[H] RAID 5 upgrade planning
When I built my HTPC a year ago I used a MegaRAID controller and 5 250GB SATA drives. This gave me a RAID 5 array with about 1.1 TB usable. Things have been working quite well, except that I am down to my last 100GB of free space. I was doing some calculations trying to figure out how much storage I would need. I have 400 DVDs that I own. If I were to store each one as a Xvid file in addition to the ~5000 TV shows, music, photos, and ebooks I would need around 3TB of space. If I were to store them in vob form that number jumps to around 6.7 TB. Using 750GB drives, 6 in a RAID 5 gives about 4.5 TB total and 3.8 TB of usable space. Good enough for xvid, but not for vobs. Even if I waited for the 1TB drives in the spring I wouldn't be able to get enough space out of a 6-drive array (now that's scary). So I guess my only option for now (is to stick with the xvid solution. It works fine (AutoGK does a wonderful job) but every once in a while you get an xvid with offset audio and it's a pain to line it up properly. So with that figured out, next I need to figure out the best way to upgrade the RAID in terms of cost and time. It is my understanding that the size of each element in the array is only as big as the size of its smallest member. So if I start replacing the 250GB drives with 750GB ones, I should be able to do that without too much disruption to the array other than the time needed to rebuild it after I swap each drive. Then, once I have all 6 swapped out I should be able to increase the size of the array, correct? I don't really have the ability to backup the full 1TB of data on some other device which is what's causing the problem. The only thing I know of that can handle that much data is a tape drive and that is several hundred dollars I would like not to spend. Anything I've forgotten? -- Brian
RE: [H] RAID 5 upgrade planning
You have covered everything that I could have thought of except that you need to get rid of the 250's, you can send them my way. Mark MD Computers 602-421-0329 -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brian Weeden Sent: Saturday, November 04, 2006 3:28 PM To: hwg Subject: [H] RAID 5 upgrade planning When I built my HTPC a year ago I used a MegaRAID controller and 5 250GB SATA drives. This gave me a RAID 5 array with about 1.1 TB usable. Things have been working quite well, except that I am down to my last 100GB of free space. I was doing some calculations trying to figure out how much storage I would need. I have 400 DVDs that I own. If I were to store each one as a Xvid file in addition to the ~5000 TV shows, music, photos, and ebooks I would need around 3TB of space. If I were to store them in vob form that number jumps to around 6.7 TB. Using 750GB drives, 6 in a RAID 5 gives about 4.5 TB total and 3.8 TB of usable space. Good enough for xvid, but not for vobs. Even if I waited for the 1TB drives in the spring I wouldn't be able to get enough space out of a 6-drive array (now that's scary). So I guess my only option for now (is to stick with the xvid solution. It works fine (AutoGK does a wonderful job) but every once in a while you get an xvid with offset audio and it's a pain to line it up properly. So with that figured out, next I need to figure out the best way to upgrade the RAID in terms of cost and time. It is my understanding that the size of each element in the array is only as big as the size of its smallest member. So if I start replacing the 250GB drives with 750GB ones, I should be able to do that without too much disruption to the array other than the time needed to rebuild it after I swap each drive. Then, once I have all 6 swapped out I should be able to increase the size of the array, correct? I don't really have the ability to backup the full 1TB of data on some other device which is what's causing the problem. The only thing I know of that can handle that much data is a tape drive and that is several hundred dollars I would like not to spend. Anything I've forgotten? -- Brian
Re: [H] RAID 5 upgrade planning
you got to be kidding, do you really watch all this stored media ? Why not burn some off to DVD. ( rhetorical ) fp At 02:28 PM 11/4/2006, Brian Weeden Poked the stick with: When I built my HTPC a year ago I used a MegaRAID controller and 5 250GB SATA drives. This gave me a RAID 5 array with about 1.1 TB usable. Things have been working quite well, except that I am down to my last 100GB of free space. -- Tallyho ! ]:8) Taglines below ! -- The most popular form of birth control: The headache.
RE: [H] RAID 5 upgrade planning
Time to burn, label, and index a disc, cost of media, reliability of media, quantity of media, small size of media, time to locate and insert a disc, etc...that's why I have 4.0TB in this box and 2.6TB in my HTPC... Greg -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of FORC5 Sent: Saturday, November 04, 2006 4:41 PM To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] RAID 5 upgrade planning you got to be kidding, do you really watch all this stored media ? Why not burn some off to DVD. ( rhetorical ) fp At 02:28 PM 11/4/2006, Brian Weeden Poked the stick with: When I built my HTPC a year ago I used a MegaRAID controller and 5 250GB SATA drives. This gave me a RAID 5 array with about 1.1 TB usable. Things have been working quite well, except that I am down to my last 100GB of free space. -- Tallyho ! ]:8) Taglines below ! -- The most popular form of birth control: The headache.
Re: [H] RAID 5 upgrade planning
Greg, what are you using? RAID arrays? On 11/4/06, Greg Sevart [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Time to burn, label, and index a disc, cost of media, reliability of media, quantity of media, small size of media, time to locate and insert a disc, etc...that's why I have 4.0TB in this box and 2.6TB in my HTPC... Greg -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of FORC5 Sent: Saturday, November 04, 2006 4:41 PM To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] RAID 5 upgrade planning you got to be kidding, do you really watch all this stored media ? Why not burn some off to DVD. ( rhetorical ) fp At 02:28 PM 11/4/2006, Brian Weeden Poked the stick with: When I built my HTPC a year ago I used a MegaRAID controller and 5 250GB SATA drives. This gave me a RAID 5 array with about 1.1 TB usable. Things have been working quite well, except that I am down to my last 100GB of free space. -- Tallyho ! ]:8) Taglines below ! -- The most popular form of birth control: The headache. -- Brian
RE: [H] RAID 5 upgrade planning
I have a couple striped arrays, but nothing redundant. The data I just can't live without (email, documents, etc) is backed up nightly. While the loss of episodes would suck, they are, ultimately, all recoverable. I'm considering making the four 7200.10's in my HTPC into a RAID5 array. My brother just tried out an 8 port Areca...120MB/s RAID5 write over 3 disks is very impressive. It's just tough to spend several hundred on a quality controller when I can get over a TB more storage for the same cost. :) By the way, you might want to make sure that MegaRAID controller supports single volumes 2.0TB...you might have to break up your new space and consolidate in software (dynamic disks?). Greg -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brian Weeden Sent: Saturday, November 04, 2006 5:12 PM To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] RAID 5 upgrade planning Greg, what are you using? RAID arrays? On 11/4/06, Greg Sevart [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Time to burn, label, and index a disc, cost of media, reliability of media, quantity of media, small size of media, time to locate and insert a disc, etc...that's why I have 4.0TB in this box and 2.6TB in my HTPC... Greg -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of FORC5 Sent: Saturday, November 04, 2006 4:41 PM To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] RAID 5 upgrade planning you got to be kidding, do you really watch all this stored media ? Why not burn some off to DVD. ( rhetorical ) fp At 02:28 PM 11/4/2006, Brian Weeden Poked the stick with: When I built my HTPC a year ago I used a MegaRAID controller and 5 250GB SATA drives. This gave me a RAID 5 array with about 1.1 TB usable. Things have been working quite well, except that I am down to my last 100GB of free space. -- Tallyho ! ]:8) Taglines below ! -- The most popular form of birth control: The headache. -- Brian
Re: [H] RAID 5 upgrade planning
Here is the controller I have: http://www.lsi.com/storage_home/products_home/internal_raid/megaraid_sata/megaraid_sata_1506/index.html Not the greatest but (knock on wood) stable and reliable so far. The max size supported is 2 TB which isn't too bad. On 11/4/06, Greg Sevart [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have a couple striped arrays, but nothing redundant. The data I just can't live without (email, documents, etc) is backed up nightly. While the loss of episodes would suck, they are, ultimately, all recoverable. I'm considering making the four 7200.10's in my HTPC into a RAID5 array. My brother just tried out an 8 port Areca...120MB/s RAID5 write over 3 disks is very impressive. It's just tough to spend several hundred on a quality controller when I can get over a TB more storage for the same cost. :) By the way, you might want to make sure that MegaRAID controller supports single volumes 2.0TB...you might have to break up your new space and consolidate in software (dynamic disks?). Greg -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brian Weeden Sent: Saturday, November 04, 2006 5:12 PM To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] RAID 5 upgrade planning Greg, what are you using? RAID arrays? On 11/4/06, Greg Sevart [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Time to burn, label, and index a disc, cost of media, reliability of media, quantity of media, small size of media, time to locate and insert a disc, etc...that's why I have 4.0TB in this box and 2.6TB in my HTPC... Greg -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of FORC5 Sent: Saturday, November 04, 2006 4:41 PM To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] RAID 5 upgrade planning you got to be kidding, do you really watch all this stored media ? Why not burn some off to DVD. ( rhetorical ) fp At 02:28 PM 11/4/2006, Brian Weeden Poked the stick with: When I built my HTPC a year ago I used a MegaRAID controller and 5 250GB SATA drives. This gave me a RAID 5 array with about 1.1 TB usable. Things have been working quite well, except that I am down to my last 100GB of free space. -- Tallyho ! ]:8) Taglines below ! -- The most popular form of birth control: The headache. -- Brian -- Brian
RE: [H] RAID 5 upgrade planning
I destroyed a LSI MegaRAID controller (MegaRAID i4, I had 8x250GB in RAID10) out of rage one day after it would continually drop multiple drives when only one drive hiccupped. :) Greg -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brian Weeden Sent: Saturday, November 04, 2006 5:41 PM To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] RAID 5 upgrade planning Here is the controller I have: http://www.lsi.com/storage_home/products_home/internal_raid/megaraid_sata/me ga raid_sata_1506/index.html Not the greatest but (knock on wood) stable and reliable so far. The max size supported is 2 TB which isn't too bad. On 11/4/06, Greg Sevart [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have a couple striped arrays, but nothing redundant. The data I just can't live without (email, documents, etc) is backed up nightly. While the loss of episodes would suck, they are, ultimately, all recoverable. I'm considering making the four 7200.10's in my HTPC into a RAID5 array. My brother just tried out an 8 port Areca...120MB/s RAID5 write over 3 disks is very impressive. It's just tough to spend several hundred on a quality controller when I can get over a TB more storage for the same cost. :) By the way, you might want to make sure that MegaRAID controller supports single volumes 2.0TB...you might have to break up your new space and consolidate in software (dynamic disks?). Greg -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brian Weeden Sent: Saturday, November 04, 2006 5:12 PM To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] RAID 5 upgrade planning Greg, what are you using? RAID arrays? On 11/4/06, Greg Sevart [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Time to burn, label, and index a disc, cost of media, reliability of media, quantity of media, small size of media, time to locate and insert a disc, etc...that's why I have 4.0TB in this box and 2.6TB in my HTPC... Greg -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of FORC5 Sent: Saturday, November 04, 2006 4:41 PM To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] RAID 5 upgrade planning you got to be kidding, do you really watch all this stored media ? Why not burn some off to DVD. ( rhetorical ) fp At 02:28 PM 11/4/2006, Brian Weeden Poked the stick with: When I built my HTPC a year ago I used a MegaRAID controller and 5 250GB SATA drives. This gave me a RAID 5 array with about 1.1 TB usable. Things have been working quite well, except that I am down to my last 100GB of free space. -- Tallyho ! ]:8) Taglines below ! -- The most popular form of birth control: The headache. -- Brian -- Brian
