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Questions about using a RAID setup


jasonmcroy

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jasonmcroy

Hello everyone. I have been looking into possibly setting up a RAID setup on my server. I have searched on Google quite a bit and I feel somewhat confused about it. 

 

The only reason I want to set it up in the first place is I have now amassed quite a lot of ripped movies on Bluray and TV Shows that I have recorded and want to keep copies of and I am worried about potential loss if a drive goes bad. I did have this happen last year and fortunately the drive didn't go fully bad and I was able to get 90% of the ripped movies off and onto another drive.

 

So, some of my questions for you guys that have this setup:

 

1. Are there any drawbacks performance wise to this type of setup? (or are there any performance advantages?)

 

2. Is there any preferred software to use or setup guide someone could point me in the direction of?

 

3. Is this an effective way to not lose data if a drive goes bad?

 

I appreciate any guidance from experienced users in this area.

 

Thanks,

 

Jason

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jasonmcroy

I should also give a little more data: My Emby server is on a Windows 10 computer with the OS on a SSD and I have 3 hard drives with my movies/tv shows. One of the drives is 1 TB and the other 2 are 2 TB each. I will be adding another 4 TB hard drive soon.

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Deathsquirrel

Keep in mind that not all raid modes include redundancy. and that any drive that is powered on in the same machine as your dead drive is never an ideal backup.

 

If your real goal is peace of mind, backup to offline drives.  Takes a hell of a lightning strike to threaten drives that aren't plugged in.

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jasonmcroy

Takes a hell of a lightning strike to threaten drives that aren't plugged in.

 

lol

 

That may be a good way to go. While it would take some time to back up everything, from what I have been reading I should do that anyway before setting up my existing drives as a RAID setup.

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JeremyFr79

So the first rule of a true RAID (i.e. not software raid etc) is all drives must be  matching at the very least in capacity, though it is highly recommended to have same brand/model/firmware as well.  So with your current "assortment" of drives RAID of any useful type would be out of the question except for throwing the (2) 2TB drives into a basic mirrored set.  As for using RAID for any type of data protection as has been pointed out already RAID should NEVER be relied upon as your sole protection for important data.  If you have data you care about you should always maintain copies offsite as well.  I have 4 copies of my important data at all times and all maintained in real time.  2 here at my home (mirrored on 2 separate arrays in 2 separate servers) and 2 on 2 different offsite backup systems.  The size of drives today mean that most current RAID standards will fail and lose all data completely the minute you lose your first drive.

 

Also keep in mind that you'll want to use drives specifically intended for RAID use as they'll have certain features etc that will increase performance and also avoid certain issues you can and will run into using standard "consumer/desktop" drives.

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jasonmcroy

So the first rule of a true RAID (i.e. not software raid etc) is all drives must be  matching at the very least in capacity, though it is highly recommended to have same brand/model/firmware as well.  So with your current "assortment" of drives RAID of any useful type would be out of the question except for throwing the (2) 2TB drives into a basic mirrored set.  As for using RAID for any type of data protection as has been pointed out already RAID should NEVER be relied upon as your sole protection for important data.  If you have data you care about you should always maintain copies offsite as well.  I have 4 copies of my important data at all times and all maintained in real time.  2 here at my home (mirrored on 2 separate arrays in 2 separate servers) and 2 on 2 different offsite backup systems.  The size of drives today mean that most current RAID standards will fail and lose all data completely the minute you lose your first drive.

 

Also keep in mind that you'll want to use drives specifically intended for RAID use as they'll have certain features etc that will increase performance and also avoid certain issues you can and will run into using standard "consumer/desktop" drives.

 

Thanks. Yes, these are the types of responses I am looking for, to determine if I am set up with existing equipment to even do this easily or should I abandon this idea and set up some back ups. I have about 10 "older" hard drives I can use for an initial backup and purchase a few more TB drives in a few weeks for a better back up solution. 

 

Is it easy to set up a network back up system? I have an extra computer that I am not really using and could throw a few drives in there for backup and only turn it on when backing up is needed. Maybe set up some backup software on the server PC to back up to the other PC on my home network? 

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JeremyFr79

Thanks. Yes, these are the types of responses I am looking for, to determine if I am set up with existing equipment to even do this easily or should I abandon this idea and set up some back ups. I have about 10 "older" hard drives I can use for an initial backup and purchase a few more TB drives in a few weeks for a better back up solution. 

 

Is it easy to set up a network back up system? I have an extra computer that I am not really using and could throw a few drives in there for backup and only turn it on when backing up is needed. Maybe set up some backup software on the server PC to back up to the other PC on my home network? 

I have been using Code 42 CrashPlan for several years.  Depending on how much data you're trying to backup and the speed of your connection it can take a while to do your initial backup (days-maybe weeks) but after the initial backup is done you're only updating changes to your data.  You can also use their software to backup to other computers on your network etc.  I pay I believe like $6 a month, and I get unlimited storage with them.  You data is encrypted with them, and you can also setup your own encryption key thus ensuring your absolute privacy as well.  The other nice thing is you can access your data via any device including your phone which is great!  

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dark_slayer

A software raid like flexraid RAID-F or tRAID can run atop windows and give you parity protection against a drive failure. I have ran with tRAID for quite sometime, but unraid has become another great solution that runs its own entirely different OS (you'd need to start nearly from scratch and copy your existing data over).

 

Flexraid's big selling point is that you can use drives with existing data, so essentially you could start where you are now. You just need one additional empty drive (which has to be the largest or as large as the largest drive in your array) which will serve as parity. If you lose a drive the data can be recovered from the parity into a new drive. If you lose the parity drive it can be recreated onto a new parity drive.

 

I only keep one parity drive, though some like flexraid's multi parity option where you can protect against multiple simultaneous drive failures

 

This is not backup, but it's some degree of protection. I've recovered a full 4TB drive before just to test it. I don't do full backups. I have 40 TB of server data, that would cost a lot more then I've already invested to properly backup. I take the gamble with this level of protection

 

It can take a while to setup. Read through the flexraid wiki if you are interested. There's also snapraid which is free, but has a few less features. I wouldn't really recommend RAID-F over tRAID personally, but I use tRAID with an SSD landing disk to boost write performance

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ErelyesNZ

 There's also snapraid which is free, but has a few less features.

 

I second the idea of software-based RAID. Hardware based is a nightmare - if your motherboard dies you can end up with real problems even if the drives are fine.

Since we're dealing with existing drives that limits choices, but both Snapraid / Flex raid can use existing drives.

 

I've not used it myself, but after a recent failure of a drive, I am seriously looking at Snapraid myself. It offers a couple of features Flexraid doesn't, plus, free/opensource. http://www.snapraid.it/compare

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JeremyFr79

I second the idea of software-based RAID. Hardware based is a nightmare - if your motherboard dies you can end up with real problems even if the drives are fine.

Since we're dealing with existing drives that limits choices, but both Snapraid / Flex raid can use existing drives.

 

I've not used it myself, but after a recent failure of a drive, I am seriously looking at Snapraid myself. It offers a couple of features Flexraid doesn't, plus, free/opensource. http://www.snapraid.it/compare

Motherboard based RAID is in 99% of cases software based.  Actual hardware RAID requires a real hardware controller from LSI/Adaptec etc which will typically run you $500 plus (new)  And with a REAL hardware controller the loss of a controller is simple to get through you just have to replace with the identical controller and your right back up and running.  

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dark_slayer

I'd also recommend a used IBM m1015 or Dell PERC310 when you eventually run out of spots on your motherboard

 

Both are pcie x4 and can be flashed to LSI megaRAID firmware (IT mode) giving you eight extra HDD connections on the cheap. Even more with an expander. Both snapraid and flexraid options leave your data unstriped on your individual disks. If you pulled them out later all the data would be accessible on each disk in another box

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JeremyFr79

The other thing you can play around with is DriveSpaces if you're running Windows 8+ or Server 2012+ it has some nice features, I tried it and there was no comparison to true hardware RAID performance as is the case with most software RAIDs, but it's definitely something to play around with.

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  • 2 weeks later...
dark_slayer

Windows storage spaces still has pesky problems that have never been worked out or seen as problems http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/10/storage-spaces-explained-a-great-feature-when-it-works/

 

Storage spaces is also supposed to leverage checksums in their new ReiserFS file system, but in reality there is no report or known way to verify checksums or file integrity while using ReiserFS with storage spaces

 

unRAID with an SSD cache or tRAID with an SSD landing disk will give you great write performance, and reads are not an issue with regular HDD throughput currently nor for foreseeable future

 

Just one last anecdotal piece of info, once a write is complete and parity is calculated all your disks spin down (if you choose) in unRAID, tRAID, and snapraid. When your server serves a file later, since no data is striped, only the disk with that file spins up to play it. Or you can choose to leave everything spinning all the time as well. Lots of flexibility

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Blueeyiz702

Can any of you guys tell me if Truecrypt is once again safe to use? I've real a couple article about a security audit they did and there is a site dedicated to the audit thats says its safe located here. 

 

https://www.grc.com/misc/truecrypt/truecrypt.htm Any impute would be greatly appreciated,thanks.

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Jack Burton

jasonmcroy, just curious what you ended up deciding on? I've been looking at RAID info and I gotta say, I'm fairly confused. I'm in a similar spot, with 3 hard drives (1 1TB and 2 4TB, with thoughts of adding another 4TB to replace the 1TB and spread things out a bit). My drives are all external though, not sure if yours are as well, as it seems internal might be the way to go. Any info you've come across would be greatly appreciated

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JeremyFr79

jasonmcroy, just curious what you ended up deciding on? I've been looking at RAID info and I gotta say, I'm fairly confused. I'm in a similar spot, with 3 hard drives (1 1TB and 2 4TB, with thoughts of adding another 4TB to replace the 1TB and spread things out a bit). My drives are all external though, not sure if yours are as well, as it seems internal might be the way to go. Any info you've come across would be greatly appreciated

The only way to RAID external is to do a software RAID, There is literally not one good reason of even attempting to RAID external drives.

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Jack Burton

The only way to RAID external is to do a software RAID, There is literally not one good reason of even attempting to RAID external drives.

That's what I figured, and dreaded  :( . Maybe I'll look into doing the new 4TB as an internal, and build from there. It's all just so damned expensive. Gotta build a new PC and it's looking to be over $1500 with new drives now. Ugh. Thanx for the heads up though, I'll get there eventually.

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jasonmcroy

jasonmcroy, just curious what you ended up deciding on? I've been looking at RAID info and I gotta say, I'm fairly confused. I'm in a similar spot, with 3 hard drives (1 1TB and 2 4TB, with thoughts of adding another 4TB to replace the 1TB and spread things out a bit). My drives are all external though, not sure if yours are as well, as it seems internal might be the way to go. Any info you've come across would be greatly appreciated

 

I decided not to do anything with Raid. I bought a 5 TB external backup drive and I am using that to just backup my data.

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  • 3 weeks later...
colejack

A backup is probably better than RAID for you at this moment anyway. When you're ready to expand your storage look into building a separate NAS system. Plenty of info on that out there, plus you can ping me if you have any questions or need help getting started.

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