RAIDS and Time Machine?

I want to get a Mac Pro with 4 500 GB HDs. I want to stripe two of the HDs together, and then stripe the other 2 together giving me two RAID 0's of 1 Terabyte each.
Then can I use Time Machine when it is released to backup the primary RAID to the secondary RAID.
Would this be a good solution?

Assuming your RAID setup is as follows:
Drive 1 and Drive 2 are Striped into a RAID 0 (Logical Disk 1)
Drive 3 and Drive 4 are Striped into a RAID 0 (Logical Disk 2)
Logical Disk 1 and Logical Disk 2 are Mirrored into a RAID 1
You can remove Logical Disk 2 from your Mirrored RAID array with no noticeable difference in your system. You could then use Drive 3 and Drive 4 separately or Re-Stripe them into a RAID 0 Logical Disk 2 which could then be used as the backup disk for Time Machine.
If your Logical Disk 1 RAID fails and it is mirrored with Logical Disk 2 all your data will be safe though running/existing exclusively on Logical Disk 2 until you replace the faulty drive in Logical Disk 1.
If your Logical Disk 1 RAID fails and it is not mirrored with Logical Disk 2 then you will lose all the data on Logical Disk 1 even though only one of the two drives failed.
If your Logical Disk 1 RAID fails and you have been using Logical Disk 2 as your Time Machine drive you will (in most circumstances) be able to replace the failed drive, recreate a Striped RAID 0 Logical Disk 1 from Drive 1 and Drive 2 and then use Time Machine to restore your files and applications. As I do not have the Leopard Preview I cannot tell you how this will work in practice but it is part of Time Machine's prerogative to aid in situations like this.
There is a caveat to keep in mind concerning Time Machine that may or may not affect you depending on how you use your computer. John Siracussa at ArsTechnica explains it very well so I'll just copy and paste from his recent article on Time Machine:
"There's still plenty of room for legitimate Time Machine criticism, however. While the hard link trees are a clever solution, given the constraints of HFS+, the strategy dictates a file-level granularity for all backups. In other words, if you change a single byte of a 500MB file, the entire 500MB file will be copied to the backup volume during the next Time Machine backup. Frequent modifications to large files will fill your backup volume very quickly."
"Worse, there does not appear to be a way to prioritize backup retention. When space runs out on the backup volume, presumably Time Machine will recycle old space. But if it does so based on date rather than (user-specified) "importance", a relatively unimportant change to a large file could necessitate the loss of hundreds of small files from the backup volume. Where once a small text file may have had an entire year's worth of revisions on the backup volume, now only the past month's revisions may exist due to the need to reclaim space for a few recently modified large files."
So just keep in mind that if you want Time Machine to keep a backup of your entire system throughout it's use you will in all likelihood need considerably more storage space than the amount available on the drive(s) Time Machine is monitoring.
-Berylium
Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Similar Messages

  • About software RAID and Time Machine..

    Hi, i've been reading a lot on the forums lately cause my MacPro is in the mail and i haven't found exact answers to my questions. Here you go:
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    + Can i use my Time Machine drive as a Scratch disk? withour partition? or is it "restricted" to Time Machine? ( for Photoshop.. )
    + My ideal/futur setup would have a 64GB SSD as the Boot drive, my RAID as Data, and my Time Machine Disk. Will Time Machine be able to backup from the all the disks at the same time?
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    RAID is fine, just always have backups you can boot from.
    I would invest in some drives.
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    Also dedicated boot drives for some.
    Cheap and fast:
    http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western%20Digital/WD6400AAKS/
    fast but not cheap:
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    And a pair of 10K VelociRaptors makes more sense if you think you need 200MB/sec boot or scratch. See: http://barefeats.com/hard103.html
    And plan to upgrade to 8 x 1GB or something.
    http://www.barefeats.com/harper3.html
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    If you don't backup you will at some point wish you had, not if, but when, and I would caution - never have only one backup set or method.

  • Here's a very basic question about 2 TB external drives and Time Machine.

    Here's a very basic question about 2 TB external drives and Time Machine.
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  • Backing up photos on iMac using external hard drive and time machine

    How do i back up photos from my imac using an external hard drive and time machine
    Thanks in advance

    Apple explains how to use Time Machine in http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427.
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  • I'm having a hard time setting up my external hard from with my AirPort Extreme and Time Machine Backups.

    I have been using a Mac Mini with an external hard and Time Machine.  I bought an Airport Extreme and have had problem setting up the hard drive using the USB port on the Airport Extreme.  I also just recently bought a Mac Book Air and hope to have both computers back up to the external hard drive using Time Machine and Airport Extreme.  I have been using the optical drive from the Mac mini to load programs into the Mac Book Air.  I think I'm just getting confused in Finder.  I am just not seeing the hard drive.  I ended up plugging the hard drive back into the Mac Mini and that is work fine again.  How do I setting the external hard drive up to the AirPort Extreme and use for both computers?  Or at least to start with the Mac mini.

    It's critical to understand that Time Machine (TM) stores backups differently between local and network drives. That would mean the TM backup on your locally attached USB hard drive will not be directly useable when it is connected to the AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBS). There is a way to copy a local version to a network version, but it is not fool-proof. When you do connect this drive and point TM to it, TM will start a brand new backup, leaving your existing backup as is.
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  • Cannot Find Photos on External Hard Drive Using iPhoto and Time Machine

    Hi everyone,
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    The iPhoto Library is a Time Machine backup, and so cannot be used as the main library.  Relaunch iPhoto with <option> key held down to choose another   library.
    You can have an iPhoto library on an external drive and use it from different machines
    and you can have a Time Machine backup
    The two can not be on the same volume - and iPhoto can not access the TM backup - it must be restored to use it
    LN

  • Time Capsule and time machine with third party router

    Hi,
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    In this case the apple support people reveal a truly poor understanding.
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    If you already tried this and it didn't work.. try again.. it is the correct approach.
    You have no choice. But this time let me suggest you do it using the 5.6 airport utility.. as the apple toyland v6 airport utility is likely half your trouble.
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    How to load 5.6 into ML.
    1. Download 5.6 for Lion.
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    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4668746?tstart=0
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  • Can Superduper and Time machine write to the same external volume.

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    Can Superduper and Time machine write to the same external volume.
    Yes, they can write to the same partition.
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  • Using LaCie 1Tb Network drive and Time MAchine

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  • "No configured AirPort base stations have been found."  I can see the content of the TimeCapsule's drive in finder and Time Machine but it no longer is making backups. Ideas?

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    Please follow these instructions:
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