Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Colocation and Data Centers : Raid Cards Recommendation

[HostNull]

Hi Guys,

I need help to choose the better choice in this case, i am building a new vps node with 4 RE3 HDD's.

Now after research here i found some guys go with software raid and some go with hardware raid.

So what is your recommendations guys for:

Raid 10 SATA
Raid 1 SATA
Raid 10 SSD
Raid 1 SSD

and soft or hard?

Thanks

[MikeTrike]

I've had good luck with the Adaptec 6405 + Flash Module.

http://www.adaptec.com/en-us/product...alue/sas-6405/

Deployed four Hyper-V boxes with 8 drives each. We needed storage more than I/O on those particular boxes. So we went with a 7-drive stripe in RAID6 + Hot Spare. They have been rock solid so far, even in difficult situations. i.e. they held up under total power loss testing situations; no data loss.

There's no way we could get away with soft/fake-RAID. It relies on the CPU, so if the CPU is being hammered. You risk corrupting your RAID array, which I've seen happen before; it's a PITA. Under light to moderate loads you'll generally be fine though.

I would stick with a hardware RAID card, as noted I'm a fan of Adaptec. Granted, the debate will no doubt rage on between Software and Hardware RAID. However 3ware/LSI/Intel is a good fit for most situations as well. Be sure to flash any new hardware to the latest firmware before deploying. That goes for server BIOS as well, not just the RAID card firmware.

Most SSD's are RAID1 friendly, however if you want to run RAID10 or something with an SSD; grab Crucial Pro series SSD's.

4 x RAID10 SATA will give you decent I/O and redundancy. Be sure to have a proper backup plan as well though. i.e. R1Soft, RSYNC or anything that replicates your data off the host to a safe location.

[FastServ]

LSI 9260-4i is a good alternative to Adaptec 6xxx series cost/performance wise if you want something that is supported in-kernel. Would have loved to try out the Adaptec cards but poor linux support of the 6xxx series and even worse customer support steered me to LSI.

[Softsys Hosting]

+1 for LSI 9260's - we're using 8i and 4i4e versions of these cards along with BBU and they've been very solid.

[HostNull]

Thank you guys, what about 3ware 9650SE-4LPML and adaptec 2405?

also any recommendations for raid 1 card for 2 SATA HDD's?

Thanks

[Softsys Hosting]

Adaptec 2405 works fine as well (it is however limited to 128MB cache and 3Gbps support only). It has been very solid for us over past several years and you can consider using it for RAID 1 setup of 2 SATA HDD's.

[MikeTrike]

Originally Posted by Softsys Hosting

Adaptec 2405 works fine as well (it is however limited to 128MB cache and 3Gbps support only). It has been very solid for us over past several years and you can consider using it for RAID 1 setup of 2 SATA HDD's.

It's a good card, just make sure write caching is disabled since it's not capable of a BBU.

[[CTI] Todd]

Originally Posted by MikeTrike

It's a good card, just make sure write caching is disabled since it's not capable of a BBU.

Which then makes it more or less useless.

[MikeTrike]

Originally Posted by [CTI] Todd

Which then makes it more or less useless.

That's kind of like saying RAID0 is useless because you don't have a use for it. There are practical applications for specific hardware. And the 2405 is a good card for specific practical applications.

Given the OP's requirements, I would not recommend the 2405 either. But it's still a good card, I still have about three of them.

[[CTI] Todd]

I do realize there will be some fringe cases, I don't have time to go over every possible scenario.

My comment was in reference to the OPs post, in which case he would likely would get the same, or better, ROI by lighting money on fire.

[mitgib]

How are people setting their 9260's with BBU? I've been using 3are forever and read the 9260 and 3ware 9750 are the same card, and the LSI branded card was less so picked up a bunch, but wow, what a config jungle for all these little settings.

[FastServ]

LSIiBBU07 or LSIiBBU08 is the BBU, you buy separately and self-install it.

[SnoorkAdvertiser]

Adaptec 5405Z does its job perfectly! We have a lot of servers deployed with those RAID cards and they work excellent.

[CentralHosts]

We are using the 3ware 9650SE with a BBU. It works great, never have had any issues.

[tkam]

I've seen a few recommendations for the LSI 9260 - I highly recommend the newer 9265-8i or 9285-8e instead. Much, much faster cards. They're even faster than the Adaptec 6000 series cards, though those are also excellent cards to use.

I also still like the older Adaptec 5405 and 5805 we have a bunch of them in the field and they've been fast and reliable.

On the lower end I still like the adaptec 2405, it's cheap and performs well (assuming you have write caching turned on).