setting up a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks

[daniel49]

I have an abit kv8 max3 mb.
only the 2 pata contollers are being used at this point. the primary disk has winxp home on it and the slave drive has a linux install.

I am thinking about setting up a raid array 0+1 or 1+0
Not knowing much about it , I have been reading and hope I understand it well enough to ask a couple of intelligent questions.

The board has 2 built in sata controllers.
there is a SerialATA/RAID controller Sil3114 made by Silicon Image with support for four SerialATA channels.
Therefore, we can plug in 4 hard disks and merge them into RAID array(s) of levels 0,1 and 0+1. If the functionalities of the south bridge VT8237 are enabled, (the second controller) then you can plug in two SerialATA and four ParallelATA disks. In the end, 10 hard disks altogether can be plugged in to the board: six over the SerialATA interface and four over the ParallelATA, and merge them into two RAID arrays.

So question 1: the sata ports are numbered 1-6 with 1-2 on the south bridge and 3-6 seperate on the SI controller.
If I purchased 4 identical drives to set up in a 1+0 array what would be the best way to do it? using ports 1-4 or 3-6? or does it matter?

Question 2: as I understand it to set up a 1+0 or a 0+1. I am basically stripping or mirroring depending on which direction I go.(as I have read you can go either direction.)
So that array A...consisting of drive 1 and 2 are striped(Raid0)
array B...consisting of drives 3 and 4 are striped(Raid0)
We then have to mirror array A and array B(Raid1)
finally giving us in this case raid 0+1.
Is that easier then it sounds...lol as I haven't obviously tried to use the raid utility yet.

question 3:If each drive is Seagate 250 GB how much of the drive should I dedicate to the striping?

question 4: if I can get the arrays set up and ready to go with all the formatting and partitioning. What I would like to do is clone my OS drive over to the array(probably using a live cd) and once successful wipe the old pata drives
Should this be a problem?

question5: once done would it be best to merge the pata disks into the arrays also, as was suggested above? They are both seagate 80 gb. Or keep them seperate to allow me to use a different file structure on them for linux.

thx in advance and also maybe suggest any pitfalls I should be wary of.

 

[pugh]

If you decided you really want to go the RAID route. Save yourself some trouble and go with a hardware controller instead of the "fake" RAID(software) based. You will be much happier in the end. And by all means please please please .. back up your data on those arrays.

check out the Areca /adaptec/LSI etc over at the egg too.

 

[daniel49]

Originally posted by: pugh
If you decided you really want to go the RAID route. Save yourself some trouble and go with a hardware controller instead of the "fake" RAID(software) based. You will be much happier in the end.
The board has 2 built in sata controllers.




And by all means please please please .. back up your data on those arrays.

The purpose fo having an array are 1) faster performance(raid0) and redundancy(raid1)
I am proposing a raid 0+1. Are you saying the mirroring of the array is somehow insufficient backup once set up??

 

[nickbits]

Originally posted by: daniel49

Originally posted by: pugh
If you decided you really want to go the RAID route. Save yourself some trouble and go with a hardware controller instead of the "fake" RAID(software) based. You will be much happier in the end.
The board has 2 built in sata controllers.




And by all means please please please .. back up your data on those arrays.

The purpose fo having an array are 1) faster performance(raid0) and redundancy(raid1)
I am proposing a raid 0+1. Are you saying the mirroring of the array is somehow insufficient backup once set up??

RAID is not a backup solution. What if you PSU blows up and takes both drives with it?

 

[daniel49]

Originally posted by: nickbits

Originally posted by: daniel49

Originally posted by: pugh
If you decided you really want to go the RAID route. Save yourself some trouble and go with a hardware controller instead of the "fake" RAID(software) based. You will be much happier in the end.
The board has 2 built in sata controllers.




And by all means please please please .. back up your data on those arrays.

The purpose fo having an array are 1) faster performance(raid0) and redundancy(raid1)
I am proposing a raid 0+1. Are you saying the mirroring of the array is somehow insufficient backup once set up??

RAID is not a backup solution. What if you PSU blows up and takes both drives with it?

well I suppose thats possible. although I have not seen that in 15 years.
Most of what I have would simply be a matter of reinstalling/reconfiguring.
stuff like quicken files, digital photos,etc I have always backed up over my network on a different machine. Although I suppose both psu's could blow up and take out every drive I own. also unlikely. a more realistic scenario might be a house fire where all drives are destroyed, which certainly could be an argument for off site backup? But I will leave that debate for another thread as setting up the array is really the thread topic this time.

 

[tomt4535]

RAID is not a backup solution. It is a solution to increase speed and/or redundancy. All disks in the array should be identical. A RAID 0+1 has a minimum of 4 drives in the array. All 4 drives are put into one array and the striping and mirroring are done by the controller. You wont create 2 and then set them to 0+1.

 

[daniel49]

Originally posted by: tomt4535
RAID is not a backup solution.

that has been discussed at length.

It is a solution to increase speed and/or redundancy. All disks in the array should be identical.

true so I guess that answers my question about adding the pata drives in.

A RAID 0+1 has a minimum of 4 drives in the array.

as I stated was using 4 identical 250gb

All 4 drives are put into one array and the striping and mirroring are done by the controller. You wont create 2 and then set them to 0+1.

well it does after you tell it what to do in the setup,
As I understand it you will instruct the setup utility to create 2 arrays striped with min of 2 drives each.
And then will have to instruct it to mirror the 2 arrays for redundancy,

An example using 10 drives in a 0+1

I may be wrong as I haven't done it yet, but it sounds like some configuring to me not just an automatic process.