Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2005 10:12:02 -0500 From: Joe Auty <joe@netmusician.org> To: Chuck Swiger <cswiger@mac.com> Cc: FreeBSD Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: your advice on vinum, RAIDs Message-ID: <A899314F-91B5-4280-931A-C905B6337A6C@netmusician.org> In-Reply-To: <43B3F341.5030906@mac.com> References: <B302EFD3-19ED-43B5-B4AD-07BDCF9273A9@netmusician.org> <43B3F341.5030906@mac.com>
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Some great advice here! What RAID level would you recommend for simply maximizing the hard disk space I have available? This is just my personal backup machine and will consist of two drives, so I don't need kick ass performance, and I don't need my files mirrored. I take it that striping is what I need to look at? RAID-0? Can I setup striping without reformatting, or only mirroring? Sorry, still learning the basics here.... On Dec 29, 2005, at 9:31 AM, Chuck Swiger wrote: > Joe Auty wrote: >> I've been considering buying another hard drive for my FreeBSD >> machine, and building a RAID with my current hard drive so that >> both drives are treated as one. > > This is known as RAID-1 mirroring. > >> Do any of you have experience in this area? Is this advisable? > > Yes and yes. :-) > >> I'm assuming I'd be looking at creating a RAID-5? > > Not with only two drives. > RAID-5 needs at least 3, and is wasteful unless you have 4-5. > >> Can this be done without reformatting my current drive? > > You can set up mirroring without reformatting, but be sure you have > good backups of your data regardless. > >> Does this setup work well? Do you have any general advice for me? >> I need to >> know if there is risk involved here. > > When choosing RAID levels, you are making a tradeoff between > performance, reliability, and cost: > > If you prefer... ...consider using: > ----------------------------------------------- > performance, reliability: RAID-1 mirroring > performance, cost: RAID-0 striping > reliability, performance: RAID-1 mirroring (+ hot spare, if > possible) > reliability, cost: RAID-5 (+ hot spare) > cost, reliability: RAID-5 > cost, performance: RAID-0 striping > > If you've got enough drives, using RAID-10 or RAID-50 will also > improve performance compared to stock RAID-1 or RAID-5 modes. > > -- > -Chuck > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions- > unsubscribe@freebsd.org"
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