New server disk advice

[AnthonyB]

A bit of general advice please from the experts out there.
We are thinking of a new server to run the CAD database etc. replacing an older LC2000 running NT4.
What would you recommend as a 'belt and braces' approach to a good disk setup.
OS on 2 x mirrored drives with the Data on Raid 5 array?
Thanks in advance for any alternative advice offered.

[Greg Carlson]

Anthony,

Is your data critical and in need of redundancy? If so then the config you listed, Raid 1 for NOS and Raid 5 for your data would be best. If you don't need the redundancy, then RAID 0 will offer the best performance. However if you lose a hard drive you have to restore the array from backup.

Ciao,
Greg

[Greg Carlson]

I forgot to mention if your files are relatively large, use a large stripe size for your RAID array for you data array.

Ciao,
Greg