best server RAID configuration

[lerroux]

hi all, i was thinking of installing another Vicibox in a server thats got like 16 180GB HDDs, and would like to setup RAID on it....

wats the best RAID config for vici? 1 big RAID 1+0?


any suggestions?

[williamconley]

depends on your RAID controller. if it will do RAID 5, go for it (RAID5 is nice if you have lots of drives)

under those circumstances (a good controller with lots of drives) your performance should be improved and your redundancy will mean your data is quite safe (as long as your OTHER components will support THIS RAID controller reliably and your RAID controller doesn't die).

In case you didn't catch that: remember that if your RAID controller dies, you'll have a problem because you'll need THAT controller to get to your data. is it an easily replaceable standard? do you have a spare?

also, be sure the RAID controller in question will mount to another motherboard nicely in case that dies (old ones with the wrong architecture can seem fun until you can no longer find a motherboard to support it quickly without waiting for Fedex). one day down is a lot of money.

since you didn't say these drives were "new", i'll assume that they are old and may die. so don't put all of them into use. keep several spares to swap in as the old ones die.

research HOW to replace a dead drive with this RAID system. not something you want to learn while the call center is "down". in other words: unplug one and see what happens BEFORE your system goes online. write down the procedure for repopulating the new raid member.

software RAID is not a good idea on a machine needing "performance". in that case it's just better to have lots of spare drives.

[lerroux]

well, i was planning on putting this system on a SuperMicro server, 4 dual xeon processors, 16 gb RAM, and 16X180 gb seagate HDDs.

this was my old mssql database server and it was configured with 3 raid 1s and 1 big raid 10.

im using an adaptec raid card, so shouldnt be a problem with replacement.

actually was thinking of just 1 big raid 10 config. but since you suggested the RAID 5 config, i'll go back to reading.

you think RAID 5 is the best config for a mysql db?