3 nodes Network raid level StoreVirtual VSA

[Roman Starun]

I have 3 nodes, and a free 1 TB license )

Each node is DL360 with 6 sata drives. (Yes, SATA )

All 6 drives are in RAID 10 using hardware controller smart array. And yes - Hot OS and VSA virtual machine are located on same raid volume as it's Data vhdx.

I'm planning to use Network RAID 5 as it combines space, speed and redurancy. Space is not as important as redurancy and speed.

So with Net Raid 5, one HDD failure won't stop VSA. And even one server failure or planned maintance would not be a problem.

Or is there a better solution? I've heard of Network RAID 10 using three nodes, is it possible? Would it provide speed?

[oikjn · Accepted solution]

NR5 is for archive use only.  Use NR10 for any production data you want to use.  You CAN have a 3-node cluster and LUNs with NR10 without a problem.  Sure, your SATA drives will be slow, but it should work OK as long as you don't try and overload them. 

Forget about NR5...  it is not like Raid5 and should be avoided for anything but things like ISO image stores or other write-once read many applications.