Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
What is the word these days on the stability/usability of MS software RAID1 versus something from 3ware? In my case a 6200. It seems like they would have had long enough to work out the snags but you never know.
MS software RAID
- Thread starter Howell
- Start date
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
Remember that Software RAID 1 can only be used on MS Server OS's. I have setup a server that used RAID 1 and the performance was good. Neither of the drives ever failed in the 2 years after it was setup so I don't know how hard recover would be. There were never any problems with the array getting corrupted or stupid things like that though.
I would have to say that it is probably a fine system to use and I would trust it just as much as most hardware RAID adapters.
I would have to say that it is probably a fine system to use and I would trust it just as much as most hardware RAID adapters.
Buck
Storage? I am Storage!
For RAID 1, there shouldn't much concern about data recovery unless both drives fail. I have taken RAID 1 arrays created in NT and moved it to another NT box without data loss. Also, I've removed one drive from the mirrored set in NT and moved it to a 2000 box so that I could copy files over, no data loss either. Just make sure you don't make your boot or system partition a part of any RAID array.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
Buck said:
It is even possible to recover a boot volume that is MS SoftRAID1. Check in Microsoft help on how to do this as I can't remember, but I remember reading about it in MS Help awhile back.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Soft RAID1 has always been OK on NT/2000. It's the other ones that lead to interesting combinations of swear words.
The 3ware card offers parallelized reads, which unlike soft-RAID, do provide a modest boost to read performance. If I had the option, I'd probably use the 3ware card for that reason.
The 3ware card offers parallelized reads, which unlike soft-RAID, do provide a modest boost to read performance. If I had the option, I'd probably use the 3ware card for that reason.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
Mercutio said:
Ya, but in the first post Howell asked specifically about MS RAID 1, not about any alternative soft RAID solutions.
I think the major decision will come down to whether the computer in question is going to used hard enough to warrant spending several hundred dollars on a 3ware controller that might only increase performance by a very negligible amount. And only in reads, remember hardware controllers are important for RAID 5 because the parity calculations that are involved are quite processor intensive. OTOH, RAID 1 is not a very hard on a processor so the hit your system would take in performance is not substantial.
Bozo
Storage? I am Storage!
The only problem I've run across is making backups of a system with soft-RAID. Most (all ?) backup programs will not read the dynamic disc.
Bozo
Bozo