- Feb 20, 2002
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I recently have outgrown my storage solution (2 x 2TB samsung HD204UI drives) and in a moment of "crap I need more space" picked up 4x 4TB segate NAS drives when they were recently on sale for $150 each (ST4000VN000 drives). I then proceeded to connect them to my P67 motherboard and use the on-board raid to setup a single large raid 5 volume spanning the entirety of the disks. After I finished, I decided that it might be better if I went with a hardware raid solution, so I started browsing e-bay, doing some research, etc... and picked up an LSI 9650se-8LPML with battery backup and cables for what I thought was a reasonable price ($80). Given that this is a very mature (old) card that had fairly solid reviews, I figured that it would serve me well for running the raid array (once setup - as I still am running off of the mobo). That being said, I also just picked up another 2 drives for the same price, and plan to setup a Raid 6 array on the LSI card with 6x 4TB drives. Eventually, I'll probably migrate the raid card and drives to a mITX system to be used as a home server.
My question is this - I'd like to know about any pitfalls that I might experience before I experience them (isn't that always the goal). I know it's a general question, but I'm new to raid (other than on board raid 0 and 1 that I've been using for quite some time). Are there any specific things that I need to worry about - especially for this older controller? I have updated it to the latest firmware and I have it installed with the latest drivers and software.
Additional information:
- The primary function of the raid volume will be to serve as a means of media distribution to the computers in my home. I've ripped and encoded most of my fairly extensive DVD collection to my existing discs but want to add my HD media from ripped BDs (hence the expansion).
- I'm not expecting this to be a foolproof backup solution of any kind. Given that I'll have a lot more space, I'll probably use it to image my OS drive as a means of a backup.
- I don't plan to backup the media files, just add some resilience over using JOBD. I could easily (at great cost of time) re-rip and re-encode the files from my personal collection physical media. I'd rather pay a bit more for the resilience.
- Files that I truly need to be backed up (tax documents, personal documents, pictures, family video, etc...) are backed up to thumb drives / portable hard drives and I keep a copy offsite (I really don't have a lot of that stuff anyway).
- I'm not terribly concerned with overall speed of the array. The current on board software raid 5 is fast enough for me as-is.
- The system housing the raid array is currently (and will be in the future) connected to a UPS system that triggers shutdown if the system is without power for 5 minutes (it provides 20+ minutes of power if necessary).
Sorry for all the noobish questions questions. I admittedly didn't do enough research into this topic before I purchased the controller. I could always re-sell it and go with another newer controller if it is really warranted.
My question is this - I'd like to know about any pitfalls that I might experience before I experience them (isn't that always the goal). I know it's a general question, but I'm new to raid (other than on board raid 0 and 1 that I've been using for quite some time). Are there any specific things that I need to worry about - especially for this older controller? I have updated it to the latest firmware and I have it installed with the latest drivers and software.
Additional information:
- The primary function of the raid volume will be to serve as a means of media distribution to the computers in my home. I've ripped and encoded most of my fairly extensive DVD collection to my existing discs but want to add my HD media from ripped BDs (hence the expansion).
- I'm not expecting this to be a foolproof backup solution of any kind. Given that I'll have a lot more space, I'll probably use it to image my OS drive as a means of a backup.
- I don't plan to backup the media files, just add some resilience over using JOBD. I could easily (at great cost of time) re-rip and re-encode the files from my personal collection physical media. I'd rather pay a bit more for the resilience.
- Files that I truly need to be backed up (tax documents, personal documents, pictures, family video, etc...) are backed up to thumb drives / portable hard drives and I keep a copy offsite (I really don't have a lot of that stuff anyway).
- I'm not terribly concerned with overall speed of the array. The current on board software raid 5 is fast enough for me as-is.
- The system housing the raid array is currently (and will be in the future) connected to a UPS system that triggers shutdown if the system is without power for 5 minutes (it provides 20+ minutes of power if necessary).
Sorry for all the noobish questions questions. I admittedly didn't do enough research into this topic before I purchased the controller. I could always re-sell it and go with another newer controller if it is really warranted.