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Raid in Server 2003

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by smogmonster

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We have 2 new servers, one with 4 SCSI HD's and the other with 5 (not hot swap unfortunately, but then I didn't order them!!). What is the best way of setting up a raid system on each keeping in mind that we need to keep capacity at a max. Each will have run Server 2003 one being a Domain Controller and the other a file server.

4 replies

by 3xp3rt

My advice is raid 5 for both. With this you have relatively max capacity but even a good fault tolerance. My server documentation (Intel RAID controller SRCU42L) say about RAID 5 ?Striping with parity. Data and parity information are spread among each drive in the array. A good compromise of performance, fault tolerance and drive space utilization.

by bobsta

Definately RAID 5, I would suggest RAID 5 with a HOT spare on both Servers. If you run RAID 5 with not Hot spare and a drive fails, your DATA is intact once you get a replacement drive. So your System is down till you get that spare drive. With a Hot spare, your drive fails, the hot spare takes over and starts rebuilding immediately with no down time, you now have time to get another drive, place it back into RAID as Hot spare, waiting for the next failure!!!

by jerone318

Your system will not go down unles you loose two of three drives. If you loose one drive the systems will stay up, but run slow because it now has to build the missing info from the other two drives. If you have a hot spare it will start to rebuild, but if not it still will not go down.

by gigelul

Assuming that the servers are the same model or at least are using the same HDDs, I suggest:
- move one HDD from the server with 4 disks to the server with 5 disks
- the domain controller will use 2 disks in mirroring configuration (RAID1) for the OS.
- the file server will use 2 disks in mirroring configuration (RAID1) for the OS and 4 disks in a RAID5 configuration (for more storage space you can move one more disk from the domain controller to the file server and build a RAID5 with 5 disks).

"What is the best way of setting up a raid system on each keeping in mind that we need to keep capacity at a max."
In my opinion to protect the data is in first place and not to maximize the storage space.

You can read more about this on:
http://www.acnc.com/04_01_05.html

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