Best RAID1 Configuration For workstation
Hello all,
I'm configuring an HP Z420 workstation with a 1TB SSD system drive (Boot /OS Drive) and two Enterprise 4TB SATA HDD for storing all my data in RAID1 . I wanted to know what the best RAID1 configuration would have the best performance for how I will be using it.
I mostly will use the workstation for document editing (word, excel, PDF, PowerPoint, Visio, etc.), internet , watching videos.
I plan to store A LOT of personal photos (thousands) in RAW format (each can be 15MB to 40MB) on the 4 TB RAID1. I do some minor photo editing on photos using Google photos and I also store personal video files as well. I rarely edit videos and they are usually no more than 15min long but I do have a few longer than 1hr.
The workstation has the following RAID CARD:
LSI Logic SAS9260-8I SGL -8PORT, Int 6GB SAS/sata, Pcie 2.0, 512MB RAID Card WITH a battery backup on the card itself. I also have a UPS for the computer as well.
The RAID configuration page has the following options (Image attached):
- Raid Level (I chose RAID 1)
-Stripe Size ( the options here are- 8kb, 16kb, 32kb, 64kb, 128kb, 256kb, 512kb, 1MB)
-Access Policy (RW is the default)
-Read Policy (options here are- Normal or Ahead)
-Write Policy (I chose Write Back with BBU since I have the Battery backup unit but other options are Write through, Always write back, write back w/ BBU)
-IO Policy (Options here are- Direct or Cached)
-Drive Cache (Options here are- NoChange, Enable or Disable)
-Disable BGI (options here are- Yes, or No)
-Select Size (Here I'll be putting the whole 4TB to use)
Thank you in advance, I appreciate the help!
RAID1.jpg
I'm configuring an HP Z420 workstation with a 1TB SSD system drive (Boot /OS Drive) and two Enterprise 4TB SATA HDD for storing all my data in RAID1 . I wanted to know what the best RAID1 configuration would have the best performance for how I will be using it.
I mostly will use the workstation for document editing (word, excel, PDF, PowerPoint, Visio, etc.), internet , watching videos.
I plan to store A LOT of personal photos (thousands) in RAW format (each can be 15MB to 40MB) on the 4 TB RAID1. I do some minor photo editing on photos using Google photos and I also store personal video files as well. I rarely edit videos and they are usually no more than 15min long but I do have a few longer than 1hr.
The workstation has the following RAID CARD:
LSI Logic SAS9260-8I SGL -8PORT, Int 6GB SAS/sata, Pcie 2.0, 512MB RAID Card WITH a battery backup on the card itself. I also have a UPS for the computer as well.
The RAID configuration page has the following options (Image attached):
- Raid Level (I chose RAID 1)
-Stripe Size ( the options here are- 8kb, 16kb, 32kb, 64kb, 128kb, 256kb, 512kb, 1MB)
-Access Policy (RW is the default)
-Read Policy (options here are- Normal or Ahead)
-Write Policy (I chose Write Back with BBU since I have the Battery backup unit but other options are Write through, Always write back, write back w/ BBU)
-IO Policy (Options here are- Direct or Cached)
-Drive Cache (Options here are- NoChange, Enable or Disable)
-Disable BGI (options here are- Yes, or No)
-Select Size (Here I'll be putting the whole 4TB to use)
Thank you in advance, I appreciate the help!
RAID1.jpg
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It doesn’t matter. The limited amount of I/O you do means you won’t see a measurable difference no matter how you configure it.
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Thank you all for the input, I appreciate it.
BTW I should've put on my explanation that the reason for a RAID 1 was I want to make sure that if the disk fails I won't have any down time. Not as a backup for my data.
Thank you all again!
BTW I should've put on my explanation that the reason for a RAID 1 was I want to make sure that if the disk fails I won't have any down time. Not as a backup for my data.
Thank you all again!
I wouldn't even use RAID1. I'd just make a manual copy and use the 2nd disk as backup. Putting them in RAID 1 means that both disks get written to at exactly the same time with the exact same life and power usage and the same wear and tear
For home use, it would make more sense to just have 2 disks, with the 2nd disk set as a backup copy that you periodically sync up. This will reduce the total wear and tear on the 2nd disk. I would just schedule a task for robocopy. Depending on how often you add data to your storage, you can set the schedule of the backup from hourly to as long as weekly.
If the first disk dies, you can make the 2nd disk your primary and buy a future backup disk that has even more capacity. If you want to deduplicate the data, you can get the free version of hardlinkbackup. https://www.lupinho.net/en/hardlinkbackup/
With both disks set as RAID 1, you would have no backup disk. Even better would be to put the 2nd disk as an external backup that you periodically connect in case of ransomeware. This would be better than RAID1.