does anybody use "windows disk management" to run raid arrays?

[arod]

Ive recently discovered this application built into windows server 2003 and have been playing with it some on my test server. But I site I help run is moving to a new server and the hardware raid is far too expensive and we were originally going to go with a single 250gb drive but I was thinking about getting a second drive in there and mirroring them to give a bit more redundancy to the setup but I havent been using the system very long to know how reliable it will be in a raid setup and have been unable to find any reviews.

So does anybody else use it (and have been for a while that could give some opinions on its performance and stability)

 

[NTB]

I've got a computer set up here at home running a RAID-5 array using windows XP Pro. Works great, as long as the computer is shut down properly. If it crashes or is shut down by holding in the power button, the array has to be completely rebuilt, and that takes a couple hours. That said, I haven't encountered an error with it yet.

Nate

 

[arod]

crashing might be a problem but the server will be hosted elsewhere (200 miles away) so us hitting the power button will be 0. also server 2003 in my experince thus far has been VERY stable so hopefully crashing wont be a problem either.

 

[NTB]

Originally posted by: arod
crashing might be a problem but the server will be hosted elsewhere (200 miles away) so us hitting the power button will be 0. also server 2003 in my experince thus far has been VERY stable so hopefully crashing wont be a problem either.

Sounds good. Just remember that software RAID takes quite a bit of CPU power - although for simple miroring it might not be as bad as the array I have set up, where parity has to be calculated.

Nate

 

[Nothinman]

Software RAID5 takes CPU power for the xor calculations, software RAID1 takes virtually no CPU power since it's just a mirror. And if you plan on doing this you had better make sure that you and the people hosting the box know the procedures required to replace a drive and rebuild the array, you don't want to be fumbling around poking and hoping once a disk dies.

 

[arod]

yeah i was looking for a good resource to read for that (since this will be somewhat new to us i have a test server im playing around with so if i screw things up).

But you are talking about making sure they remove the right drive or is there something else the hosting company will be "responsible" for? The company we have chosen (softlayer) is a non managed hosting company so we will be managing the software side of things.

If you have ever seen any procedures typed out anywhere describing exactly what you need to do i would love to read it.

 

[DaiShan]

Not to go too far off topic, but PATA and SATA raid cards that support raid 1 are very cheap, and almost no hassle. A hardware solution would greatly reduce your down time, and since you are talking about such a small scale deployment, you don't really need to waste your money on 3ware or Adaptec's top of the line controller...

 

[arod]

its a hosted server and they want an extra 60 bucks a month for hardware raid.... the windows one will be free.

Really the reason im doing it is they use hitachi drives which arent the best hard drive brand in the world so i want to get some raid going to provide some failover.

 

[Czar]

if they want hardware raid for 60 bucks a month I would buy a 3ware controler

but I have heard good things about windows raid, supposed to work well, make sure you run it on an ups

 

[arod]

yeah i plan to and they and the only option is the 3ware controller.... probably why its 60 a month.

 

[nweaver]

the cheap sata/pata raid controllers are craptastic "winraid", a cousin to the winmodem.

 

[arod]

thanks for all the tips thus far but i have one question i cant find a way to do.... but right now if i simulate one of the discs failing (by physically unplugging it) it does register in the disk management program (and says its not working properly) but you have to manually open the program to see. Is there some sort of program or modification i can make that will give me a popup msg in windows or go somewhere that i can see its failed w/o having to launch the program each time? Because Im probably not oging to lauch the disk management suite each time I reboot the server or logon to it remotely. And it would be nice as soon as i login to the computer to get a popup that one of the discs has failed.