Bootable RAID 1 mirror configuration

[pastylegs]

Having never set up a RAID config I was hoping I could get a little confirmation on setting up.

Firstly, all data will be backed up using a NAS (maybe a time capsule), so at the moment I am just looking to mirror the primary drive of a Power Mac G5 incase of hardware faults.

The G5 is acting as a server and I therefore want to arrive at a situation that if a drive fails, the machine will still boot perfectly from one of the redundant disks (and of course notify the user to the failure), i.e. a bootable RAID 1 configuration

As I understand it, I can only achieve this using a dedicated RAID controller (i.e. this can't be done via a software raid)? Is this the case?

 

[timb]

If you throw two identical disks in the machine and set it up for software RAID1, it will boot off the redundant disk incase of failure.

 

[Macinposh]

As I understand it, I can only achieve this using a dedicated RAID controller (i.e. this can't be done via a software raid)? Is this the case?

Unless I am missing something about G5, you can set up raid1 via sw raid just fine.

One thing to think about raid1 though is if you want to do it.
It is perfect if you want to keep your file server up and running 24/7 and need up-to-date info of your disks. It wont go tits up in the middle of the run if other hdd fails.
But with raid1 you have the possibility both disks getting corrupted and you not noticing it.
As the data is written simultaneously to both disks,if something goes awry,the same corrupted data will be on the both disks,with a chance of rendering the both unusable.
Miniscule chance,but worth thinking about.

Maybe a better option would just be having 2 disks,and CCCing it once or twice a day? That way you propably would have enough time to act if there would be something funny going on and you would have decent backups.
Maybe.

 

[pastylegs]

thanks for all that.

With regards the CCCing as opposed to RAID1, i'm actually setting this up for someone else who isn't particularly tech oriented so the likelihood of them catching it in time is small!

As well as RAID1'ing the server, I'm going to have incremental backups using timemachine/ccc to a NAS as well so hopefully that will cover the small chance of what you are saying happening. Furthermore, I'm going to backup the important files to an external service like backblaze etc.

The guy I'm setting it up for is more interested in being able to operate if a HDD fails