NAS drive configuration

Discussion in 'Mac Accessories' started by wesg, Apr 21, 2009.

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  1. wesg, Apr 21, 2009

    wesg macrumors regular

    wesg

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    Toronto, ON
    #1
    I'm building an NAS computer powered by Ubuntu, but I'm trying to determine the best drive setup for value and reliability.

    I have a 750GB drive, and intend on purchasing one more drive when I build the computer (probably 1.5TB) but I can't decide whether to use RAID 5 and maybe buy 2 750GB instead of a 1.5TB, or just buy the 1.5TB and use a script to copy important files. ANy suggestions? I want to limit spending, but still have substantial storage space.
     
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  2. Sesshi, Apr 22, 2009

    Sesshi macrumors G3

    Sesshi

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    #2
    FYI: You need a minimum of three drives to run RAID5 - and in any RAID configuration the drives need to be the same size. The 650Gb drives should be at the cheapest buck-per-gigabyte level right now.
     
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  3. nanofrog, Apr 22, 2009

    nanofrog macrumors G4

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    #3
    But better with 4, as in a 3 drive RAID 5, there's no redundancy. :eek: :( Loose a drive, and you skip degraded and go straight to dead array. ;) :p
     
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  4. Flash SWT, Apr 22, 2009

    Flash SWT macrumors 6502

    Flash SWT

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    Houston, TX
    #4
    I'm no expert but I don't think that is correct unless I'm misunderstanding your comment. The minimum number of disks for a redundant RAID5 array is three. If a single disk fails the array will continue to operate with only two disks and no data loss. You will take a read speed hit when the array needs to rebuild data from the failed disk using the parity information though.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID_5#RAID_5
    http://storageadvisors.adaptec.com/2007/07/10/effect-of-drive-count-on-raid-5/
     
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  5. nanofrog, Apr 22, 2009

    nanofrog macrumors G4

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    #5
    Oops, :eek: Right thought, but botched the numbers. :p
     
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