Server configuration options.

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devman

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So I'm doing some planning for a server I intend to build to do a variety of things, but mostly as a file server and to back up my PC. I was planning on using a Raptor I had left over from a previous build as the OS disk and building a RAID5 array of large disks (probably 750s) to actually house the data. Important stuff would be backed up to external drives in addition to being on the array.

The OS I'm going to use is going to be Linux (CentOS or Ubuntu Server, haven't decided yet) and I was wondering if I should use software RAID, get a motherboard with on board RAID5, or get a RAID controller card. Any recommendations would be nice.
 
skip the onboard raid, either use linux software raid or get a controller. Linux software raid is pretty solid, if you don't need blazing performance or fancy features it's perfectly fine for file server.
 
The more I read about it the more I'm leaning towards software RAID, seems like there is a lot more flexibility and no need to worry about compatibility problems.
 
I've dabbled with both and software RAID is by far a more logical for non-business use. For business or mission critical needs, hardware is the only choice.

Mobo RAID has not provent o be a solid option in my limited dealings since it's oftn a soft RAID manipulated by the OS. So it's back to the beginning - soft RAID under Linux.

Nice benifit is that often, under Linux, you can recover the RAID so long as it's not badly molested.

Just remember, RAID is not a backup solution.
 
I have that exact setup and it is wonderful. 74gb raptor for ubuntu server 8.04 os drive. 6x500gb raid5 using mdraid. I was actually able to grow my array from initial 3x500gb in raid5, as mdraid is indeed quite flexible. All work flawlessly. Also have web gui for the server, making samba(windows) shares a snap to get up and running. Server runs apache, mysql, php, nfs, sftp as well. PM if you want any more details.
 
yblocgerg, that is pretty much identical what I want to set up. What kind of transfer rates do you get to/from that server with regards to the Raid array?
 
I max my gigabit connections with reads. With a single raptor at one end I got 80MB/sec, with raid 0 it was 115MB/sec. Writing to the array is around 65MB/sec.

I set up NFS shares with my desktop and the server, it is like having the drives in the physical machine.
 
I've got a 74GB Raptor which I will use as the primary and swap. Gonna set up a software RAID5 of 3 high volume drives yet to be determined. I was thinking I could use samba to expose the array to my other Windows PCs in particular my HTPC. I was planning on using the array to stream media to other computers.

Sounds like you've already vetted a lot of this on Ubuntu.
 
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