RAID 5? Is it possible?

Hi. I want to get a mac pro and put in 4 750GB Hard Drives and install MacOSX Server. Is it possible to do software raid 5. Also how easy is it to manage. EG if a drive fails, how would you rebuild a new inserted one.
Cheers,
Nathaniel

"can you set up accounts on certain hard drives. EG Accounts A,B and C are on hard drive 1 and Accounts D and E are on hard drive 2."
Yes. Easy enough to do.
As for hardware RAID inside the MacPro...
the drives seat -right- up to the logicboard/motherboard, so I don't see how you could do it.
There really isn't enough reach for the power cables to attach to the drives if you tried to flip them around, and such an attempt would be folly - and surely - would void the warranty.
I would go with Leif's suggestion as well. Put the OS on an internal drive, perhaps use a second internal kept in sync via regular cloning and/or other software options, and go with an eSATA card and external enclosure.
http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-2eEN4/
http://www.caldigit.com/S2VRHD.asp
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/fusiond400raid.html
I'd confirm MacPro hardware compatibility with the vendor
http://www.jetstor.com/0201_jetstor_sata516f.html
NB: Fibre-channel HBA required

Similar Messages

K9N Platinum & Adaptec RAID 3405 - is it possible?

Hello,
I'm still using my old MSI K9N Platinum MB and was thinking about adding a RAID adapter. I don't want to use the onboard RAID, since this needs too much CPU. I thought about installing an Adaptec RAID 3405 card. The card needs a PCI Express x4 slot. Since the K9N Platinum only has a "PCI Express Lite"-Slot aviable, I was wondering, if I can successfully run the card in this slot.
Thanks for your help.

I can't find the exact source where I read that some tima ago. It has something to do with the computation of the striping done by the CPU (and not the adapter itself). I have read something, that a RAID adapter w/o an on card CPU is about 20-25% slower than one with a dedicated CPU. The onboard RAID has about the same performance as a "cheap" RAID controller card (w/o CPU). I know that doesn't mean that an onboard RAID costs about 20-25% CPU load, but I think it will have an significant impact.
I'm sorry that I can't provide any more detail, but I had no luck in finding my source again.

S.M.A.R.T for SB600 raid on K9A Plat?

Is it possible to interrogate discs in a RAID set via S.M.A.R.T using the MSI K9A?
Prior to creating a RAID set, it was possible to determine the temperature of the individual discs, but it looks like this is not possible once they have been put in a RAID set. Is this how it is suppose to be? Or is there a piece of software (and it's not WebPAM) that will display this information?
TIA

Nope, your OS can not read S.M.A.R.T. data from RAID member drives. Has nothing to do with the SB600, same thing on Intel southbridges...
I guess it could be done, but it would have to be tool integrated in the BIOS for example.

Hardware Raid 1 with 890GXM-G54

I have just built a new system with Win 7 Pro and the 890GXM-G65. I have a SSD for the boot drive, I'm using ACHI for the SDD. Trying to get two identical HDDs setup in hardware RAID 1 for data storage. I have loaded the AMD RAID drivers from the MSI site. I setup the array from the BIOS by switching out the ACHI option to RAID. I switched back to ACHI so the system would boot off the SSD.
In Win7 Pro, I formatted the drives and indicated a mirror. Am I only getting a software non-bootable RAID solution? I would like to use a hardware RAID if at all possible.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
drob9876

Quote
I switched back to ACHI so the system would boot off the SSD.
When you switch back to AHCI, the controller is no longer in RAID Mode...
Quote
I would like to use a hardware RAID if at all possible.
Well, first of all, 99% of all chipset integrated RAID Suppport solution are soft-RAIDs and no true hardware RAID Solutions. In any case, your controller needs to remain in RAID mode to properly support the volume your created.

RAID 0 Questions - advice needed

I am stepping up to a new BTO Mac Pro (2.8Ghz with 8GB third-party RAM) and considering the Apple RAID Card vs. Software RAID. I have a few questions regarding RAID 0 on the startup volume and hardware vs. software RAID. I am a graphic designer and running Adobe CS3 and working often with pretty large files.
1. Does RAID 0 on a startup volume offer any performance boost if working data is on another volume? Does the working volume need to be in RAID 0 or RAID 5 to reap the performance beneftis. This is a point I am not entirely clear on yet.
2. I understand the risks of running RAID 0, especially on a startup volume. Any advice on whether or not this offers any real world performance boost?
- OR -
Would a single Raptor offer similar results. Or better yet, would a partial-stroked 500GB SATA II disk offer the same results as a single Raptor at a fraction of the cost, without the RAID 0 risks?
2. Is a hardware RAID card (i.e. the Apple RAID Card or better yet, the new CalDigit RAID Card for less $$$) a better option than software RAID (either Apple or SoftRAID)? With a RAID 0 startup volume and a RAID 1 pair for storage, will hardware RAID offer any performance gains? Or would a single startup volume with a 3-disk RAID 5 storage volume be a better option (I know RAID 5 is not possible with software RAID).
3. Any advice/feedback on the Apple RAID Card? I have read some horror stories about battery charging, at least initially. I have not seen much about the strange recharge cycle which apparently can cripple your machine for days every 3 months. The new CalDigit RAID card appears to be very promising. Supports the 4 internal drive bays as well as external drives, which the Apple card does not.
Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

I usually avoid linking to other forums, but in this case, there is a similar discussion over on MacNN forum setting up a Mac Pro to use RAID.
Apple RAID software has continued to improve. The difference in performance between Apple and SoftRAID has narrowed to the point both are excellent. SoftRAID though alerts you on any I/O time out or read/write errors, and use a stripped read which is nice, when or where it is needed.
I've never stopped upgrading and trying to improve on performance. The trick is not everyone can go out and spend $800 for a drive case and controller plus another $500 on disk drives for an external setup, and buy 3-6 drives for the existing SATA ports.
Rather than buying the fastest, I bought some 160GB RE WD drives, cheap, good for RAID, and planned to use those as the base. Then got the 320GB model. Then bought WD RE2 500GB $115 ea , which seems to be a nice price and still does nicely, optimized for writes. That means I can do some mix-and-matching.
Some can take their existing SATA drives to get started. And probably has some drives that can be used for backups and such.
Here is my own shopping list:
Sonnet Tempo E4P:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonnet%20Technology/TSATAIIE4P/
SeriTek Case: $525
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Firmtek/SATA5PM/
Or something cheaper,
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Norco%20Technologies/DS500N/
Dual bay case to use with 2 ODD ports and NewerTech kit:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MESATATBEK/
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/MPQXES2/
(takes some work to access those two ODD SATA ports, but worth it, always on)
OWC XLR8 Specials, usually have Friday specials:
http://eshop.macsales.com/Specials/XLR8YourMac.cfm
10K Raptor $210 vs WD RE2 750GB $220 if you look under hard drives.

MCS7835-H2 with two RAID

Hi All,
I have the following situation. The Quality Management is running on MCS7835-H2 with Two Disk of 72-GB SAS in RAID 1 , Is it possible to have a 6 disk 146 GB in RAID 5. You would like add the new six drives as a new RAID 5 logical partition, and would like have to partition these drives in NT assigning new unique drive letters to these new partition(s).
I would like this:
---OS---------------------------------------space extra-----------
RAID 1 (Two Disk 72GB) and RAID 5 (Six Disk 146 GB)
how is that possible?
Anyone can help me?

Actually, the default RAID level in the HP box is 1+0. If you put in 4 drives and make it into an array it will be what Cisco call RAID 10. If you put in two drives it will be RAID 1.
As Aaron says, you can put in more drives - there are 6 slots left.
Put in 6 similar drives and then open HP Array Configuration Utility.
It will see those physical devices and you can do what you like. You could make those 4 of those drives into a RAID 10, you could make all 6 of them into a RAID 5, or you could make all 6 into a huge space by choosing RAID 0 (no redundancy). Take your pick.
Once you have done that, right click on My Computer -> Manage -> Disk Management and make a new drive. Quick format or you will be there all day.
Regards,
Geoff

RAID configuration with 3 HDs

Hi everyone,
I have a Mac Mini with Mac OS X Server. I am figuring out if it is possible to setup RAID with 3 hard disks.
In the Mac Mini there are 2 HDs of 500GB each. I have an external HD of 1TB connected through USB. I was thinking to make one striped disk of the two internal ones and then setup a mirrored one with the one striped and the external one.
So that I have for Mac OS X one hard drive of 1 TB (RAID).
Is this possible? I know I could just try it out, but my server is operational and if it doesn't work I have to setup it all over again without RAID.
Thanks for the reply's.

Hi
Yes this is entirely possible. Whether it's advisable is another question? If this was the main production server with all services enabled and a company's business depending on it I would not do it. Only my opinion though and seeing as it's your server, you do what you want. If this is going to be a lightly used server why not and give it a go?
Most of us who deal with servers regularly would not (a) use externally attached drives as part of a RAID Set because of latency and possible accidental disconnects and (b) not use USB. If you have to use an externally attached drive firewire would be better (preferable FW800).
If your server is currently operational you could target disk mode it to another mac (over fw800) use Disk Utility to create a .dmg of it. Or if you like CarbonCopyCloner, SuperDuper! or anything else you may have in your 'kitbag'. Once you've done that you can then save this .dmg to another externally attached drive. Set up the MacMini Server's internal drives as a RAID 0. Attach the external 1TB drive and configure the RAID 1. Restore the saved .dmg back to the newly set up RAID. When done disconnect from Target Disk Mode and reboot the server.
Hopefully you should be up and running with everything as it was before but with the desired RAID configuration you want.
Server related questions are best posted in the Server specific forum here:
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=96
Tony

Disc icons on RAID disc

I just mounted two seagate 500Gb discs on my Mac Pro. I used the raid option to make them work as backup but so far I haven't started adding any data
I'd like however to change the icon of the disk from the default to something else. Although I've done this quite a few times with various other external drtives, I think that I can't change the icon of the raid group. Can I change the icon or am I stuck with the default?

Wait, case may not be closed...
You say you configured the RAID to work as a backup. There is no RAID configuration that can possibly be used as a backup. So I am hoping you are not relaying on a mirrored RAID set as a backup.
The reason a mirrored RAID is not a backup, is because no data is ever retained when a file is changed or deleted. That is, the process of making a change to a file, or deleting a file is replicated on all drives that make up the RAID set. If you accidently delete your checkbook data, it's gone, you can't get it back from your RAID set. If you need to look at files to see what you were doing two months ago, and you have made changes to those files since then, poof, it is gone, no way to return to that data.
Mirrored RAID is not a backup. It's main purpose is to provide redundancy of hardware to insure that if a drive should fail that you can continue to operate with all data intact, as you make any needed hardware repairs or replacements. Mirrored RAIDS are to hep insure the maximum amount of uptime on your data storage system.
So if your intent was to use a mirrored RAID array for backup, please reconsider. If you were instead using the mirrored array as it was intended, please forgive my slight rant about what mirrored RAIDs are for.
Thanks,
Tom N.

10.5.4 can not access ReadyNas RAID unit

In an Airport network, I have three macs. Today, they developed severe aversion to the ReadyNas unit, and writing to the unit is no longer possible. Read is still possible.
And to make it even stranger, a bit down in the file hierarchy on the RAID, then it is possible to write to the unit.
Any ideas?
Best regards,
peter

Recovery mode is only available in Lion (10.7) and later OSs. You can only upgrade to Snow Leopard by booting with an SL disc. You can get it from http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard
27" i7 iMac (Mid 2011) refurb, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), ML & SL, G4 450 MP w/Leopard, 9.2.2

Installing a RAID array with XP installed already????

I have a MSI-7125 NEO4 ultra platinum board
I have a SATA hard drive with XP already installed on it which was installed without RAID.
Iis it possible to use that drive as the bootable drive in a RAID
mirroring Array?????????
If it is possible how do you do it?
If i try and install the Array it wants to install XP into unpartitioned space. It cannot see the bootable partition.
thanks

Quote
Afraid not. All data is lost as the raid data is held in stripes across the rai discs
For striping, yes, that would be very true, but it sounds like he wants to set up a mirrored array.
In the case of a mirrored (RAID-1) array, it might be possible to set it up on the fly like this. What you'd have to try is going into the RAID controller software and telling it that it needs to rebuild (*not* create a new one) a RAID-1 array using the data on your current drive. There's no guarantee that it will work (probably depends on the controller, and if it adds any special headers/flags to RAID-1 arrays), and if it does it is likely that Windows will no longer boot properly until you do a rescue install or manually edit your boot.ini file. This is because creating the RAID-1 may change the hardware address of the drive, and when Windows goes to boot from the old hardware address, there's nothing there anymore until the old address is updated with the new one.
Anyways, if you want to do a RAID-0, there's no way while preserving your current data. Doing a RAID-1 might be possible, though still potentially problematic.

P67A-G45 Raid on 2 disks plus non-raid on 3rd disk?

I have 2 HDDs I want to run in raid 0 and a 3rd SSD I want to run in non-raid. Is this possible on this mobo? If it is, how do I set up the BIOS because it seems to only let you choose one or the other. My previous board, Asus M4a78-e would let you set ports 1-4 to raid and port 5 to IDE.
One other question. I have a IDE dvd writer, is the only way to use this by using an ide to sata adapter?

I don't trust those adapters like that. Better to simply buy a new DVD/CD combo drive for $20.
This is the one I bought at newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289

Xserve raid Card

We buy a Xserve 2.66 8CX/6x2G/1TB/1TB/1TB/ SSD/SD whithout Raid Card.
Is possible install now in the Xserve a Raid Card?

Alberto
This is the wrong place to ask.
Try here:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=832&start=0
Peter

Portege S100: How to change the RAID in the BIOS

Changing the BIOS setting for Portege S100 from JBOD to RAID0, I hit space on Exectute Creation and enter the string key in the manual and press "enter".
The settings then return to existing settings and not the new RAID0 setting I selected.
I have been at this most of the day / evening looking at various posts, but I can see nothing wrong with the details entered.
It is the same as recorded in this link:-
[How to Change the RAID configuration|http://aps2.toshiba-tro.de/kb0/TSB6901K60006R01.htm]
I am now at the end of my tether, I only wanted to install new WD HDD and do fresh install of XP Pro, is that too much to ask?

Maybe its a silly question but; did you install the second HDD in the Ultra Slim Bay?
The RAID feature is ONLY available when a second HDDD is installed in the Ultra Slim Bay.
If the second HDD has been inserted then you could change the RAID in Windows OS.
There should be a Toshiba RAID Console.
You can use this console to create or manage a RAID array.
To start the utility click Start, point to All Programs, point to Toshiba, point to RIAD and click RAID console.
Its possible to change RAID1 (mirroring) from a non-RAID configuration (default).
But note; when RAID1 is set, you cannot change your settings unless you completely restore your preinstalled software.

Problem with X58A-GD65 and RAID 0.

It was possible to create high-grade RAID 0 (it is possible to install OS), only at connection HDD in plugs of different conjugate boottrees SATA on a board - for example:
1-3, 2-4, 5-1, 6-4.
If to be connected to plugs 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 RAID the array forms, fitter OS it sees as RAID, but OS isn't installed already at a stage of a choice of section for instal ?

Actually the question in that is such strange connection HDD is: is conceived MSI, Intel or defect of a motherboard?

Can I create a raid 1+0 setup across daisychained thunderbolt harddrives?

I need more storage and need it to be quick and redundant
I'm concidering 2 of either the WD thunderbolt duo 6TB or the LaCie 2Big Thunderbolt 6TB.
I want to set each 2disk unit to RAID 1 and then srtipe them as RAID0 accross thunderbolt to hopefully result in one striped and mirrored 6TB RAID volume
Is this possible?
I'm hoping yes because i've seen 4 of the WB unit daisychained as one huge RAID0 but I'd like the redundancy.
also i want the resultant volume in exFAT as I am constantly jumping between OSX and Win 7

I don't believe so. Apple uses its own approach to the RAID setup and for presenting the volumes to the OS for use, and I dont think Windows has the infrastructure to handle Apple's software RAID. For RAID volumes the system loads the initial RAID handling software from a pre-boot partition similar to the Recovery HD partition for handling FileVault 2, and then mounts the disk and loads the OS from it. When in the OS the system contains the disk utility tools for detecting the attached RAID devices and assembling the RAID when it's present. Windows would need a similar setup to do this.

IMac Hard Drive Setup Recommendations/ Thunderbolt

Hi,
i am planning to get a new top spec 27" iMac with 256GB internal SSD and will use it mainly with Premiere CC and After Effects CC to edit Red Epic Footage. Mostly 3 to 10 minute web videos. I am now thinking about the best Hard Drive Setup and could use some help.
My actual plan would be:
OS/Programms: Internal 256GB SSD
Project Files:       external 2TB USB 3 Hard Drive
Source Footage: CalDigit T3 Raid 6TB (Raid 0)
Media Chache:    256GB SSD with the Thunderbolt Go Flex Station
Outputs:            external 2TB USB 3 Hard Drive
Should this work well?
- How well works daisy chaining with thunderbolt: Is it ok to daisy chain a monitor to an thunderbolt connected hard drive or will this slow things down? How about daisy chaining a second hard drive? Should both hard drives then have "read" or "write" tasks or could i daisy chain an drive for my Renderings (write) to one with my Source Footage (read)?
- If i use a 5-bay Thunderbolt Raid enclosure, is it possible to use 3 drives in a Raid 0 for my source footage and drives 4 & 5 in Raid 1 for my Outputs (Renderings) or Projects? Or would this be a bad idea?
- How important is the size/speed of my Media Chache/Previews drive? Would an 256 GB SSD in an thunderbolt enclosure be a good choice?
- What read speeds should my storage for the source footage have so it`s not the bottleneck? Is there a big benefit from a 3-drive Thunderbolt Raid 0 vs. a 3-drive USB3 Raid 0 (both Software Raids)?
- What write speeds should i have for my Output storage?
Thanks a lot for the help!

[Moved to Hardware forum.]

RAID 5? Is it possible?

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