I am in the process of purchasing a raid drive. I like the idea of Raid 1 which mirrors a duplicate copy from Drive 1 to Drive 2. But my question is: if I buy an external storage unit which can hold 4 hard drives, then is it possible to set up Drives 1+2 as Raid 1 for Client John, and then set up Drives 3+4 as Raid 1 for Client Jane? If not, what would be the best solution to accommodate 2 different clients using mirroring? Thank you for any advice.
Please help! I need some understanding about this Raid issue
- Thread starter tlmint
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- May 29, 2013
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IF the computer that was connected to the external disk box shared drive 1 (first mirror) to John and drive 2 (second mirror) to Jane then that would be possible. What you are describing is network storage or NAS. John would be allowed to access the "John" volume and Jane would be allowed access to the "Jane" volume.
RAID is NOT a replacement for backups. In addition to RAID, in a commercial environment you have to have a backup strategy.
RAID is NOT a replacement for backups. In addition to RAID, in a commercial environment you have to have a backup strategy.
If John or Jane get hit with ransomware, it is possible that the entire RAID operations will be hit before the day is over. External media backups are a must. While it is possible to back up ransomwared files if no attention is being paid to data or to ransomware warning popups, such is not likely.
And, even though I have never used RAID, I wonder what would happen
-- to John's RAID "backup" set if John's primary hard-drive begins developing bad sectors, or some other physical or "logical" failure
-- to Jane's primary and RAID setup if one of the two RAID backup drives in her setup develops bad sectors, or some other physical or "logical" failure
-- and neither John or Jane have been making routine full image OS and Data partition backups onto other reliable (and offline when not in use) external media
And, even though I have never used RAID, I wonder what would happen
-- to John's RAID "backup" set if John's primary hard-drive begins developing bad sectors, or some other physical or "logical" failure
-- to Jane's primary and RAID setup if one of the two RAID backup drives in her setup develops bad sectors, or some other physical or "logical" failure
-- and neither John or Jane have been making routine full image OS and Data partition backups onto other reliable (and offline when not in use) external media
So how should I go about setting the 4 HD up? If I use Raid, which Raid do I use?
Again, trying to accomplish is to buy one 4 bay storage solution with 4 drives and use two of the drives for client one, mirroring together so that I have a backup copy in the unfortunate case that one drive would fail. And then use the other two hard drives for client to and also mirroring them together so that I also have a back up copy in the event that one of those drives might fail. Does this sound like the most logical approach or is there another or better solution that you might suggest? My endgame is that once the customers drive is filled, then I will remove it from the storage bay and keep it on the shelf then purchase a new hard drive for the bay and start over again, mirroring that drive to the one that is still in the bay. Of course I would first need to format the used hard drive in the bay before continuing.
- May 29, 2013
- 37,396
- 3,299
- 156,790
Assuming Jane and John have PCs of their own, then network storage is the implementation. A commercial NAS unit from Synology, Thecus, or QNAP can combine with with the existing Windows domain to pick up the logins. Add at least one USB3 drive for backup of the data.
Breaking mirrors and rebuilding them is a HORRIBLE idea. RAID is OK as a technology, but breaking mirrors and assuming you can use them as backups is horrible.
Breaking mirrors and rebuilding them is a HORRIBLE idea. RAID is OK as a technology, but breaking mirrors and assuming you can use them as backups is horrible.
Thank you for your quick reply. I only have one computer and it is a Mac. I am using this for both of these two clients primarily for video editing. This is the reason that I was thinking about taking this approach and wanting to have a back up copy while I was editing in case one of the dry happens to fail. This has already happened to me before so that is why I was thinking that maybe having a mirror image of the video editing that I was currently working on would be a good safeguard for me to have. This way I would not all of the recorded media as I have before while working on it. I read your comment that you just posted but I did not quite understand it.
- May 29, 2013
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You will be better off with backups. Why, because the only thing RAID protects against is drive failure. If someone DELETES an important file it is immediately deleted from both halves of the mirror.
A single host, with a 4 drive enclosure... I would NOT RAID. I would setup the logins to only mount specific volumes. Unmount on logoff. That way John's volume is not mounted when Jane is logged in. I would have the other two slots in the enclosure with much larger disks. If Jane and John have 2TB, then the other 2 drives are 8TB. You can then do several backups via a cron. Cron does a mount of John's volume and John's backup. Then does a backup. Unmount both. Then mount Jane's volume and backup. Then unmount all drives until somebody logs in.
A single host, with a 4 drive enclosure... I would NOT RAID. I would setup the logins to only mount specific volumes. Unmount on logoff. That way John's volume is not mounted when Jane is logged in. I would have the other two slots in the enclosure with much larger disks. If Jane and John have 2TB, then the other 2 drives are 8TB. You can then do several backups via a cron. Cron does a mount of John's volume and John's backup. Then does a backup. Unmount both. Then mount Jane's volume and backup. Then unmount all drives until somebody logs in.
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