Question

Recommended disk configuration for Poweredge 830 for Windows Home Server

Asked by: dkoegler

I have a poweredge 830 that I want to repurpose as a Windows Home Server.  The server is a tower with 4 drive bays and it has a RAID controller card.  I want to get maximum capacity for storing digital files (pic's & video's).  My thought was to set-up 1 drive as a stand-alone for the OS and then get three 1TB SATA drives as set-up a RAID5 array for all of the data.  Will this work are there other sound recommended config's.

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Asked On
2009-09-09 at 05:32:01ID24717850
Tags

Dell Poweredge 830

,

Windows Home Server

,

RAID

Topics

Windows Home Server

,

Computer Servers

,

Storage Technology

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
7

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Answers

 

by: charlestassePosted on 2009-09-09 at 06:09:15ID: 25290809

You have some options here

If you want hard drive failure protection you should look at doing 2 Raid 5 Virtual Disks / Arrays. The first VD would be 100 Gig for you OS and would present to windows DISK 1. The second VD would be the remaining space (4TB-1TB for raid 5 parity = 3TB - 100Gig for VD1 = 2.9 TB) would be presented to windows as Disk 2, you will need to convert it to dynamic disk to be able to use a disk greater than 2TB.

If you do not want any drive failure protection you can create a Raid 0 for your OS = 1TB or 1 hard drive and an additional Raid 0 using the 3 other hard drives (3TB).

Although the Raid 0 will be faster and provide you with more useable space if you loose a hard drive you will be dead in the water (unless you have a backup) and could loose all your data

I highly recommend the first option as it give you protection with the greatest amount of space

 

by: dkoeglerPosted on 2009-09-09 at 08:39:53ID: 25292417

I assume I can create the First Configuration you note by running Dell Installation and Server Management bootable CD?

 

by: dkoeglerPosted on 2009-09-09 at 08:41:09ID: 25292432

Second question, how do I change to Dynamic Disk, is this an option during RAID configuration?

 

by: charlestassePosted on 2009-09-09 at 09:15:50ID: 25292784

You change the disk configuration from within Disk Management in Windows after you have created your VD

 

by: dkoeglerPosted on 2009-09-09 at 09:37:07ID: 25292996

Just to make sure I understand (I am pretty weak on RAID) I would make one big RAID-5 Array and then just parse it up into two drives when I do the OS install.  I went into OPEN MANAGE and it looks like that is how I would have to do it.  Appreciate the continued thoughts!!!

 

by: charlestassePosted on 2009-09-09 at 10:11:03ID: 25293376

Use the Dell Server Build and Update Utility to create your first Raid 5 Virtual Disk of 100Gig and Install your OS on to it, your partition size will be the default size of 100Gig, now you don't have to make the OS Virtual Disk 100Gig, you can go as low as 12Gig if you don't intend on installing any real apps.

Follow the instructions to installing Windows Server (do not select to install the Open Manage, install it after windows is installed)
you will now have 1 Disk showing in Disk Management
Install Open Manage, select the custom install and verify that the storage option is selected to install
Using Open Manage navigate to Storage / Perc Controller / Virtual Disks
Select to create a new VD - Raid 5 - All remaining space available
Once this is done go back to Windows Disk Management and you will see the new disk. Initialize the disk and right click on it to change it to a Dynamic Disk - Assign the drive letter and your done

SBUU - http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=RC1009777&l=en&s=fed&releaseid=R181938&SystemID=PWE_P4_830&servicetag=&os=WNET&osl=en&deviceid=17782&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=1&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=36&fileid=248199

Dell Open Manage 6.1 - http://ftp.us.dell.com/sysman/OM_6.1.0_ManNode_A00.exe

 

by: dkoeglerPosted on 2009-09-11 at 12:48:56ID: 25312905

I will give your recommendation a try this weekend and will let you know how it works.  Thanks

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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