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Hi,<br><br>
I am looking into purchasing a new server. This server will be
mission-critical. <br><br>
I have read and somewhat understood the theories behind RAIDs 0, 1, 5, 10
& JBOD. However, I would like to get some feedback from those who
have experience in implementing and recovering from a HDD failure using
RAID. <br><br>
Hardware specs include:-<br><br>
Dual Xeon 3.2 GHz<br>
2 GB RAM<br><br>
I would like to implement hardware RAID but am unsure as to which would
be most suitable for my needs. Any advice is appreciated. <br><br>
<b>Option 1</b> - RAID 5 (3 hdd's) + 1 hot spare<br><br>
<b>Option 2</b> - RAID 10 (4 hdd's) + 1 "cold" spare (in the
shelf)<br><br>
<br>
<b>Questions I have :-<br><br>
</b>1) When should RAID 5 be implemented? <br>
2) When should RAID 10 be implemented?<br>
3) Is RAID 5 with a hot spare safer than RAID 10 with a "cold"
spare?<br>
4) Is it possible to configure RAID 10 to have a hot spare? <br>
5) Should one of the HDDs fail, a hot spare w kick-in immediately and
begin rebuilding. As I am planning to put in 300 GB HDDs, how long would
this take on a RAID 5 vs. RAID 10? <br>
6) Will there be a degradation in performance for users on the system
(RAID 5 vs. RAID 10)? <br>
7) What are the disadvantages of using RAID 5 vs. RAID 10? <br><br>
Thanks in advance for answering my questions.<br><br>
Best Regards,<br>
Andrew<br><br>
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