Re: RAID Newbie question...

"never use software RAID" is no longer true in today's environment, there have been tremendous advances made, Veritas is a great example.

9 months ago I configured 2 A1000 hardware RAID arrays with an E450. Nice system but the A1000's are expensive and restrict how you can configure the volumes. Plus, the A1000's have a single point of failure in that they only have one controller each. (sorry, I'm sticking to Sun hardware because it is what I'm familiar with)

Just recently I configured 2 A3500's, software RAID using Veritas. I was very skeptical at first about using software RAID (given the long standing bias against software RAID), but Vertias has their stuff together. The hit on the CPU is less than 5% (CPU usage is the biggest drawback to software RAID.) The A3500's are configured 0+1, are smoking fast and configuration is a snap (and flexible) using Veritas. Using Veritas I'm also able to implement Quick I/O which provides raw disk throughput with the administration benefits of cooked disks.

Jeez, I sound like a Veritas rep, but I'm not.

In article <93eihq$i1h$1_at_news.inet.tele.dk>,   "Lehmann" <Spaceboy_NOoneSPAM_at_hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hi
>
> Raid 5 will create one disk available for you, which in some operation
> systems can be divided into several filesystems.
>
> BUT: Raid 5 is ot optimal for running a database. You might get some
> security but not performance, because of the nature of disk I/O.
> What you should do is to ask your manager for more disks and make and
 raid
> 0+1 solution. This is more expensive, but performance us much better
 and you
> gor the security of the mirror.
> What OS are we talking about. Knowing this might give me some ideas
 of what
> you could do.
>
> > If so, how does a DBA allocate his/her database on this array?
> The DBA must have RW access to the disksystem/filesystem ofcouse.
 Oracle
> uses normal filesystem files (if raw devices aren¨t used) like
 anything
> else. My guess is that we are talking Windoze NT/2000, right? If this
 is
> true your datafiles might be allocated on D: - where D: is a RAID 5
> disksystem. BTW. remember NEVER use software raid - It's to slow!
>
> Hope this helps
> Lehmann
>
> You could check out these raid webpages for more raid info:
> http://www.hardwarecentral.com/hardwarecentral/tutorials/36/1/ or
> http://ssdweb01.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/diskdrls/ramref/ramref5.htm
> http://www.sunworld.com/swol-06-1999/swol-06-raid1.html <-----This is
> good!!!
> <gdas_at_my-deja.com> wrote in message news:93efdm$5h4
 $1_at_nnrp1.deja.com...
> > Hi,
> > I'm hoping someone can help. I've been doing alot of reading of
 RAID
> > stripping levels and everything seems clear (but no hands-on
 experience
> > yet).
>
>

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http://www.deja.com/ Received on Wed Jan 10 2001 - 12:59:02 CST