Migrating from software Raid 5 to hardware Raid 5

Highfly117 · Feb 18, 2016

Currently I have a NAS server that has 5 4TB Drives in Raid 5 running on windows server 2012 r2.

However I’m finding that transfer speeds are terrible (even on the NAS itself no network involved) now my googling has lead me to believe that software raid is not very good when you have a good number of drives.

So with this in mind I’m looking to change to a raid card. Now my problem is how I go about this. I have 9 TB of data on my NAS which I don’t won’t to lose. If I buy a raid card is it as simple as plugin the card in connecting the drives and carry on from where I was? or do I need to find a way of backing up 9 TB of data first.

if anyone can help or give me some advice I would greatly appreciate it. Also if anyone has some advice on a good Raid controller that would be great to.

thehutti · Feb 18, 2016

Here is someone with a similar Solution: http://tim.mackey.ie/2007/07/14/MigratingFromWindowsSoftwareRAIDToHardwareRAID.aspx
Maybe some of the information there is useful.

PS: If you want to buy a raid card then make sure that your mainboard doesn't already support the feature you want. Most mainboards support some kind of raid on the internal SATA ports. Could save money.

Phil-uk · Feb 18, 2016

Before you break any RAID set I strongly urge you to backup your data (if it's important to you). You'll regret it if you don't. And as thehutti has stated most MOBOs support RAID now so it's unlikely you will need a RAID card.

Highfly117 · Feb 18, 2016

thehutti :

my motherboard does support RAID I'm currently using RAID 5 with 5 4TB drives. The motherboard is a ASUS z87i Pro with an Intel z87 chipset raid. The Problem is that the write speeds are super slow down in the 10-25MB/s range which as far as my googling tells is due to the software raid controller and that it's in raid 5. I was under the impression that a raid card would solve this issue.

Phil-uk · Feb 18, 2016

I think we got the impression that you setup RAID under Windows Server 2012 R2 O/S, is that not the case? Are you saying you have it set up in the RAID utility within your motherboard's BIOS ?

Highfly117 · Feb 18, 2016

Phil-uk :

sorry if I didn't explain myself very well yes I set it up under the motherboard bios but I use Intel RST within windows server to see the health of the drives.

Paperdoc · Feb 18, 2016

First of all, I fully agree with Phil-uk about NEEDING to make a full backup of the RAID5 array. There is no "standard" way to run a RAID system, so normally simply plugging in drives from one system to another controller gets you NOTHING working, and could even damage your data. So be SURE you have a backup before starting.

Next, if you're already using a mobo-based RAID5 system and want to get faster performance, you need to be careful about choosing a RAID card. Mobo-based systems are software RAID. That is, the mobo's BIOS contains the code to manage the RAID system, and that code is executed by the main system CPU using mobo resources like RAM and its HDD controllers. What you have to watch out for is cheap RAID cards that do almost the same thing. The low-priced RAID cards also contain just software code in a chip that must be executed by the main system CPU, although the card will contain its own HDD controller chips and some buffer RAM. Such a design often performrs not a lot faster than a mobo-based system.

For a big improvement, you will need a better type of RAID card that truly does hardware RAID. Such a card contains its own processor chip to do all the RAID processing work, its own chunk of RAM to use, its RAID management software in a chip and of course its own HDD controllers. All these extra components are why a good hardware RAID card is more expensive. The card components do virtually all of the RAID work themselves, consuming very little mobo resources. That in itself makes overall system performance faster because the mobo spends almost no time doing RAID. But some RAID cards with their dedicated designs may actually be faster than a general mobo system at the RAID work. So, evaluate any RAID cards carefully.

Highfly117 · Feb 18, 2016

Paperdoc :

First of all, I fully agree with Phil-uk about NEEDING to make a full backup of the RAID5 array. There is no "standard" way to run a RAID system, so normally simply plugging in drives from one system to another controller gets you NOTHING working, and could even damage your data. So be SURE you have a backup before starting.

Next, if you're already using a mobo-based RAID5 system and want to get faster performance, you need to be careful about choosing a RAID card. Mobo-based systems are software RAID. That is, the mobo's BIOS contains the code to manage the RAID system, and that code is executed by the main system CPU using mobo resources like RAM and its HDD controllers. What you have to watch out for is cheap RAID cards that do almost the same thing. The low-priced RAID cards also contain just software code in a chip that must be executed by the main system CPU, although the card will contain its own HDD controller chips and some buffer RAM. Such a design often performrs not a lot faster than a mobo-based system.

For a big improvement, you will need a better type of RAID card that truly does hardware RAID. Such a card contains its own processor chip to do all the RAID processing work, its own chunk of RAM to use, its RAID management software in a chip and of course its own HDD controllers. All these extra components are why a good hardware RAID card is more expensive. The card components do virtually all of the RAID work themselves, consuming very little mobo resources. That in itself makes overall system performance faster because the mobo spends almost no time doing RAID. But some RAID cards with their dedicated designs may actually be faster than a general mobo system at the RAID work. So, evaluate any RAID cards carefully.

Thanks for all the useful info. So what I gather from what you have told me I will need to get a 15 TB drive (of some kind) to back up my data. Then get a good raid card. Do you have any advice on which raid cards are good cards?

Paperdoc · Feb 19, 2016

The size of the backup device depends not on the capacity of your RAID5 system, but on the actual volume of data already on it that needs to be backed up. I'm afraid I can't give you good advice on a RAID card, but I'm sure others can.

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