Software Raid in windows 2003 server?
08-26-07, 20:32
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rubensans Join: Dec 2004 Posts: 181 |
Software Raid in windows 2003 server? Hello, Does anyone has a Raid 1 made by software in windows 2003 server? Any inconvenient on doing that? ex. http://www.netadmintools.com/art439.html I have 2 HDD but not a hardware raid card. Best Regards. |
08-26-07, 21:33
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 Rubal Helm Expert 
Join: May 2003 Posts: 12,804 |
Re: Software Raid in windows 2003 server? Quote:
This works fine as alternate solution if you dont have any RAID card on the machine and want to use internal Windows 2003 method. __________________ Rubal Jain / Rubal[at]Rubal.Net Helm 3/4 Server Support, Setups, Migrations, Moves, Restores / Windows Server Management Authorised Reseller of SmarterTools, Declude, SimpleDNS, Gene6, Helicon, Icewarp, Kayako, Lockstep BFWG etc. Contact for cheap Helm, DotNetPanel, SmarterTools Monthly Licenses Contact for Discounted SmarterMail v6/SmarterStats v4/SmarterTicket Licenses and Upgrades. Now all SmarterTools Monthly Licenses also available. |
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08-26-07, 21:54
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Rubal Helm Expert
Join: May 2003 Posts: 12,804 |
Re: Software Raid in windows 2003 server? You can try softwares like Acronis True Image or Backup for Workgroups .. __________________ Rubal Jain / Rubal[at]Rubal.Net Helm 3/4 Server Support, Setups, Migrations, Moves, Restores / Windows Server Management Authorised Reseller of SmarterTools, Declude, SimpleDNS, Gene6, Helicon, Icewarp, Kayako, Lockstep BFWG etc. Contact for cheap Helm, DotNetPanel, SmarterTools Monthly Licenses Contact for Discounted SmarterMail v6/SmarterStats v4/SmarterTicket Licenses and Upgrades. Now all SmarterTools Monthly Licenses also available. |
08-27-07, 00:06
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superiorit Join: Mar 2005 Posts: 947 |
Re: Software Raid in windows 2003 server? Software raid consumes system resources and is going to be slower then a hardware raid. Do yourself a favor and get a good hardware raid card like a 3ware or Areca. |
08-27-07, 23:12
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 M-Jay Join: Aug 2007 Posts: 41 |
Re: Software Raid in windows 2003 server? Promise card is designed for the lower half of the market (ie the poor side) You are correct in assuming that the SW RAID in 2003 does consume resources, but not a lot at all. In fact, if you don't have the money for a proper card and drive setup, it is DEFINATLY the way to go. Personal choice:- 1. 2003 SW RAID 2. Acronis True Image. __________________ FULL HELM 4 install's Just £99 - Ready to host! Windows Server Hardening - £99 - Bullet proof. |
08-28-07, 14:34
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superiorit Join: Mar 2005 Posts: 947 |
Re: Software Raid in windows 2003 server? I'll have to disagree with the resource useage. Under normal reads and writes, the resources useage is low, however under a rebuild, it is fairly resource intensive. Software raid also has some other drawbacks... 1. Speed. It will never be as fast as a true hardware solution. 2. Reliability. On a software raid, you are using the mobo's chipset. Many of these chipsets don't tolerate certain types of drive failure (ie. r/w errors, slow response, etc.) well and will cause crashing and lockups. The products we have had the most sucess with are 3Ware and Areca. We have also used the upper end Highpoint cards. Most Highpoint cards however offload the processing to the main CPU unlike the 3Ware and Areca cards. |
08-28-07, 15:48
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tweakservers Join: Aug 2006 Posts: 27 |
Re: Software Raid in windows 2003 server? 3ware so far looks good for us, you may consider it. __________________ Tweakservers.com ~ Server Setup & Support for Windows 2003 and Linux cPanel servers Authorized Reseller for SmarterTools,LiteSpeed Web Server,Paessler PRTG Network monitoring Tools, RapidSSL Certificates |
08-28-07, 16:00
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Rubal Helm Expert
Join: May 2003 Posts: 12,804 |
Re: Software Raid in windows 2003 server? Areca is faster and more advanced. __________________ Rubal Jain / Rubal[at]Rubal.Net Helm 3/4 Server Support, Setups, Migrations, Moves, Restores / Windows Server Management Authorised Reseller of SmarterTools, Declude, SimpleDNS, Gene6, Helicon, Icewarp, Kayako, Lockstep BFWG etc. Contact for cheap Helm, DotNetPanel, SmarterTools Monthly Licenses Contact for Discounted SmarterMail v6/SmarterStats v4/SmarterTicket Licenses and Upgrades. Now all SmarterTools Monthly Licenses also available. |
08-29-07, 00:07
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M-Jay Join: Aug 2007 Posts: 41 |
Re: Software Raid in windows 2003 server? Quote:
I agree that a Full processor'ed card is the way to go. Ive had goos experience with MSIlogic. __________________ FULL HELM 4 install's Just £99 - Ready to host! Windows Server Hardening - £99 - Bullet proof. |
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08-30-07, 02:09
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superiorit Join: Mar 2005 Posts: 947 |
Re: Software Raid in windows 2003 server? There is also the speed issue due to the raid being done at the driver level and it still uses CPU cycles during read and write. Many MSI cards are also sold under Adaptec and Dell. I agree 100% with Rubal. Areca is top notch for raid cards IMO. Over the years, we have had our hardware and customers we do support for lose drives. I have yet to lose data on an Areca based card. The Areca PCIe SATAII cards are extremely fast and reliable. We use them on all of our larger (10+ drive) Raid 6 arrays. Areca and 3ware also have good driver support with many *nix distros. |
09-13-07, 06:45
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CoderGuy Join: Jan 2004 Posts: 853 |
Re: Software Raid in windows 2003 server? 3Ware is good from a reliability standpoint, but I've had some performance issues with them for the price ratio they sell at. ACtually promise isn't too bad, but you have to be careful. Promise has entered more into the middle-stream like 3Ware now and they are direct competitors. I actually prefer the PRomise TX2300 for any Raid card under $80, as I have not had a single problem with it. However, Areca and some of the others as rubal mentioned are faster and a better solution. Almsot every RAID company I have seen has made a few lemons, so do specific research on product models before coming to a conclusion, also try to find benchmarks, as some RAID cards as slow as a dog.... __________________ Server & Biz Info Manager ( in development) SQL Web Tools for Helm Video ( in development) |
09-13-07, 15:10
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superiorit Join: Mar 2005 Posts: 947 |
Re: Software Raid in windows 2003 server? With most lower end Promise cards, Raid functions are performed at the driver level with the main CPU doing the work. They aren't much better then a software raid. Silicon Image, Intel ICH 5/6/7, VIA, Promise TX2/4/SX4, Adaptec 1210, etc. are all examples of this. Some have raid accelerator functions but are not true hardware raid cards. |
09-13-07, 20:15
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CoderGuy Join: Jan 2004 Posts: 853 |
Re: Software Raid in windows 2003 server? Correct, but I think they still quite a bit better than software RAID because of TCQ and NCQ. __________________ Server & Biz Info Manager ( in development) SQL Web Tools for Helm Video ( in development) |
10-08-07, 13:56
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rubensans Join: Dec 2004 Posts: 181 |
Re: Software Raid in windows 2003 server? Finaly the server that I got has a DELL 5i/R raid card. I installed them in RAID 1. Drives are 2 ST3146855SS http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.js...&reqPage=Model http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/data...etah_15k_5.pdf http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/mark...etah_15k_5.pdf Read performance is great but write performance is not very good because write caché is disabled. As far as I know is not recomended to activate write caché with raid cards that don't have batteries because if the server stops, you loose the caché and have disk corruption. What do you think about it? Write cache ON vs. write cache OFF  Best Regards, |
10-08-07, 15:10
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superiorit Join: Mar 2005 Posts: 947 |
Re: Software Raid in windows 2003 server? IF you lose power, the raid card will force a check and rebuild if write cache is enabled. |
10-08-07, 16:47
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rubensans Join: Dec 2004 Posts: 181 |
Re: Software Raid in windows 2003 server? Quote:
So the only drawback will be low performance during the rebuild? Thanks. |
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10-14-07, 11:10
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CoderGuy Join: Jan 2004 Posts: 853 |
Re: Software Raid in windows 2003 server? Theoretically, but they usually have a disclaimer saying "you may loose data". Doesn't that card have a battery module in it or ability to add one? If so this prevents the data loss or rebuild on write-cache enabled I believe. __________________ Server & Biz Info Manager ( in development) SQL Web Tools for Helm Video ( in development) |
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