mxrider_420
asked on
Custom server need RAID controller
Hi Folks,
I am looking at building a tower server. i7 server. I will be getting a large case so i can put in 6 hard drives as i want to VM this machine and have it be a RAID 10 config. (i assume thats the best RAID for VM's).
I am not sure what components to use but one of the MOST important things is a RAID controller. Does anyone know of any good ones that can do this? onboard or not, as I'm not sure a Perc6i etc... would work in a homebuilt.
Please help
thanks
I am looking at building a tower server. i7 server. I will be getting a large case so i can put in 6 hard drives as i want to VM this machine and have it be a RAID 10 config. (i assume thats the best RAID for VM's).
I am not sure what components to use but one of the MOST important things is a RAID controller. Does anyone know of any good ones that can do this? onboard or not, as I'm not sure a Perc6i etc... would work in a homebuilt.
Please help
thanks
raeldri
A full raid 10 seems like overkill for a home vm environment. Boot from an SD card or small SSD. your data paritions (where the VM's will live) a raid 5 or 6 will be more then sufficent, Multiple VM's can quickly overcome the throughput of a small number of hard drives. if you can afford it aim for more, smaller hard drives instead of fewer large ones, your performance will be much better.
Well for my system I use SSDs in RAID1, and then a RAIDZ2 (which is RAID6 on ZFS), as I don't want to even risk data loss in event of a single HDD failure ... but that i just me.
TO answer your question, you MUST get a controller that is on the hardware compatibility list (HCL). Many go with a LSI SAS/SATA controller, but you have to get the right one. I also strongly advise to get the battery backup daughterboard so in event of power loss or drive failure the onboard cache prevents data loss.
Also you really MUST get enterprise class disks because the decent controllers are designed to operate with disks that have been programmed for the proper error recovery timing. If you don't, then a single disk failure can quickly result into a dual failure if there are any bad blocks on surviving part of the RAID1 set that failed.
Frankly, it is much cheaper to go with consumer class disks and use the opensolaris/openindiana based system & the RAIDZ2 option. You can also use it with one or two SSDs to cover the performance hit on writes. Then you use a non-RAID controller.
Solaris's ZFS file system is designed to work just fine with consumer class disks. You can virtualize if you want, or just put much less money into it, and let it be the storage server with iscsi targets if you desire. You don't need a fast machine to do this. I built mine from a used PC site, got 5 x 2TB SATA disks (new) + 2 SSDs + computer for under $1000.
TO answer your question, you MUST get a controller that is on the hardware compatibility list (HCL). Many go with a LSI SAS/SATA controller, but you have to get the right one. I also strongly advise to get the battery backup daughterboard so in event of power loss or drive failure the onboard cache prevents data loss.
Also you really MUST get enterprise class disks because the decent controllers are designed to operate with disks that have been programmed for the proper error recovery timing. If you don't, then a single disk failure can quickly result into a dual failure if there are any bad blocks on surviving part of the RAID1 set that failed.
Frankly, it is much cheaper to go with consumer class disks and use the opensolaris/openindiana based system & the RAIDZ2 option. You can also use it with one or two SSDs to cover the performance hit on writes. Then you use a non-RAID controller.
Solaris's ZFS file system is designed to work just fine with consumer class disks. You can virtualize if you want, or just put much less money into it, and let it be the storage server with iscsi targets if you desire. You don't need a fast machine to do this. I built mine from a used PC site, got 5 x 2TB SATA disks (new) + 2 SSDs + computer for under $1000.
ASKER
so far i have:
2x HP DL360 G6 with 2 146 10k drives
1 DL 2950 with 6x 7200 SAS 750GB drives in a RAID 10
1x Cisco 1310 AP
1x Cisco 1242 AP
6 Linksys SPA942 ( Dedicated Trixbox to run it)
48 Port Cisco 3750G Switch with Advanced IP Services
Watchguard XTM 23w
So our setup is fairly robust, we run 3 VM's with VM Essentials Plus on the bigger 2950 box.
We are looking to build another server that will be our work horse preferably an i7 rather than a Xeon this time around. But if we take your suggestion with the smaller drives that is fine. But what if any is the best raid controller that will work with a 1366 chip set.
thanks
2x HP DL360 G6 with 2 146 10k drives
1 DL 2950 with 6x 7200 SAS 750GB drives in a RAID 10
1x Cisco 1310 AP
1x Cisco 1242 AP
6 Linksys SPA942 ( Dedicated Trixbox to run it)
48 Port Cisco 3750G Switch with Advanced IP Services
Watchguard XTM 23w
So our setup is fairly robust, we run 3 VM's with VM Essentials Plus on the bigger 2950 box.
We are looking to build another server that will be our work horse preferably an i7 rather than a Xeon this time around. But if we take your suggestion with the smaller drives that is fine. But what if any is the best raid controller that will work with a 1366 chip set.
thanks
Just go with the HP SMARTArray and the SAS disks. HP has all the drivers and add-on software on their support.hp.com site. In fact, they have pre-built VMWare distribution that you can just install on a USB stick if you wish.
ASKER
can you point me in the right direction please. are you talking about a HSA or last hand SAN?
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