Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Dedicated Server : Help out a confused newbie? Why is RAID 1 needed, just use a backup system/server?

[Tristan Perry]

Hey all,
I haven't yet broken into the realms of dedicateds, although I have a decent VPS and am anticipating the need to get a dedi in the future.

Hence I'm wondering briefly why exactly RAID (insert some random number?) is recommended? I know it does something to do preventing hard drive failure, although would an efficient backup system be a decent alternative with regards to cost?

Thanks,
Tristan Perry

[BurstNET]

So you don't waste the time restoring the data from backups...
.
.

[Tristan Perry]

Fair enough So how exactly does RAID work? I must be getting a bit confused here. It's not like an automatic backup system, it simply prevents hard drives from failing?

[sshum]

RAID 1 with 2 hard drives, will mirror all data on both drives, so if one drive fails, all data is on the other drive. Therefore you don't spend a lot of time getting backups and restoring them.

Im not sure about the other RAIDs

[tkam]

Actually it's not preventing drive failure it's preventing loss of data when a drive (or drives depending on the raid type) die.

Here's a good resource for getting a basic understanding of the different raid levels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

[Sam Robertson]

THIS Explains the different types of raids

[Tristan Perry]

Some nice info there, thanks all

[paulius]

It's also very important to point out that a RAID array is NOT a replacement for doing regular backups.

There are times when a RAID array can complety fail (it has happened many times to lots of people) and you lose all the data on your array.

The primary reason for getting a RAID array is to avoid downtime. If a drive fails in the middle of the night, you might not be available to restore the server. Even if you're available the same minute when the failure happens, your server will still have downtime while a new hard drive and operating system are installed and backups are restored.