RAID1 across a network??

[JBT]

Currently I've got a RAID1 array with two Green 1.5TB Seagate disks. It works fine but I was thinking it might be beneficial to just put one disk in mine and the other in my wife's system.

Is there any software out there to actually RAID these things across a network or should I just look at some sort of back up software to do it?

I don't need instantaneous sync though it would be nice. We very rarely access the array at the same time.

Right now she just has it as a mapped drive. Both systems are Windows 7 Ultimate.

 

[Hermetic]

Hello!

I don't know of any way to create a distributed RAID array, but a number of good file/folder synchronization products are available for free on the Internet.

Two of the most popular that I can think of off the top of my head are Microsoft's SyncToy and 2BrightSparks' SyncBack.
Either one should be able to do what you're asking, with a little configuration.

Currently I've got a RAID1 array with two Green 1.5TB Seagate disks. It works fine but I was thinking it might be beneficial to just put one disk in mine and the other in my wife's system.

Is there any software out there to actually RAID these things across a network or should I just look at some sort of back up software to do it?

I don't need instantaneous sync though it would be nice. We very rarely access the array at the same time.

Right now she just has it as a mapped drive. Both systems are Windows 7 Ultimate.

 

[corkyg]

I think your best bet is a RAID1 NAS between the two computers. I have a RAID1 array on this computer and it can be accessed by three other computers on my LAN. The drives really need to be under one controller.

 

[hhhd1]

This will do just what you want:

www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=15155

 

[Coup27]

I would recommend PureSync over SyncToy or any other. At least PureSync scans both folders for file changes when not all sync programs do.

 

[Nothinman]

Sure you could do it with iSCSI, NBD, AoE or any other protocol that allows block level access via the network. But I wouldn't recommend it because I'm sure it would have an affect on speed as the RAID1 driver would struggle to keep the network device updated with all of the changes being made locally. And only 1 host can access those at a time unless you use a clustered filesystem.

You're much better off with a real sync or backup program that runs every few hours or nightly. Hell a scheduled batch file running robocopy along with VSS/Previous Versions would probably be better than network RAID1.

 

[mv2devnull]

Let me see ... you want one logical storage volume, which contents are stored/duplicated to two physical volumes over the network?

Sure: iRODS or maybe CLVM.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

If you just want to back up the two computers to each other, just use rsync and file sharing.

 

[imagoon]

something like rsync /synctoy / scheduled robocopy synced can sync drives across machines. It just won't support the OS partition. However if both machines had the green drives as "d:" drives you could set up a sync. Make sure to only place data on the drive though as installed apps may not be that happy with this design.