[K12OSN] backend raid 1, raid 5 or none of the above?

[Jim Kronebusch]

On Mon, 6 Aug 2007 13:41:43 -0700, john wrote
> Hi all,
> 
> I am waffling on a question that I hope you all will be able to help
> me come to a resolution about. Should my backend file storage system
> be software raid 1 or software raid 5 or non of these? OS is Linux of
> course. My LTSP server resides on a different machine entirely.

For ultimate speed with ultimate reliability I opt for RAID 1+0 or RAID 0+1.  RAID 1+0
is a stripe of multiple mirrors, RAID 0+1 is a mirror of multiple stripes.  RAID 1+0 can
be referred to as RAID 10 and RAID 0+1 can be referred to RAID 01.  RAID 5+0 or RAID 50
is a striped set of RAID 5 arrays if you so desire.

However RAID 01 and 10 will cost you half of your total space, but if speed and
reliability are a must my opinion is these are your best choice.  And you still have the
ability to loose multiple drives and keep running while you wait for a replacement.

For my system for next year I configured RAID 1+0 which is comprised of a stripe of 3
mirrors using a total of six 300GB 15,000RPM 3Gps SAS drives.  I hope this will be
overkill.  The system is built to handle 110 concurrent users, we'll see.

HTH
Jim

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