software raid decent for storage?

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ncc74656

ncc74656

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i have never used a software raid but am thinking of it for my rebuild coming up. i will have 4 120GB ssd's in raid 0 and then 12 2TB drives in raid 5 if possible. question is how does software compare to hardware, if i re-install my os or move drives from one comp to another is the raid saved to the disks so i can simply remake the array like on hardware? if a drive fails can windows 8 hot swap? how is the performance vs a non raid system?

second, is there a way to build the array and let windows rebuild my current drives or do i absolutely need to get enough storage to copy all my data off and then back on the drives?

 
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Saberus

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Hardware RAID, true hardware RAID will always be better than software RAID.

Software RAID will rely solely on your processor for the raid control, and with the performance hit that you get in RAID 5 generating the parity, that can become notable. Software RAID also can't handle proper hot swapping usually.

Spend the extra for a true hardware RAID card with it's own RISC processor and BBWC/FBWC, and you will have much less of a performance loss and true hot-swapping power. I believe LSI makes a 16 port card that can stand up to your needs.

For your final question, the answer is maybe. It's a best practice in a server environment to back up your data before a migration just in case things go wrong.

Also, with as fast as SSDs are, 4 in RAID 0 is possibly faster than your memory and processor can keep up with, consider upping the size of the SSDs and making a RAID 10 for speed and redundancy.
 
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choucove

choucove

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I also would not recommend that you put a massive RAID 5 array together using twelve 2 TB hard drives. The chance that you will have an unexpected read error or another drive failure occur during a rebuild process is greatly increased, causing a total loss of data. RAID 5 is almost never recommended anymore except in rare situations with low-capacity drives. Anything over 2 TB in size begins having unreasonably high risk of data loss. If you are looking at doing a hardware RAID controller, I'd suggest looking at RAID 6 minimum.
 
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FireWire2

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I have my 12TB (5x 3TB Seagate) RAID5 runs about 4yrs already! It's how you maintain it...
BTW RAID5 is not set and forget, If you have that mentality then soon or later you will face big headache.



 
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