5 is much more appropriate, so yea either just do RAID 1 and avoid parity performance hit or RAID 5.

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6 minutes ago, leadeater said:

 

For 5 disks RAID 5 is much more appropriate, so yea either just do RAID 1 and avoid parity performance hit or RAID 5.

One not, if this this is a basic nas over gigabit, raid 5/6 will be more than fast enough.

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It has gigabit network ports, and I'm using 7200RPM drives... and hopefully 16GB of RAM (upgrading the std 4GB)

http://wss.thecus.com/product_W5810.php

Apple, Piss Off! ~ Linus 2014

No, you're not hallucinating, or maybe you are... either way, I'm back. ~ Linus 2015

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3 hours ago, xXDeltaXx said:

It has gigabit network ports, and I'm using 7200RPM drives... and hopefully 16GB of RAM (upgrading the std 4GB)

http://wss.thecus.com/product_W5810.php

Do you plan on running anything off the unit that would call for more ram?

 

My backup QNAP (powered by a j1900) barely uses any resources for replication/cifs.  Even my Xeon QNAP rarely (if ever) breaks 8GB and that includes during heavy plex usage.  

 

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2 minutes ago, Dark said:

Do you plan on running anything off the unit that would call for more ram?

 

My backup QNAP (powered by a j1900) barely uses any resources for replication/cifs.  Even my Xeon QNAP rarely (if ever) breaks 8GB and that includes during heavy plex usage.  

 

Yeah, a Solidworks PDM server setup... Archive recommends 4GB, and Database recommends 8GB. According to support, they would add the two together and call that the suggested minimum.

http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/PDMSystemRequirements.html

Apple, Piss Off! ~ Linus 2014

No, you're not hallucinating, or maybe you are... either way, I'm back. ~ Linus 2015

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2 hours ago, xXDeltaXx said:

Yeah, a Solidworks PDM server setup... Archive recommends 4GB, and Database recommends 8GB. According to support, they would add the two together and call that the suggested minimum.

http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/PDMSystemRequirements.html

Vendor recommendations are typically much more than you need, they build in a safety so they know 100% that everyone will be fine with that minimum.

 

That being said 8GB ram sticks are about the best $/GB and are not that expensive so I'd go with 16GB as well.

 

 

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The server is installed, updated and has the RAM increased to 16GB... 2 of the 5 drives have arrived, with the other 3 due soon.

 

However, I hadn't realised that the Server 2012 OS was not compatible with the std array of Antivirus programs that I know and use... So, is there something that is recommended? - I have seen some comments about being able to get Microsoft Security Essentials installed via a work around, but I'm not 100% sure that it is the best way to go. IT at work suggested Symantec; but I'm not sure...

Apple, Piss Off! ~ Linus 2014

No, you're not hallucinating, or maybe you are... either way, I'm back. ~ Linus 2015

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9 minutes ago, xXDeltaXx said:

-snip-

Yeah, I use Symantec Endpoint for my server. It holds up really well.

 

It just sucks I have Norton for the PCs and now Symantec for the server...I wish I could get one product for everything...

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Symantec, or something like Avast...? - I've not seen Avast in a business environment (personally), but I'm more au fait with it...

Apple, Piss Off! ~ Linus 2014

No, you're not hallucinating, or maybe you are... either way, I'm back. ~ Linus 2015

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