Software

Ask something
Discussion Locked

Raid and Power Managment in Server 2003

0 helpful
1 reply

by sjc2309

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

Hello

I have a raid-5 array in Windows Server 2003 which, is working fine.

Having been thinking about the power consumption and HDD life, I was wondering about using the Windows Power Management to power down the HDD's after 30 min as they're not used 24/7.

Would this cause any issues with the raid-5 array at all?

Thank you.

seb

1 reply

by hal 9000

You only need to ask the same question once and not in different sections of the Q & A forum.

Technically the answer is no but there is a caveat applied here. The Windows 2003 Power Saving Mode is very good at shutting down things but not so good at starting them up again so you could very well have a situation where it will work sometimes and not at other times and you'll need to reboot the unit to get the drives running again.

If you want to increase the life if the drives make sure that they remain cool and are not allowed to get really hot so you'll need to organize a decent amount of air flow over them to keep them cool and while it will not save any electricity and will even cost you slightly more to actually run, the drives will last much longer and you'll not be in a position of having down time caused because the HDD's will not restart costing far more money that what is saved.

Col

This discussion is closed to new replies.