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Soliciting thoughts on large RAID volumes
I’m having a 16TB RAID 6 built. What are your thoughts on formating it as one large volume as apposed to partitioning into smaller volumes? Any advantages, pitfalls?
Warren
Warren Eig
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8 Replies
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If this array is attached to a single mac then why bother?
Some people think that they can organize better if they have separate drives or partitions. I think they are deluding themselves, because they can make separate folders in a single partition to do this. And, personally, I can search that single partition faster if I’ve organized it properly.
There’s certainly no extra security from partitioning. Partitioning would only complicate things, and maybe slow down the array.
If it’s being networked, then that becomes more of a SAN/workflow issue. Does the SAN software recommend it? Is there a workflow or organizational benefit to each user having a separate partition? Would one user have trouble rendering or exporting to the single partition if someone else were using the same one?
Arnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
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I guess my thought process was if it’s one big partition and the directory gets corrupt you lose everything. If it is partitioned and a directory gets corrupt you only lose that one partition.
Warren
Warren Eig
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Warren,
First, you should have a separate, independent back up of everything anyway… even if you’re using a raid scheme on the volume. So, the idea of one volume or several is moot.
We’re running a large shared san with four separate volumes (A, B, C, D) and they’re all over 15 TB. For us, the separate volumes are more based on workflow than anything else. One is for “on-line”, one is for archive, one is special projects, and the largest is for current shows in post.
In your case I’d suggest just one big one.
mark -
[Warren Eig] “I guess my thought process was if it’s one big partition and the directory gets corrupt you lose everything. If it is partitioned and a directory gets corrupt you only lose that one partition.”
But thats what RAID’s are for- large amounts of Data with redundant backups. A RAID 5 solution can have one drive fail and still maintain the data’s integrity RAID 6 allows failure of 2 drives in the array without data loss.
gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows
Inside look at the IoHD -
I was referring to directory corruption not drive failure. They are not the same thing. This will be running at RAID 6. If a directory becomes corrupt you lose all the data on the partition, even if the drives don’t fail.
We will be backing up. This is shared storage to cut a feature film.
Warren
Warren Eig
O 310-470-0905email: warren@babyboompictures.com
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I was referring to directory corruption not drive failure. They are not the same thing. This will be running at RAID 6. If a directory becomes corrupt you lose all the data on the partition, even if the drives don’t fail.
We will be backing up. This is shared storage to cut a feature film.
Warren
Warren Eig
O 310-470-0905email: warren@babyboompictures.com
website: https://www.babyboompictures.comhttps://babyboompictures.com/AFX_Movie2.html
https://babyboompictures.com/KnitWits_Movie.htmlEDITING REEL: https://www.babyboompictures.com/Editing_Reel.html
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[Warren Eig] “I was referring to directory corruption not drive failure. They are not the same thing. This will be running at RAID 6. If a directory becomes corrupt you lose all the data on the partition, even if the drives don’t fail. “
The process of maintaining file structure and data integrity is exactly what is happening with a hardware RAID. Since the directory info is also part of that redundancy it is checked and confirmed as part of the raid process- Raiding of an array maintains both the individual directory and bit info, but recursively backs that data to < multiple> additional locations.
This redundancy assures confirmation of the data’s integrity, not just the 1’s & 0’s on the disk, since the directory is part of that data structure it is backed up also.
I smoke drives and corrupt directories intentionally when testing hardware performance and I have not once ever had a directory just fail on any of the hardware raided arrays I have ever worked on.
gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows
Inside look at the IoHD -
Gary,
Thanks for that. That was what I wasn’t sure. I thought the directory was unique to each partition. You’ve now answered my question.
Again, thanks,
Warren
Warren Eig
O 310-470-0905email: warren@babyboompictures.com
website: https://www.babyboompictures.comhttps://babyboompictures.com/AFX_Movie2.html
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