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RAID backup question

A

ashman70

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 20, 2010
982
13
This is not Mac related per se, however I do want to ask those of you with storage experience what your opinion is.

I want to build a tower with RAID storage as a backup to my current data which is stored on several NAS's also running RAID.

My plan is to utilize an Antec 1200 tower, throw in a MB with CPU and RAM, power supply, 8xWD 2TB drives and a Dell Perc 5i controller all running on Free NAS.

What do you guys think? I can't seem to get a definitive answer as to whether the Perc 5i is natively supported under Free NAS.

I understand that RAID is not backup, however having my data, which is currently not backed up, duplicated on a system with drive redundancy is good enough for me, for now.

Thanks
AM
 
It would need to be supported (drivers available) for FreeBSD. Unfortunately, when I took a look at the hardware compatability, the PERC 5i is not listed.

So the simple answer is No. :( You'd need a different RAID card (for hardware RAID support). However, you could also use software implementations (just stay away from parity based levels that are not on a true hardware RAID card, as software implementations cannot handle the write hole issue associated with parity based arrays).

A good alternative that does not suffer from the write hole issue (nor do you need a hardware RAID card, just enough SATA ports for the # of disks), is Z-RAID 1 or Z-RAID 2 (equivalent to RAID 5 & 6 respectively), and this is supported by FreeNAS (it's part of the ZFS file system).
 
Thanks Nanofrog I had also found that the Perc 5i is not listed yet I have found threads from people who have made it work with that card, so I'll have to do some more research.

Cmd-the-World, in my opinion, there are many alternative to USB storage out there better the Drobo's ,many people who own them complain how slow they are for data transfer and their proprietary RAID implementation doesn't help either.

Thanks.
 
ashman70 said:
Thanks Nanofrog I had also found that the Perc 5i is not listed yet I have found threads from people who have made it work with that card, so I'll have to do some more research.

Cmd-the-World, in my opinion, there are many alternative to USB storage out there better the Drobo's ,many people who own them complain how slow they are for data transfer and their proprietary RAID implementation doesn't help either.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
When I took a look at the Hardware Compatability Lists for FreeBSD, I didn't see the PERC 5i on the latest version (or from 7.2 on, as 7.2 is needed as the bare minimum for FreeNAS IIRC).

Why not give it a shot, and see what happens (be a guinea pig, as you've already got the PERC 5i). :eek: :D :p Worth the time IMO. ;)
 
You may not able to use PCIE controller, due to drivers issue...

But how about using SATA driver-less hardware raid controller. Like I did here

40TB Media Server runs under FreeNAS

The beautiful thing, it consumes only 180W of power :)

The MB that I use has 6 SATA ports, and dual Gb E.

This means I can have up to 30x HDD, or 60TB RAW volume, and implement LACP (802.3ad), ff I want to increase transfer rate

Current configure, It transfers about 85MB/sec - a single Gb E is used
 
ashman70 said:
...
I want to build a tower with RAID storage as a backup to my current data which is stored on several NAS's also running RAID...
Click to expand...

You will be surprise about RSYN feature of FreeNAS... It makes back-up so easy

If you don't DIY, then get eBOX-N from DATOptic

It has option of:
OpenSource: FreeNAS, Open-Filer
Commercial: Open-E.
 
You realize that much of the data on the web is backed up to spinning disks (usually in some type of RAID array) and not to tape right?

Now, while the data backed up by the OP is not data at rest per se, it is still considered a backup copy as it is not production data.

jav6454 said:
I'll say this once. RAID array are not reliable as back-up. Maybe as a processing and data crunching array.

Even RAID 5 or RAID 10/01 are not 100% safe for back-ups.
Click to expand...
 
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