Hey there Experts,
I'm getting ready to build an Ubuntu Desktop box that I'll be using for a virtual machine server using Ubuntu desktop and virtualbox. I would like to create a RAID array to allow for hard drive fault tolerance but I'm a little shaky on the details of this, especially in Ubuntu.
I have 3 500GB SATA drives that I would like to use for the array. I also have a 250GB SATA drive which came with my server. I think I would like RAID5.
I guess the most basic question is this:
Should I add the 250GB drive, install Ubuntu on it, and then create my array from the three 500GB drives to hold my VMs? or
Should I just leave the 250GB drive out of the picture and install Ubuntu and my array on the three 500GB drives.
It seems counter-intuitive to me to use the 250GB for the OS but I have seen this setup referenced on the web.
Anyway, any help you can give will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
PS - there is no hardware RAID controller and the budget is shoestring so we'll be sticking w/ software RAID.
Does your motherboard support RAID 1 (mirroring) or RAID 10 (mirror + stripe)?
If it does a 4th 500GB disk might be a worthwhile investment as a RAID 10 over 4 disks would give you a far faster disk access than RAID 5 as there is no parity bit to calculate - although it would, of course only give you 1TB of storage from the 4x 500GB disks.
Considering that an additional drive is only about £30 including VAT you might be able to afford that: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/241715