LC2000 - increasing capacity

[Jim W]

I have inherited this server and plan to use it as a data repository and media server at home. The current capacity is limited (approx 56MB as Raid0). I plan to run the os on a separate disk and then maximise the remaining space - I'm not too worried about HDD resilience as all the media will either be available or backed up. I have no experience with RAID type servers and hot swap drives and wonder what capacity disk(s) I can go up to, what type they must be and where I can source them. Advice about the best RAID setup will also be appreciated - I plan to use RAID0 across the data array and keep os separate

Thanks

[Sean T. Craig]

Hi Jim,

Okay, here are your options.
These are the low-profile, hotswap hard drives supported for this server:
D6106A - 9.1GB - 7200rpm - Ultra-2
D6107A - 9.1GB - 10000rpm - Ultra-2
P1217A - 9.1GB - 7200rpm - Ultra-3
P1168A - 9.1GB - 10000rpm - Ultra-3
P1216A - 18.2GB - 7200rpm - Ultra-3
P1166A - 18.2GB - 10000rpm - Ultra-3
D9421A - 18.2GB - 15000rpm - Ultra-3
D9419A - 36.4GB - 10000rpm - Ultra-3
D9422A - 36.4GB - 15000rpm - Ultra-3
P3577A - 73.4GB - 10000rpm - Ultra-3

I don't know any sources in the UK, just on this side of the pond. You can also try eBay.

Now, as far as your RAID config goes, I personally do not like RAID-0; it is an invitation for disastaer. Each drive becomes an additional point of failure.

I'm not positive what you have in there currently but it sounds like it might be 3x18.2GB drives in a RAID-0 which would work out to 52,095MB or 50.87GB.

If I was starting with a clean install, I would start out by making 2 of the existing drives a RAID-1 and keep the third one in storage in case one of the others fails. Then I would add 4x73.4GB drives and turn them into a RAID-5. This would give me an 18GB logical drive for my O/S and a 210GB logical drive for my data. I would also get an extra 73GB drive and put it with my spare 18GB drive.

Now, I know you're not going to do this preferring the capacity over the redundancy, and that's your choice, but I know from personal experience that recovering from a drive failure, particularly a RAID-0 failure is not much fun. If you have everything on a single RAID-0 and 1 drive fails (which will happen at some point) all data will be lost. You will need to re-install the O/S, apply your service pack updates, install your backup software and restore from backup. This could translate into many hours of labour.

In my preferred configuration above, if any drive fails, or even if 1 drive fails in each of the 2 arrays, I'm still good. I just have to replace whichever drive failed with one of my spares and it rebuilds on it's own and I don't even have to bring the server down to do it. In the event of a multiple drive failure (on the same array) then I only have half the work to do; on the RAID-1, just re-install the O/S and on the RAID-5, just restore from backup.

When you've got all your ducks in a row and you're ready to begin, write back with your intended configuration and we'll tell you how to create your arrays.

Best of luck,

Sean T. Craig Sr. C.E.T., M.C.P.

[Jim W]

Sean,

Thanks very much for that - all really useful stuff. As you say I need to get my 'ducks in a row'. I think my main problem is the cost of what is rather meagre storage using this server. For my purposes I may be better off just getting a couple of 300GB drives and sticking them in my pc. I'm not sure what advantages I will get using the server solution (apart from resilience). I just need to store multimedia files to serve my Multimedia setup. Comments welcome and thanks again for your input.

[Jim W]

Sean,

Sorry to bug you again but I wonder if I can put a bigger drive in the not hot swap common tray position - is this possible and again are there any specifics re drive spec?

Thanks again for your excellent help.

Regards

Jim

[CA1263195]

Yes, you can put larger drives in the drive spaces.

[Jim W]

Thanks William - do you know if these need to be of any particular spec?

Thanks very much for your help.