RAID configuration, better to logically split RAID5 or RAID1 with SQL?

I want to setup a new SQL server with SQL 2008 R2. I have to use this version due to the application support behind it. I have a question regarding best practice with disk setup on a physical server.
Here is my proposed setup, but the application owner had some questions.
RAID1 - 2 x 146GB drives - OS drive
RAID1 - 2 x 146GB drives - tempdb
RAID1 - 2 x 146GB drives - translog
RAID5 - 3 x 900GB drives - database location
The owner was wondering if I could logically split up the RAID5 into 2 logical partitions with their own drive letters on the OS. They want a separate volume for SQL flat file backups. Of course this is possible, but I was wondering what option
they would be better off with. Here are my two ideas, which one would be better?
Option 1: Split RAID5 physical into 2 logical, have 1 logical be used for the database, and 1 used for the backup.
Option 2: Split one of the RAID1 pairs into two logical volumes, and have the tempdb on one of these logicals, and the translog on the other. This would then free up one pair of RAID1 drives to be used for the flat file backup.
Which of these two options would be a better configuration? Assuming that the application owner does not wish to purchase 2 more drives.

Selecting appropriate RAID disk type must not go by standard rule like below ones:
User DB Data Disk: Raid 5
User DB Log Disk: Raid 10
Sys DB Disk: Raid 5
Sys TempDB Data Disk: Raid 10
Sys TempDB Log Disk: Raid 10
Local Backup: Raid 5 is also ok if you can't afford Raid 10.
Best way will be to monitor the environment for disks performance and check is its capacity to support your application. In one of our case, we had to go for Raid 10 for even database data disk too as Disks Usage was like that.
Usually keep data and backup on separate disks will be much better as risk is there if disk goes down then your data and backup both gone, So no for option 1. Again same answer for Option 2.
Go for separate disks and if you have to have these files on same disk to start with then you can start but you can decide latter on by seeing usage pattern and same approach goes for any data\log disk, but for backup please be double sure of.
Santosh Singh

Similar Messages

Alternate tools for MegaCli for RAID configuration and creating logical drives

Hello Everyone,
Are you aware of tools which could be an alternative for MegaCli.
Used for creating logical drives and configuring RAIDs.
Thanks in advance,
Anirudh

For some machines, you can use sas2ircu or raidctl command, or the commands directly in OBP level.

What is the best RAID configuration for a MacPro as a Logic User?

There ought to be a universal answer to this question: what is the best RAID configuration for Logic Mac Pro users? I will be more specific.
I use Logic Studio, Reason, Ableton, and Motu Symphonic Instrument simultaneously.
I want to fail safe my precious audio files and improve performance as the system reads/writes data from multiple files, from audio tracks to digital samples.
I want to run video files simultaneously to do nifty audio soundtracking to video.
Here is the configuration I have in mind.
HD 1: OS and Logic Studio, Reason/Ableton samples etc. software (non-raid) (250 GB)
HD 2/3: MIrrored RAID set for AUDIO FILES (500 Gb identical pair)
HD 4: Video files / Bouncing (1 TB)
Makes sense right? A disk for reading software. A pair of 500 GB disks for reading/writing audio files and sessions in mirrored array. A 1 TB disk for video and bouncing. The main question I have is, for audio files only, is striped or mirrored better? 64K blocks the best? And are there any more details. I assume to do this in Disk Utility.

Well, both Mirrored and Striped have their pros and cons. If you use mirrored, it will offer no better performance than the spec'ed drive along with it's sata bus speed. The plus point is, if one drive goes down, you have the second as a backup as the complete contents of one drive are mirrored on the other.
With striped you will get a performance boost because all files (for example a single project) will get written across both drives and hence split the load on the drives and the SATA busses. The drawback is that you'll have to make sure you have a good, regular backup schedule in place because when one of the drives goes to drive heaven, you're going to be stuffed without a full backup of both drives.
Exactly what performance boost you'd get will depend on your project, number of files, size of files, fragmentation of files, track count etc. You may find it would be easier to use the 3 drives straight, with no raid and have:
HD 1: OS and Apps. No samples at all.
HD2: Audio Files for Logic projects
HD3: Reason, Ableton, Logic etc instrument sample library
HD4: Video and bouncing.
Which is what I ended up doing although I use HD4 as an interchangeable backup for HD1 and 2.
There is no universal answer to this as each must make their own choice based on their preferences and needs. Mirrored will give you full backup but on-site, in machine backup. Not much good if something untoward and drastic happens to the physical machine. I think a few people toy with striped RAID but fall on the side of using the drives straight, as in their projects they don't see a big enough gain over splitting the data across your 3 remaining drives without RAID. Studios that seriously consider raid often go out and get a dedicated raid that can offer more variations than raid 0 or raid 1 (Striped and Mirrored) and better throughput.
I hope this helps a little and not just added to the dilemma.

Best Raid Configuration for a 8-1tb hhd server

Hi All,
I have been trying to figure out what would be the best raid configuration for my Windows 2012 essentials server. So I was wondering if I could get some advise on this. Here is what I would like to get out of this configuration.
I would like to split the 8-1tb drives into 2 VHD one with about 300gb for the OS to be installed on, and the rest to be use for storage. I want like to have good redundancy, fairly good read & write capabilities.
I will be using this server for a Small Web Page and Game Hosting, Email Exchange, Critical Application hosting.
I would like the ability to enlarge the overall raid storage by swapping out my 1Tb drives with 2Tb or larger as the need for more storage arises.
Any help would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks

You may be better of using Storage spaces and not using raid at all.
Robert Pearman SBS MVP
itauthority.co.uk |
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Is there a way to run a external ssd with my mid 2011 iMac hdd in a raid configuration and basically have a fusion drive

is there a way to run a external ssd with my mid 2011 iMac hdd in a raid configuration and basically have a fusion drive

A Fusion Drive is not a RAID; it's a CoreStorage logical volume group. While it's technically possible to do as you suggest, there would be little or no benefit from it.

VM Server installer does not recognize RAID configuration in Intel ESRT2

Hello,
I'm having a big issue here trying to deploy my third Oracle VM Server.
I have:
- A Intel Server Board S3420GPLC
- A Intel Xeon X3440 processor
- 16GB DDR3 ECC Memory
- Six 1TB Hard Drives
What I'm trying to do:
- Create a RAID array using Intel ESRT2 (Embedded Server RAID Technology II) using all the discs (done)
- Install Oracle VM Server into the array
- Install some VMs....
The problems:
- When I boot the VM Server installer from USB stick I got an error saying that there is not enought memory. This issue is solved by typing "linux mem=15GB"
- I got a screen per disk warning me about that the discs need to be initialized and all the data will be lost
- When I go to the disk partitioning screen all the disks are listed separated, the installer simply don't recognize the RAID configured before.
What I already tryied:
- Change the RAID controller from ESRT2 to Intel Matrix
-> Didn't solve.
- Create a Driver Disk with the disk images supplied by Intel here
-> I launch the installer using "linux mem=15GB noprobe=ata1 noprobe=ata2 ....". When Im asked by the installer to load the drivers it doesn't recognize the disk, so i couldn't load the drivers.
Now, the questions:
- Is there another driver I can use do make the vm server installer recognize the RAId configured?
- Is there a better way to setup this server, considering that it needs to be "self contanied" (store and run vms)?
Edited by: xyp on 14/10/2010 11:37

So...
- I have installed VM Server into ordinary linux partitions on the first disk.
- I have created a big partition in the first disc with the space not used for the VM Server
- I have created five equal partitions on the other discs
- I have configured software raid 10 using mdadm
Now the problem seems to be solved, i have a storage repository with almost 3TB and can deploy my VMs.
Unfortunatelly only my windows 2008 r2 hardware virtualized vm is working, the linux paravitualized guests not. but this new issue will be a subject for another topic.

Raid Configuration MCS 7845 (best practice)

I'm wondering what is the best practice for RAID configuration. Looking for examples of a 4 disk and 6 disk setups. Also, which drives to pull when breaking the mirror.
Is it possible to have a RAID 1+0 for 4/6 drives and have the mirroring set so that you would pull the top or bottom drives on a MCS 7835/7845?
I'm also confused that using the SmartStart Array Configuration I seem to be able to create one logical drive using raid 1+0 with only having 2 drives, how is that possible?
And links to dirrections would be appreicated.

ICM 7.0, CVP 4.x, CCM 4.2.3, unity, and the collaboration server 5.0 and e-mail manager options for ICM.
But to keep it simple let's look at a Roger set-up.
Sorry for the delayed response.

Mac Pro RAID configuration advice needed to address photography workflow

I am a semi-professional photographer and I am moving off a Windows machine and over to a Mac Pro.
I am waiting for the new Mac Pro to arrive and have purchased (4) 500GB SATA drives to replace the 250GB drive the system will arrive with.
I am considering setting up drive #1 as a stand alone boot drive. The second and third drives would be set up in a RAID 0 config and the 4th drive set up as a RAID 1 drive which would mirror the content on my RAID 0 set of drives to automatically backup the content on drives 2 & 3.
I think it would be beneficial if I describe my image processing workflow briefly so that you can understand why I am considering this RAID configuration (I've never set up a RAID configuration in the past so this is all new to me).
Image Processing Workflow
It isn't uncommon for me to return from a photo shoot with an 8GB Compact Flash card full (approx 750 8mb RAW files).
1) I plan on uploading my card to the boot drive (#1) where I would hold them temporarily.
2) I would sort thru the images and trash 80% immediately in most cases.
3) Next I would open up the "keepers" and do the initial post processing in Adobe RAW and save them to drives 2 & 3 (the RAID 0 set).
4) Further post processing (the heavy lifting and the most taxing operations in Photoshop and associated filters) would take place as I access these files from the RAID 0 set of drives.
5) All of my files would be mirrored to drive 4 as I work them. Once post-processing is complete I would copy the files from drive #4 (RAID 1)to an additional external 500GB drive for archiving purposes and then eventually delete the files from drive #1 and the RAID 0 set.
6) Once drive #4 (and the external drive) is nearly filled I would pull both and archive them and replace both with fresh drives.
Is there anything wrong with taking this approach? Can a single drive be set up in a RAID 1 configuration to mirror a set of drives in a RAID 0 configuration?
Is there anything else I should be considering?
Thanks for any assistance you guys can provide! I appreciate it!!

For the purposes of 500GB drives in RAID, I would go with WD RE2. they format to 465GB and performance falls off @ 65% and beyond anyway.
I even "short-stroke" drives to just 60% and then stay within 1/3 full - if I want to insure the maximum I/O.
Memory: 4GB is pretty much minimum but using more than 8GB isn't efficient. Ideal: 4 x 2GB.
Shame that the Hitachi 1TB drive costs over $399 for now, fast and might be better than 10K Raptor. There are also 750GB drives for $249, but the RE2 isn't quite ready to ship.
Never want to get into using 75% or more usually, though large (8-20 drives) RAIDs can hold sustained I/O for video editing and multiple streams.
One 750GB or 1TB (930GB formatted, 800GB "usable") might make sense.
How about a SATA drive case w/ hot-swap. Think of 1TB "floppy" if you will :-)) Unlimited archiving of projects.
All you want is an inexpensive eSATA 1x 2-channel PM controller and any cases. Two drives that you can use drive trays as needed.
there are also 'spare' drive sleds if you want to have the option of popping a drive out, and use it internally. $29 each or $49 a pair.
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com - link to TransIntl site
Vista 64-bit can or does work quite well now on Mac Pro... if you ever get into a jam and just need to. SP1 by end of the year will even have more support for UEFI 2.0 (Apple uses Intel EFI 1.1).

Error in RAID Configuration

Now I am receiving this message: Your device My Passport (S/N: ***************) has RAID configuration issues.Please launch the WD Drive Utilities software to get more information. My options are to click on run wd drive utilities which i uninstalled...

Am experiencing exactly the same problem that e_silio describes on my MacBook Pro (late 2008 running Yosemite 10.10.4). I also have a DROBO (a "better-than-RAID" backup system) attached to Firewire port on which I have my Time Machine and an Archive partition. With the WD software installed the drive mounts for about 10 seconds then dismounts and the LED goes off. With the WD software uninstalled the drive mounts, then dismounts but LED continues powered (blinking), and the "Error in RAID Configuration" popup displays as already described. However, when I dismount the DROBO, uninstall the WD software <reboot>, the drive stays mounted! BUT... When I install the WD Drive Utilities, let the app update to the current version (2.0.2.18 May 19, 2015), and run the "Quick Drive Test", THEN the drive dismounts. Now, disconnect the drive and re-connect: it remounts four about a minute and then dismounts again. Uninstall WD Drive Utilities, reconnect the drive, then the "Error in Raid..." message returns. (The DROBO is still disconnected from the computer). It is quite frustrating to need to fuss with such a basic device.

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

X4500 Thumper and RAID configuration

Hi,
Scenario:
Suppose I have an X4500 running with Solaris and ZFS . I configured RAID5 configuration with the ZFS tools. The RAID is working fine, but after x months/years I need to make a new Solaris installation from scratch on the X4500 machine.
Will my ZFS data located in the RAID be in danger?
In a hardware based RAID, the meta-data for the RAID configuration and rebuilding it is done regardless of the OS running above it. It is done by the RAID controller.
However, in X4500 with Solaris+ZFS - the OS itself is managing the RAID configuration. So...? What will happen to the data if the OS fails or needs to be reinstalled?
Thanks,
Itay.

By RAID5 I assume you mean RAID-Z which is the ZFS replacement for RAID-5. If you actually mean SVM RAID-5 with ZFS on top of that, I don't think there is a way to get the data. But with ZFS, the state is actually stored within the pool, so it is system-independent. If you intend to upgrade, first run zpool export, do the install, then do zpool import (it will scan your disks for any pools). If your system crashes, you should be able to do a zpool import -f (which will force import a non-exported zpool).

RAID configurations for RHEL partition

We have RHEL 5.x in our production environment using VMware which is configured on RAID using RAID 1, RAID 5 & RAID 10. I had couple of queries with RAID configuration:
1) Is it possible for a RHEL partition to have 2 RAID configurations, like some part of partition on RAID 1 and the remaining on RAID 5?
2) How to identify the RAID configurations used by a RHEL partition.
I hope, I have been able to explain the problem.
Requesting a reply to my query.
Regards

1) Is it possible for a RHEL partition to have 2 RAID configurations, like some part of partition on RAID 1 and the remaining on RAID 5?
No. RAID configurations work on the block level and do not use logical partitions. You can however partition a RAID volume.
2) How to identify the RAID configurations used by a RHEL partition.
Depends what you are using. If you have a hardware RAID, it is transparent to the OS and cannot be seen without using any hardware specific host adapter utilities. If it is software, it depends on mdadm, LVM or BTRFS. What are you using?
P.S. you will most likely do not want to use RAID 5 unless you have special hardware controller to deal with RAID 5 checksums, etc. It's definitely not a solution for large storage, since it will take days to rebuild in case of a failure.

TRIM does not work for SSD in a RAID configuration

According to Intel, SSDs that are used in a RAID configuration cannot use the TRIM function in Windows 7. This would seem to lead to an eventual degradation of those RAID SSD configurations. Is there any work ongoing to enable TRIM in the future?
"....Intel later clarified that TRIM was supported for the BIOS settings of AHCI mode and RAID mode, but not if the drive was part of a RAID volume.[16]..."
W520, i7-2820QM, BIOS 1.42, 1920x1080 FHD, 32 GB RAM, 2000M NVIDIA GPU, Samsung 850 Pro 1TB SSD, Crucial M550 mSata 512GB, WD 2TB USB 3.0, eSata Plextor PX-LB950UE BluRay
W520, i7-2760QM, BIOS 1.42 1920x1080 FHD, 32 GB RAM, 1000M NVIDIA GPU, Crucial M500 480GB mSata SSD, Hitachi 500GB HDD, WD 2TB USB 3.0
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The performance hit would only be on the write side of the equation. If the garbage collection of these SSD drives is sufficient, I wonder why TRIM exists? I'm posting an excerpt from Wikipedia on the subject below:
"All SSDs have garbage collection. That is a function of NAND flash memory used in SSDs. Some drives may be more efficient at GC than others. Some do not recover as well as others after they have been used for a period of time. Some drives perform GC in the background when the drive is otherwise not busy with user data (idle), but there are some drawbacks to that background operation (you can see the wikipedia article for more details). In general background GC is not good for the endurance of the drive because it moves data that the OS (and user) may delete and render unnecessary to GC in the first place. The best solution is to do it on the fly as fast as possible.
TRIM is a command sent by the OS to the drive identifying the actual logical block addresses (LBAs) that are no longer needed. To understand TRIM you must understand how the OS and SSD tracks the data. When you put an item in the OS trash you are not actually deleting the items. They are just marked ready for deletion. If the user says to empty the trash, the OS notes this and now says those LBAs are free to accept new data. This is true for all storage devices, not just SSDs. Many people do not realize that the storage device does not actually delete the data at that point. The act of erasing a file is simply the OS marking its internal lookup tables for that file as free to store new information. An HDD still has the data on the drive at that location until the OS writes something new into that spot. For an SSD it is the same; the SSD still has the data in the flash at that location until the OS writes something new into that spot. Of course the NAND flash memory requires the replacement data to be written into a new location and the old data is marked as "invalid" now. Then during garbage collection that invalid data is NOT moved with other valid data in that block to a new block.
The performance of an SSD is at its peak when it is brand new out of the box because there is nothing to GC. Unfortunately this occurs only at the beginning of the drive's life or after you secure erase the drive and start over. Performance is also affected by the size of the over provisioning (OP) (details also in the wikipedia article above). During GC if the drive does not have to move around as much data it can operate faster. The TRIM command enables the OS to tell the SSD what LBAs are no longer valid data. Without the TRIM command this only happens when the OS tries to write something new into that same spot or it tries to replace the current data. If the SSD knew in advance that some of the LBAs holding data were invalid the drive would not move that data during GC. The effect gets you closer to the performance of a drive with larger OP. Without the TRIM command the drive will perform like it is at full capacity at all times and only has the amount of OP set at the factory (plus any space left unused during the partition process when first setting up the drive)."
W520, i7-2820QM, BIOS 1.42, 1920x1080 FHD, 32 GB RAM, 2000M NVIDIA GPU, Samsung 850 Pro 1TB SSD, Crucial M550 mSata 512GB, WD 2TB USB 3.0, eSata Plextor PX-LB950UE BluRay
W520, i7-2760QM, BIOS 1.42 1920x1080 FHD, 32 GB RAM, 1000M NVIDIA GPU, Crucial M500 480GB mSata SSD, Hitachi 500GB HDD, WD 2TB USB 3.0

Cost of SATA HDs ordered with S10? RAID configuration cost?

I'm considering buying an S10. I notice there is a charge for setting up the RAID configuration.
Is that just a "service charge"? I can change the RAID configuration later if I need to do so correct?
Also I note that a 500Gb 7200 RPM SATA drive lists at $205. At NewEgg for example the 500Gb 7200RPM units rated at 3Gb/s transfer speed are $60 - $90 each depending on details (cache size etc...). Am I missing something that causes the ones shipped with the system to be so much more expensive?
Thanks,
Jim
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Go to Solution.

mounting brackets will be included in the S10. there will be blank, plastic "dummy" drives installed in any unpopulated drive bay to help with air velocity. attached to these dummy drives will be the drive caddies that you need to install a drive.
RAID 5 requires all five drives to be the same or larger than the smallest drive size in the array. if you install a 1TB drive into a RAID 5 array comprised of three 500GB drives then only 500GB of the 1TB drive will be used. otherwise, there wouldn't be any redundancy on the second half of the 1TB drive. hopefully that explanation makes sense.
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Which RAID Configuration for my WD "My Book Mirror Edition"?

About to reformat my WD "My Book Mirror Edition" to use on my iMac. I hope to also install on my iMac "Virtual Box", "VM Fusion", or "Parallels" and then run a few windows products. Which RAID configuration should I choose in the WD "drive configurations" box?

If I were you I'd run any Virtual Machine directly on your iMac, not on a "WD My Book Mirror Edition", in particular not when connected through USB 2.0.
To store data, the WD is fine.
For the RAID options:
RAID 0 ("striping") : if you want something fast (insofar this is possible with a USB connection). Note that when one of your disks fails you can say goodbye to all your data.
RAID 1 ("mirroring"): more safe. If one disk fails, the data are recoverable as they are on the other disk as well. Disadvantage is you get only half the storage capacity compared to RAID 0.
Oh. my personal recommendation: RAID 1 is not an alternative to making a backup. So whatever option you choose: if you store valuable data on the disk that are nowehere else: back them up!
On formats:
HFS+ : definitely recommended if you only use the RAID array on the Mac.
FAT 32: if you also use it on a Windows machine. Note that files cannot be larger than 4 GB in this case.
Hope this helps.
Eric

RAID configuration, better to logically split RAID5 or RAID1 with SQL?

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