Hey guys, I've spent a few hours trying to see what my options are but it turns out there are so many. Adding to the confusion is that I am still relatively new to RAID (read about them but never implemented one myself) and *nix operating systems (again, tried knoppix for 5 min and booted back into Windows). Here, I will outline my current situation, some of my thoughts on the matter, and questions to see if I have anything wrong.
I have 800GB of data on my current personal Windows 2003 server and I just lost 300GB on a brand new 500GB drive that was less than a month old. Unfortunately, some personal data was not backed up and went with it causing me to rethink my setup. The rest, I hope, can be recovered from peer to peer networks since they are TV shows and open lectures. This data management problem has been with me for more than a year especially since I continue to need more space. At the moment, I have 5x200GB IDE Seagate drives and 1x500GB dead IDE Seagate drive that will be RMA'ed. I am willing to spend money on a RAID controller if needed and extra drives.
I am currently running Windows 2003 using NTFS. None of my drives are dynamic. The server is used for bittorrent, eMule, DNS, FTP, network HTPC file/print server, domain controller, and to push group policy settings (XP desktop lockdown) to 3 other computers. For my new server I would like to do all of this and a web proxy service as well. The only trouble with using a *nix OS would be the group policy part, as all of the clients run XP and I am reluctant to switch them to anything else. I do not have a problem learning*nix since I've been wanting try it for some time now. Learning is fun, yay!
I ran into interesting arguments for software RAID, until then I was dead set on getting a 3ware 7x00 8 port Escalade controller and running RAID5 over the 5x200GB drives. Apparently, when using hardware RAID the controller itself becomes a single point of failure and the array can't be readable by any other controller. Are software RAID solutions less robust/reliable as their hardware counterparts? Also, with Windows 2003 server, are dynamic drives and the RAID features associated with it reliable? I've also read horror stories of RAID arrays becoming corrupt, is this a common random unexplainable problem or can it be avoided?
I understand that RAID is for data redundancy and does not replace backups but with this much data, how can one back it all up? I do not think burning to DVDs or tape drives are feasible options. I think the best option I have is have to have periodic disk to disk imaging using 2x500GB drives that hold the system partition and personal files. Is there a way to keep a second hard drive idle with the motor deactivated until called on?
Well, what do you think? If I were to convert, there would be a few things I would be missing from Windows 2003. I use the server as a workstation as well since it's for personal use and I enjoy running normal desktop applications including the ability to remote desktop into XP clients and vice versa. Can a mixed environment work with file/print services working invisibly for the client users? Thanks for reading!
I have 800GB of data on my current personal Windows 2003 server and I just lost 300GB on a brand new 500GB drive that was less than a month old. Unfortunately, some personal data was not backed up and went with it causing me to rethink my setup. The rest, I hope, can be recovered from peer to peer networks since they are TV shows and open lectures. This data management problem has been with me for more than a year especially since I continue to need more space. At the moment, I have 5x200GB IDE Seagate drives and 1x500GB dead IDE Seagate drive that will be RMA'ed. I am willing to spend money on a RAID controller if needed and extra drives.
I am currently running Windows 2003 using NTFS. None of my drives are dynamic. The server is used for bittorrent, eMule, DNS, FTP, network HTPC file/print server, domain controller, and to push group policy settings (XP desktop lockdown) to 3 other computers. For my new server I would like to do all of this and a web proxy service as well. The only trouble with using a *nix OS would be the group policy part, as all of the clients run XP and I am reluctant to switch them to anything else. I do not have a problem learning*nix since I've been wanting try it for some time now. Learning is fun, yay!
I ran into interesting arguments for software RAID, until then I was dead set on getting a 3ware 7x00 8 port Escalade controller and running RAID5 over the 5x200GB drives. Apparently, when using hardware RAID the controller itself becomes a single point of failure and the array can't be readable by any other controller. Are software RAID solutions less robust/reliable as their hardware counterparts? Also, with Windows 2003 server, are dynamic drives and the RAID features associated with it reliable? I've also read horror stories of RAID arrays becoming corrupt, is this a common random unexplainable problem or can it be avoided?
I understand that RAID is for data redundancy and does not replace backups but with this much data, how can one back it all up? I do not think burning to DVDs or tape drives are feasible options. I think the best option I have is have to have periodic disk to disk imaging using 2x500GB drives that hold the system partition and personal files. Is there a way to keep a second hard drive idle with the motor deactivated until called on?
Well, what do you think? If I were to convert, there would be a few things I would be missing from Windows 2003. I use the server as a workstation as well since it's for personal use and I enjoy running normal desktop applications including the ability to remote desktop into XP clients and vice versa. Can a mixed environment work with file/print services working invisibly for the client users? Thanks for reading!
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