Dual hard drives

[vswebhosting]

How would you use dual hard drives of same size say 80GB on your server?
Would you consider configuring them as mirror (software RAID 1) or would you mount them as independent drive to utilize 160GB of disk space (80GBx2)

[nobaloney]

Unless I absolutely had to have 160 Gigs of space and couldn't afford two 160-Gig drives, I'd use them in a RAID array.

In fact, I do. Our dedicated servers come with two 80G drives in a RAID configuration.

Jeff

[kark]

I find it strange you even doubt about it. :D

[vswebhosting]

Thanks for everyone's input.

I posted the same questions in Webhostingtalk forum and most of the guys there suggested independent setup, not mirrored.

They said they'd mirror the drives if there were a hardware RAID controller; according to them software RAID isn't good and it also uses CPU resources too.

So what are your thoughts about their opinions?


Regards,
Tom

[thuskey]

It would really depend on what I was charging the customers each month. If it's the nickel and dime customers, I'd run it as 160 gig. If it was my big dollar customers, I'd run it as a raid. Preferring a hardware solution if it was a window server, and willing to accept a software version on a linux server.

[nobaloney]

Those guys in the Webhosting talk forum either are naieve or don't know what they're writing about.

Linux software RAID increases throughput. Sure there's a bit of processor time used, but because it can read one drive while writing to another and doesn't have to move the heads as much, in the end, it's actually faster.

And most low-cost hardware RAID solutions, including all the ones that come on motherboards aren't really hardware RAID at all, but software RAID masquerading as hardware RAID.

Here's how to tell.

True hardware RAID doesn't require any changes to the kernel. If your RAID card requires a driver or a kernel patch, it's really software RAID.

You can find a great tutorial on RAID here (http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/4349/2/).

Jeff

[Reyner]

I would recommend both RAID and backup.

Most importantly, use the second drive as backup drive. Backup drive is more important than RAID in general, because you can still retrieve data in case the main drive fails.

RAID's point of failure is when something gets corrupted. With daily backup, you may be able to solve this problem. However, with RAID you can eliminate the downtime which is required for mission critical environment. Many clients also prefer this.

Running hosting without RAID nor backup is the same as building a house on the sand. When flood comes, it will sweep everything.

IMHO, RAID and backup drive are more of an investment rather than expenses.

[Icheb]

I have a raid config, not a config to make one large disk, but a raid mirroring config.
And yes, it's software raid, as a hardware raid wouldn't fit anymore in the basic 1U rackmount i normally use.

But it's not only that, both drives retain backups, and half of those backups are downloaded to a offsite location. A few days ago, i bought a new server (ok, i will need to add some more hardware to it and rebuild it the way i need/want it) but this server is going to mirror another server for the db and the websites, so i think the way i'm doing it at the moment isn't that bad :D.

[nobaloney]

Originally posted by Reyner
I would recommend both RAID and backup.
Thanks for pointing this out, Reyner.

Yes, RAID is best at resolving drive issues and backup is for resolving corruption, accidental deletion, etc.

We use 2-drive RAID-1 (mirroring) on our shared-hosting and dedicated-hosting servers, and we backup all our servers to a separate server as well. We currently use the backup script recommended elsewhere in these forums, sysbk, with some custom changes, but we're looking forward to DA's whole-server solution as well.

Jeff

[Reyner]

Originally posted by jlasman
... but we're looking forward to DA's whole-server solution as well.

Jeff [/B] Ooo ... I am waiting for that glorious day as well :)

It would be most wonderful!

Reyner

[Reyner]

Originally posted by jlasman

We use 2-drive RAID-1 (mirroring) on our shared-hosting and dedicated-hosting servers, and we backup all our servers to a separate server as well.

Jeff That's awesome! And I am sure that your clients do appreciate what you do! I hope that all hosting companies would do the same to protect their clients. I believe that we owe this to our customers who entrust us with their data (assuming that the price is right) :)

Reyner

[nobaloney]

As I've said on other posts, we don't intend to be the cheapest guys on the block.

Nor the most expensive.

Just the most cost effective for what we offer :) .

Jeff