XRaid FC – Things to know

[Floh Peters]

Some things to keep in mind:
– if you buy a new XServe RAID it does not matter anymore, but for older RAIDs there were 2 different models, one with 128MB per FC-controller and one with 512MB per controller. Definitely get the one with 512MB (all new models have 512 today).
– If you want to work in HD get at least 4 drives per channel (8 in total), and stripe them as RAID0 per channel, then as Raid00 (if this name does exist) in DiskUtility. If you have more drives you should do RAID5 per channel and then RAID 0 across both channels (RAID50).
– If you only connect one system to the XServe RAID you don

[Todd Gillespie]

Thanks Floh,
Quck follow up, what does the Raid 50 do? I understand about Raid 0, 3, 5, but does the Raid 50 take both of the Raid 0’s and group them as one?
If true, then what’s the differance than doing a Raid 0 accross the whole 8?

Also, do you use a Raid 5 configuration? We’re trying to minimize data loss.

Thanks,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Floh Peters]

[Todd at UCSB] “Quck follow up, what does the Raid 50 do? I understand about Raid 0, 3, 5, but does the Raid 50 take both of the Raid 0’s and group them as one?”

Yes.

[Todd at UCSB] “If true, then what’s the differance than doing a Raid 0 accross the whole 8?”

You cannot do that. The XServe RAID has 2 separate channels, and you only can stripe drives (with the hardware RAID controller) that are on the same channel.

[Todd at UCSB] “Also, do you use a Raid 5 configuration? We’re trying to minimize data loss.”

Yes, RAID 50 across 2*7 drives. But you should have at least 5 drives per channel for HD/RAID 50.

[Lawrence Marshall]

Todd, if you are interested, I am trying to sell my virtually-brand-new Xserve RAID. It’s a 5.6TB unit (fourteen 400-gig drives), currently striped as RAID 50. It has the 512 cache, battery backup modules, rack mount rails, and Apple Fiber card. As a bonus, it also has the Three-Year AppleCare warranty (fully transferrable to a new owner). It has pretty much every option you can buy with an Xserve RAID (including the cables and the Apple Fiber card).

I bought the unit at the end of December 2004 from ProMax, and have used it unit only once (as a bit bucket to store files while I worked on another array.) There are still two and a half years left on the extended warranty, which includes onsite repair of the XRaid if needed, free replacement drive modules if needed, priority phone tech support at Apple, etc.

I’ve been trying to sell this almost since I got it, as I suddenly found myself doing more location editing and decided I needed to get something more portable.

Contact me at marshallmediagroup.com if interested…

Larry Marshall

[Todd Gillespie]

Larry,
Interesting….
I couldn’t find how to contact u from the website?
You can contact me at:
gillespie [at] id[dot]ucsb[dot]edu

if not you can post another way for me to contact you.

thanks,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Lawrence Marshall]

Oops… sorry… that should have read
marshallmediagroup@comcast.net

Larry M