Hardware or Software RAID 5?

[MrPete1985]

OK so Newegg had a sale on WD Reds so I bought 6 3TB drive that I want to setup in RAID 5 using FreeNAS.

 

Now my main consurn is what happens if I setup a software RAID 5 then my motherboard dies and I need to reinstall FreeNAS and move the drives to a new board.  Will my array still work or will I loose all my data in the array?

 

I was also looking at some RAID cards, I saw a HighPoint card for about $160 on Newegg then the breakout cables would be another $50, but atleast the array will be controlled by the RAID card and I should not have any issues moving it to another system.

 

This is the RAID card I am looking at

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115100

[MathijsZ77]

OK so Newegg had a sale on WD Reds so I bought 6 3TB drive that I want to setup in RAID 5 using FreeNAS.

 

Now my main consurn is what happens if I setup a software RAID 5 then my motherboard dies and I need to reinstall FreeNAS and move the drives to a new board.  Will my array still work or will I loose all my data in the array?

 

I was also looking at some RAID cards, I saw a HighPoint card for about $160 on Newegg then the breakout cables would be another $50, but atleast the array will be controlled by the RAID card and I should not have any issues moving it to another system.

 

This is the RAID card I am looking at

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115100

 

Overall the array dies when your motherboard dies. I'm not 100% sure how this works with FreeNAS. Personally I bought a LSI 9240-8i from Ebay, that's what I would recommend for this kinda setup. Giving the fact that you'd have about 15 TB of storage that could become unusable when the mobo dies. The extra 100 - 150 dollars isn't that much compared to the drives. 

 

My guess would be go for a RAID controller from Ebay, nothing wrong with mine! Also LSI is a very respected player.

Oh by the way, instead of FreeNAS I'd say go for Windows Home Server 2011 or even Server 2012 essentials if you'd like to play around with an Active Directory Domain Service functioning computer (server). This isn't hard at all and makes you feel like you're a genius, at least for me.. Windows Home Server 2011 does not has that particulair functionality but it does give you an awesome web interface that everyone that can use Facebook, this forum and Windows understands! 

[MrPete1985]

Thanks for the info, I will most likely get a RAID card after I get paid again.

 

I got to play around with AD some in school, because this in a home use scenario I do not want to setup AD because everyone just uses their own PC, I just want a central and simple file server.

[wpirobotbuilder]

I was also looking at some RAID cards, I saw a HighPoint card for about $160 on Newegg then the breakout cables would be another $50, but atleast the array will be controlled by the RAID card and I should not have any issues moving it to another system.

Do not use a RAID card to control your storage array with FreeNAS. FreeNAS is based around software RAID, and a very advanced one at that, and the RAID controller can get in the way of this software RAID working.

 

If you buy your RAID card, be sure it's only because you need lots of ports for drives, or need the performance of a very good SATA/SAS controller. Set up your RAID card as a host bus adapter (basically so the system will see individual drives). Don't do any RAID levels at all on the card, do it all on the software side.

 

In FreeNAS, the best course is to spread your drives out among multiple SATA/SAS controllers to eliminate single points of failure. I would recommend getting a motherboard with two SATA controllers and spreading out drives between them. If you need more drives, buy a host bus adapter or your RAID card (setup as a HBA).

 

If your motherboard dies, then you might have to just restore everything from a backup. Which you should have anyways.