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IBM ServeRAID M5015 LSI MegaRAID Setup
Hi,
I have recently purchased an IBM X3500 M3 server with an M5015 raid card.
I have just finished setting up a RAID 1 and RAID5 within the LSI MegaRAID BIOS Config Utility and would like some feedback on whether I have completed my implementation correctly. This is the first time I have used the LSI MegaRAID config Utility and it seemed quite confusing as opposed to adaptec.
My configuration is made up of 8 physical drives:
2 x 146GB 15K SAS
6 x 300GB 10K SAS
I wanted to setup the disks in the following 2 arrays:
1 x RAID1 using 2 x 146GB Drives
1 x RAID5 using 5 x 300GB Drives
I then wanted to use the 6th 300GB drive as a global Hot Spare for either RAID array shall one fail.
Can you please see the final Logical view screenshot below and let me know if this looks correct.
Also let me know if you believe any of my design could have been done better.
The system is to house SBS2011 with OS on RAID1 and files for file server, sharepoint and exchange on RAID5.
Logical-View.png
I have recently purchased an IBM X3500 M3 server with an M5015 raid card.
I have just finished setting up a RAID 1 and RAID5 within the LSI MegaRAID BIOS Config Utility and would like some feedback on whether I have completed my implementation correctly. This is the first time I have used the LSI MegaRAID config Utility and it seemed quite confusing as opposed to adaptec.
My configuration is made up of 8 physical drives:
2 x 146GB 15K SAS
6 x 300GB 10K SAS
I wanted to setup the disks in the following 2 arrays:
1 x RAID1 using 2 x 146GB Drives
1 x RAID5 using 5 x 300GB Drives
I then wanted to use the 6th 300GB drive as a global Hot Spare for either RAID array shall one fail.
Can you please see the final Logical view screenshot below and let me know if this looks correct.
Also let me know if you believe any of my design could have been done better.
The system is to house SBS2011 with OS on RAID1 and files for file server, sharepoint and exchange on RAID5.
Logical-View.png
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Thanks for all the comments guys, I appriciate it.
As you said g4ugm, you can upgrade the x3500 m3 to a total of 16 drives with 2 RAID cards and hot swap cages. However this upgrade without taking into consideration the extra drives; costs about $2K extra.
Although I will keep the configuration the same for this case (as you said I've passed the no return mark) I do want to take on all your suggestions for future, larger SBS implementations.
For more info on the current server, the client only has 5 users and sharepoint will not be a major use in the company so I don't believe I will see any major performance issues with such strains.
For a company of 25 users or more though would it be better to split the RAID's more like below (8 Drive config):
RAID1 of 2 x 146GB 10K SAS = OS
RAID1 of 2 x 74GB 10K SAS = Sharepoint
RAID5 of 3 x 300GB 10K SAS = Exchange and data files
1 x 300GB 10K SAS Global Hot Spare
I changed the OS drives to 10K aswell as per your previous comment on wasted money, is this correct? If anything would it be better to upgrade the 2 x 74GB drives for sharepoint to 15K drives?
I know its a little off topic but I also have the following system to design that consists of a virtual environment: Server 2008 R2 for Hyper-V + virtual machines (SBS2011 + Server 2008 R2 for remote desktop services and application server).
The array for such a virtual box was going to be as follows:
RAID1 of 2 x 74GB 10K SAS Drive for Hyper-V OS
RAID6 of 5 x 300GB 10K SAS Drives (for all virtual disks of other OS's and databases)
1 x 300GB 10K SAS global hot spare
I had read that with a virtual environment it is better not to split off to seperate physical arrays but to instead use a single large array for all virtual machine drives, do you both agree with this?
As you said g4ugm, you can upgrade the x3500 m3 to a total of 16 drives with 2 RAID cards and hot swap cages. However this upgrade without taking into consideration the extra drives; costs about $2K extra.
Although I will keep the configuration the same for this case (as you said I've passed the no return mark) I do want to take on all your suggestions for future, larger SBS implementations.
For more info on the current server, the client only has 5 users and sharepoint will not be a major use in the company so I don't believe I will see any major performance issues with such strains.
For a company of 25 users or more though would it be better to split the RAID's more like below (8 Drive config):
RAID1 of 2 x 146GB 10K SAS = OS
RAID1 of 2 x 74GB 10K SAS = Sharepoint
RAID5 of 3 x 300GB 10K SAS = Exchange and data files
1 x 300GB 10K SAS Global Hot Spare
I changed the OS drives to 10K aswell as per your previous comment on wasted money, is this correct? If anything would it be better to upgrade the 2 x 74GB drives for sharepoint to 15K drives?
I know its a little off topic but I also have the following system to design that consists of a virtual environment: Server 2008 R2 for Hyper-V + virtual machines (SBS2011 + Server 2008 R2 for remote desktop services and application server).
The array for such a virtual box was going to be as follows:
RAID1 of 2 x 74GB 10K SAS Drive for Hyper-V OS
RAID6 of 5 x 300GB 10K SAS Drives (for all virtual disks of other OS's and databases)
1 x 300GB 10K SAS global hot spare
I had read that with a virtual environment it is better not to split off to seperate physical arrays but to instead use a single large array for all virtual machine drives, do you both agree with this?
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Thanks Guys all answers were relevant and enhanced on the original Q.
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Computer data storage, often called storage or memory, is a technology consisting of computer components and recording media used to retain digital data. In addition to local storage devices like CD and DVD readers, hard drives and flash drives, solid state drives can hold enormous amounts of data in a very small device. Cloud services and other new forms of remote storage also add to the capacity of devices and their ability to access more data without building additional data storage into a device.