DL385 G6 RAID5 vs RAID10

[Mohammed idris]

I have recently purchase hp DL385 G6 with 146GBx3 HDD and 300GBx1 HDD, I would prefer to go for RAID 10, in the RAID 10 I have following question, anyone please assist or guide me to reach my goal
1. Is RAID 10 is better than RAID 5? If yes, list the advantage and disadvantage.
2. As per my HDD with 146*3 and 300*1 is it possible and advisable to manage RAID10
3. As per my HDD level RAID10 showing the usage space around 260GB, and RAID5 showing the usage around 410GB. Is this value are right. (bcoz I suspect 300GB HDD space taken as 146GB)
4. Actual this server is purpose of windows 2008 R2 domain, exchange 2010, and ISA in a single box with Hyper-V virtual 3 systems. In this case RAID10 or RAID5?

I have some more question, it may clarify also with this answer.
Thanks in advance to spend your valuable time to respond.

Best Regards,

Mohammed

[SteffenG]

Hi.
Dont know if this will help, but here goes:
I always use Raid 1 for system disk (OS) and Raid 5 for Storage.
Your Raid 5 will never be bigger than the 3 smalest of your 4 disks.

In my company we use:
System: 2X146GB Raid 1
Storage 4(or more) 500GB Raid 5 with HotSpare to avoid stop in production in case of disk failure.
(the "extra" 500GB can be HotSpare for both Raids)

What you can do, is install ESXi(free) on a USB for boot and use all disks in a Raid 5 as a storage pool for VMWare

Steffen

[Mohammed idris]

Hi Steffen,

First, Thanks for your response,

My concern, here which option should I take RAID5 or RAID10, because it is initial for migration, if any one option, what about the different size hdd 146x3, 300x1 is it take as 146x4 or 146x5?
Further I donâ t have any additional storage; I did not prefer to maintain USB storage as a boot system.

Thanks

Mohammed

[SteffenG]

Hi.
No one else replied, so I tried..

If you go for the Raid 5, you will get the equivalent of 4X146GB.
You will not be able to use the whole 300GB disk :-(
But this is still the option that gives the most storageâ ¦

As I see it you have a â strangeâ collection of disks that is hard to do something reasonable with, without â loosingâ capacity.

Steffen

[TTr]

1. Sometimes raid10 is faster sometimes raid5 is faster. It depends on the raid controller and the number of disks. You need to do your own testing to verify. If you don't have time to test, with 4 disks, I would expect raid5 to be faster. I repeat it depends on the controller and number of disks.

2. Not sure what you are asking but you could set up raid10 or raid5 with these disks

3. The usable space for raid10 would be 2 x 146GB (actually 2 x 133GB = ~265GB). The usable space for raid5 would be 3 x 146GB (actual space is 3 x 133GB = ~400GB).
Yes the 300GB disk will be used as 1 x 146GB. The remaining space in the 300GB disk is not usable.

4. HyperV with 3 virtual systems looks a little overloaded. It depends how much load and activity each of the three system would have, specifically the exchange server. The server would need significant CPU and memory resources as well.