Jump to content

Need help and advice - raid 5

Jdillinger
By Jdillinger
in Storage Devices
 Share
Posted

Hello everyone. I am new to this forum and looking forward to building a raid for the very first time. I've done about 40 hours of research from reading and watching videos on how to setup raids. I would just like advice and specifics on what I plan on accomplishing. I thank you all in advance for your wisdom.

My current setup is as follows:

post-196197-0-54308400-1425846280_thumb.

I plan on adding this as a raid 5:

post-196197-0-33784900-1425846345_thumb.

I also have a Kingston 120gig ssd I can use as a cache for the raid 5.

The purpose for this raid is to store media, mainly movies. I use Plex which allows me to stream my media to family members.

I am not looking to getting an additional raid card and I really don't want to if possible. I understand you can raid using the bios of the gigabyte mobos or I've seen people setup raids in disk management in windows. I've also read that windows 7 cannot run raid 5 so it seems that option is out.

It looks like I have to run the raid using the gigabyte mobo. I have limited knowledge in this area and would like to ask a few questions.

1) are there certain sata ports that are dedicated to setting up a raid on the motherboard I have mentioned above?

2) how exactly do I setup a raid 5 for the mobo I've mentioned?

3) since other users will be accessing movie files via this raid through PLEX, what kind of stripe size do I need to setup?

4) if one of my drives were to fail, how exactly do I rebuild the raid 5?

Again thank you everyone for your help. Any advice would be of great importance. If what I'm trying to do is a terrible idea, please steer me in the right direction.

I have one other scenario I would like to play out.

Currently I have windows 7 running on a 240gig ssd. I have 2x120gig ssds. I was wondering if I could run multiple raids without any additional hardware. And how exactly would I do this?

If multiple raids question above was answered with a yes, then I would like the following to be the ideal setup:

2x120gig ssds as a raid 0 for win7.

240 gig ssd as cache drive for raid 5 mentioned above.

3x4tb hgst as raid 5

Again thank you everyone for your help. Please let me know if I could clarify anything.

Link to comment
https://linustechtips.com/topic/324554-need-help-and-advice-raid-5/
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

While your mobo does support raid 5, I would personally advise against using onboard raid for raid 5.  There are a lot of parity calculations that go into raid 5, and that will all be offloaded to your cpu.  Even the weakest of modern CPUs can handle the load with the greatest of ease, but it means that for each write, for each byte that you send to the drives, it has to talk to the cpu.  This adds some delay, which slows down your write times.  Not likely something you will notice regularly, but you may see it from time to time. 

 

Your idea to use an SSD as cache would solve much of this problem, but I just read the manual for your mobo and for the Intel IRST (the raid used by your mobo), and it does not look like they support caching. 

 

Realistically, I would recommend an add in card for raid 5/6, but if you won't be putting heavy write load on it, you likely won't notice much issue.  You will see huge performance issues if you start trying to decompress files, or make lots of little changes.

 

You may or may not be able to use some third party software solution to turn an SSD into a cache, but it may or may not solve the performance issues you would have when attempting to modify files on the raid 5.

 

Honestly, I would suggest just getting a cheap ($50-100) used enterprise level raid card from ebay.  You can get a card with 512mb internal cache, that will allow for a cachecade(ssd cache drive).  And it will handle your workload like a dream.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author

@ChineseChef first and foremost thank you for your advice. I appreciate it very much. May you recommend a card please? Thank you.

The only time I plan on writing to the card is when I transfer a movie file to it. I have another machine that I download movies on then transfer the movies over.

However, the movie files on the raid will be read a lot. Will that be affected at all?

From the manual did you see what specific sata ports I had to use? May you tell me the pages? Are the directions pretty clear for someone as new as me to set this up?

Thank you once again.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

The directions are pretty clear, and rather simple in the creation of the raid, and if you are not installing the OS on the raid, it is super easy to get windows to see it.  Just install the drivers after you set up the raid in the BIOS.  I didn't look to see which ports, but your manual should clearly state which ones you need to use.

 

Reading will not have any performance problems using onboard or add in card.  For an add in card, your main issue will be how many drives do you want to hook up now and in the future?

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author

@ChineseChef thanks again for your speedy response. I don't plan on running my OS on it. Just purely for storage. I am hoping this raid 5 lasts me for 10 more years. I think I will elect to go with onboard raid. I might as well do it now while I don't have much to lose and learn from this experience.

How about running multiple raids. The ones I mentioned above.

2x120gig ssd raid 0 for OS.

And the raid 5.

Possible?

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

I personally don't like RAID 0 for the OS drive, but that is a personal preference thing.  Just make sure you have a backup somewhere (generally a good idea anyways)

 

As far as using multiple raid levels, yes you can, assuming you have enough ports.  Just be sure to check the mobo manual, last time I used onboard raid, my mobo had 6 ports, 2 were "legacy" intel raid, and 4 were the new IRST.  So in my situation, I had a raid 1 on teh legacy, and a raid 10 on the IRST.  But that is simply an issue of figuring out which ports go to what, and making sure you plug them in right.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author

@ChineseChef i read up on the manual pretty thoroughly about the raid setup.  Although there are 6 sata ports, they never specify which ones are legacy and which ones are IRST.  Unless I have no idea what to look for, but I was reading in Chapter 3 which is the Sata configuration portion.  What's a better way of definitely finding out which is which?  Thanks again!

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Page 29 in your manual talks about your SATA3 ports, and it looks like all of them are on the same controller.  I simply used my old board as an example about how it might be.  But it looks like it is all just one thing for you.  You should be able to hook them up however you like, and just configure them accordingly for the raid 0 or 5 that you want.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Hey Chef. What if I decide to get 4 drives and run a raid 10. That would in theory double my write speed and quadruple my read speed?

 

The raid 0 part would in theory double your read and write speed, but more like 90% improvement when going from 1 drive to 2.  The raid 1 part doesn't help with writing, but can result in slightly faster seek times, but it won't actually read faster. 

 

Honestly, raid 10 is probably the best array type you can make, it usually just costs the most.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 4 weeks later...
Posted
  • Author

@ChineseChef

 

So i finally started putting everything together today.  I was able to set up the raid using legacy rom, but then windows wouldn't boot.  I don't want to install windows on my raid5. I just would like it to show up as one hard drive.  But every time i set up the raid5, my orignal windows installation won't boot.  So i have to go delete the raid and switch the sata mode back to ACHI.

 

The other thing i tried was after setting up the raid5, installing windows 7 on spare ssd.  I was able to boot into windows, but it didn't see my raid5.  

 

Please help.

 

PS. do i need to format the hard drives before i raid them?

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

@Jdillinger

 

To answer your PS first; No, you don't need to format them, when the raid array is created all data on the drives will be lost and you will be given a quick or slow format option (or should get something similar, it may ask if you want to initialize, that is basically formatting). 

 

As far as booting Windows.  Are you installing windows then making the array?  Installing windows on the array or the SSD?  You will have to have the AHCI/SATA/RAID mode set before installing windows, cause if you change it after it may not recognize the drive correctly when you switch modes.

I would recommend installing Windows on the SSD before the array is built so windows only sees the one drive.  Then build your array, ensure your MOBO is set to boot from the SSD first.  Then, you shouldn't need to but may have to install drivers before windows will recognize the array.

If you are wanting to install windows on the RAID 5, you will likely have to install drivers during the windows installation in order for it to see the array/controller.

 

Let me know if you got any more issues.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author

So my current system is set in ACHi mode with windows running on a 240gb ssd.

As soon as I switch over to raid mode and set up my raid, after a restart, windows will not boot. Just flashes BOD for a split second and restarts. Same thing happens over and over.

So what I tried to do was set up raid. Then install windows on a separate Ssd 120gb. Windows installed fine but it didn't see the raid. Really got me scratching my head.

I'll give it another shot after work today. I don't want the operating system to be running on the raid.

Any suggestions let me know. Thanks.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

It is likely that your 240gb SSD with windows is not loading after you switch because it is on the same controller as the raid.  So when you switch modes, it now reads the disk differently.  This is why installing on the spare drive works (since the spare drive is running in "raid" mode on the controller).  Basically, you can't install in one mode and then switch it, because it reads the disk and treats it completely differently. 

 

Pop your spare 120gb back in if you still have windows on it, and see if it is just a driver issue.  You may just need the controller drivers for your motherboard.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author

What worked?  Was it a driver issue or keeping the disk mode the same? 

 

Super awesome that you got it working.

 

Very sad now. It worked for a bit. Then it BSOD doing some physical memory dump...I tried re-installing windows 7 again. Got an error saying windows 7 cannot be installed on current system's configuration or something like that.  Tried reinstalling win 7 on multiple ssds. Not sure what to do now. Most likely gonna switch back to ACHI mode and try reinstalling windows without raid set up.

 

Need suggestions for raid cards I guess.  When I have a raid card, does it act as a separate entity or do i need to switch my mobo mode from ACHI to RAID?

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Very sad now. It worked for a bit. Then it BSOD doing some physical memory dump...I tried re-installing windows 7 again. Got an error saying windows 7 cannot be installed on current system's configuration or something like that.  Tried reinstalling win 7 on multiple ssds. Not sure what to do now. Most likely gonna switch back to ACHI mode and try reinstalling windows without raid set up.

 

Need suggestions for raid cards I guess.  When I have a raid card, does it act as a separate entity or do i need to switch my mobo mode from ACHI to RAID?

 

Do you happen to remember what it said more specifically? 

 

As far as raid cards, what is your price range?  $50-100 will get you some crazy enterprise level cards from ebay, but if you are just looking for something simple $40-70 should cover you.  A raid card will act as a separate entity, and will need you to install drivers to access all the features, but should show up in windows automatically.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author

I just want to be able to use the raid 5 as a storage device. What raid card you suggest.

After running windows update, it lost the bootmgr. Saying it could not be found. So I was stuck. Tried repairing with windows but didn't work. Idk....ugh.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Did you use the windows install disk to attempt repair?  Odd that didn't work.

 

As far as what card, I would say just look for something that has enough ports for what you want, some cache (anything more than 0 is enough), and is in your price range of desirability.  Buy new or from a well reviewed seller on Ebay, your choice there.  I prefer the ebay route for raid cards, but I use them as jbod cards and use software raid personally.  But that is just my own preference. 

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Here are some decent looking cards.  I advise you do some heavy research into options and features before committing to a purchase, don't simply take my word for it.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3WARE-AMCC-9500S-8-PCI-X-8-port-SATA-RAID-ARRAY-Controller-Card-Board-/400839043598?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d53de6a0e

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LSI-MEGARAID-8-PORT-SATA-II-RAID-Controller-Card-PCIx-MR-SATA-300-8x-Battery-/181694348070?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a4dd3bb26

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ADAPTEC-RAID-5405-4-PORT-RAID-CONTROLLER-RAID-LEVEL-0-1-10-5-50-60-/231395421468?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35e03ded1c

 

Don't be afraid of the sas or mini sas ports, they can be used as or converted to sata ports.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing Storage Devices

×