RAID questions

[chasem]

Can you append to a raid5 array, ie:

you got 3 disks and you wana add another of the same size

can you have 3 disks in a raid1 array for more redundancy

 

[bozo1]

<< you got 3 disks and you wana add another of the same size >>


Yes. Most Raid controllers (at least the high-end SCSI ones, don't know about the IDE stuff) allow you to expand the array.



<< can you have 3 disks in a raid1 array for more redundancy >>


No. However, some controllers (the high-end ones again), allow for a 'hot spare' that will kick into action if one of the drives fail. It sits idle until a drive fails but it reduces the slight chance that you have a second drive fail before you can replace the original one.