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Flexraid help deciding - Page 4

post #91 of 165
12/31/12 at 10:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Puwaha View Post

It's essentially a RAID 4. This level of RAID keeps the parity information on one drive instead of distributing it among all drives in RAID 5.

Not really, Raid 3 also uses a single parity disk. Flexraid is different than both because no striping is involved.
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post #92 of 165
1/1/13 at 1:23am
No, FlexRAID is nothing like RAID 3. RAID 3 stripes data across all the drives per byte, with the parity byte on one single disk. RAID 4 stripes data across all the drives on a block level using a single disk to store the parity block.

FlexRAID does block-level parity like in RAID 4, not byte-level parity in RAID 3... So it's closer to RAID 4 than anything else.

I've never seen RAID 3 in use anywhere, as it's pretty inefficient. Having to read a byte at a time sequentially from each disk is very inefficient compared to RAID 4 and 5 where they read whole blocks of data in parallel from all the disks at the same time. I worked at a company that built Video-on-Demand servers back in the mid-90's (way ahead of their time), and they preferred RAID 4 over 5 (writes are very slow, but read speed is excellent on RAID 4, mainly because you don't have to skip the parity block [re-seek the head] on reads like you would in a sequential RAID 5 read.) For serving up multiple large sequential write-once-read-many files like video files, RAID 4 is tops.
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post #93 of 165
1/1/13 at 9:44am
But Flexraid does not stripe across drives
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post #94 of 165
1/1/13 at 9:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Puwaha View Post

No, FlexRAID is nothing like RAID 3. RAID 3 stripes data across all the drives per byte, with the parity byte on one single disk. RAID 4 stripes data across all the drives on a block level using a single disk to store the parity block.
FlexRAID does block-level parity like in RAID 4, not byte-level parity in RAID 3... So it's closer to RAID 4 than anything else.
I've never seen RAID 3 in use anywhere, as it's pretty inefficient. Having to read a byte at a time sequentially from each disk is very inefficient compared to RAID 4 and 5 where they read whole blocks of data in parallel from all the disks at the same time. I worked at a company that built Video-on-Demand servers back in the mid-90's (way ahead of their time), and they preferred RAID 4 over 5 (writes are very slow, but read speed is excellent on RAID 4, mainly because you don't have to skip the parity block [re-seek the head] on reads like you would in a sequential RAID 5 read.) For serving up multiple large sequential write-once-read-many files like video files, RAID 4 is tops.

You're original post said Flexraid "was essentially Raid 4", and that's not the case. While there are similarities to Raid 4, it's the differences that make Flexraid (and others) attractive alternatives to traditional Raid.

You're latest post above, says "it's closer to Raid 4 than anything else", and that I agree with completely. Didn't want anyone thinking that Flexraid was just Raid 4 under another name, and I don't think you meant to imply that either.

Both Raid 3 and 4 use a single disk to store the parity, and in that sense, both are similar to Flexraid. I'm aware that Raid 3 was seldom (perhaps never) used, but Raid 4 has also virtually disappeared from the landscape.

Again, I wasn't trying to start a fight, I just didn't (don't) agree that Flexraid "is essentially Raid 4".
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post #95 of 165
1/1/13 at 2:44pm
Eh, so be it.

I just noticed something... I've been on this site for 10 years now.
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post #96 of 165
1/2/13 at 6:04am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Puwaha View Post

Eh, so be it.
I just noticed something... I've been on this site for 10 years now.

I'm there with ya. smile.gif

That's a lot of AVS!
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post #97 of 165
1/7/13 at 1:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dark_Slayer View Post

Thanks in advance for any input following my questions
My storage array is growing, and I have no parity protection. Flexraid looks very suited to my needs, but I'm not completely sold on it yet. I really like the idea, but I was looking for advice from others before diving headfirst so . . .
A few questions for those that use storage pooling
  1. Where do you mount your drives to prevent UAC headaches for network sharing? http://wiki.flexraid.com/2011/09/29/tips-mounting-your-drives-as-folders-on-windows/
  2. I'm starting with a couple full drives, and I'd like to keep the quasi-organization I have. Is this possible (i.e. HDMovies, Movies, Music)
  3. I'd like the folders I create within the pool to span drives of my choosing only, is this how you do it or is it easier just to flatten everything then pool it up and re-organize?
  4. This may seem silly, trivial but how do you create folder in the pool and give it permissions to which drives it can write to?
I guess it seems like I'm trying to work around the pooling, but I'd prefer to do it this way to minimize unknowns. I just like the idea of having several drives for HD movies, a single drive for movies and tv shows, and a different drive for pictures/music/docs. What I was hoping to benefit from was less mappings on the network, health monitoring, and some level of data loss protection

Did you ever decide? update?
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post #98 of 165
1/7/13 at 1:37pm
Thread Starter 
Decided

It's on the list, but not at the highest priority

I'm consolidating my movies to a smaller number of drives

I'm also going to use the ntfs folder mount option for each of them

Thanks for all the info and help

I'll get there when I get there smile.gif
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post #99 of 165
1/8/13 at 11:11am
So you just mount each drive as mapped network drive ?
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post #100 of 165
1/8/13 at 2:10pm
Thread Starter 
Nah, I mean that I use an all in one HTPC server that does just about everything.

Now it's going to point everything it does to a pooled drive with parity protection.

I meant that each drive is getting mounted under an NTFS folder like C : / Mounts / Disk01

Little more copy/paste clean up while the wife and I are out of the house, and I'll have consolidated the collection to 2 4TB drives and 1 3TB with a 4TB for parity, leaving lots of room to grow on the other 3 3TB and miscellaneous 1.5TB, 1TB, etc
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post #101 of 165
1/8/13 at 2:11pm
Thread Starter 
I'll probably leave the fastest drive (1TB WD blue) outside the protection/pool for scratch space
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post #102 of 165
1/18/13 at 12:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dark_Slayer View Post

I'll probably leave the fastest drive (1TB WD blue) outside the protection/pool for scratch space

I use a local installed drive for scratch space. You can even boost it with a small SSD cache or RAM disk.

I use two 7200rpm 1TB in RAID 0 as a single 2TB scratch disk on my deskstop.

Smart idea.
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post #103 of 165
1/18/13 at 12:22pm









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post #104 of 165
1/18/13 at 1:15pm
Thread Starter 
Are you just looking for an excuse to post pictures of that Cosmos case?

I would be too if I had it
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post #105 of 165
1/18/13 at 1:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dark_Slayer View Post

Are you just looking for an excuse to post pictures of that Cosmos case?

I would be too if I had it

That's flocko's case and server.

I built it for him.
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post #106 of 165
1/18/13 at 2:06pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin View Post

That's flocko's case and server.
I built it for him.

My mistake

How'd you label the HDDs? I saw the numbers on the sata cables, but did you add anything on the drive itself? I was thinking of writing on the printed label so I could keep track of them
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post #107 of 165
1/19/13 at 10:04am
lol... I meant to post those picture in the other thread when I linked your build thread for that server.

HOW DID IT END UP HERE ??

Lol...

I think I must have posted in the wrong tab... on my browser... haha.

My bad.

Yes you figured it out. I just saw this now. Sorry.

I linked that Assassin server project thread in another thread about the server vs NAS and just wanted to throw some pictures for eye candy with the link. I always liked how that Goliath server build looked. It's trick and neat looking with the white on black IMO. It all matched up nice.

Sorry for the confusion.

No that is not my desktop COSMOS case. (mine's bigger: eek.gif )


Edited by Mfusick - 1/19/13 at 10:09am
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post #108 of 165
1/19/13 at 10:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dark_Slayer View Post

My mistake

How'd you label the HDDs? I saw the numbers on the sata cables, but did you add anything on the drive itself? I was thinking of writing on the printed label so I could keep track of them

I use a label maker I took from my office. I originally bought it at COSTCO. They are cheap.

Any office supply store has a stick on label maker. Works really good for HDD's or wire labels.
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post #109 of 165
2/8/13 at 5:19pm
Thread Starter 
I now have well labeled HDDs (labeled sata cables as well) and a Flexraid license

5 minutes at 104 MB/s and my parity is 1% complete eek.gif

This is going to take a while, guess it's a Theater movie night smile.gif
Edited by Dark_Slayer - 2/8/13 at 6:10pm
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post #110 of 165
2/8/13 at 6:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dark_Slayer View Post

I know have well labeled HDDs (labeled sata cables as well) and a Flexraid license

5 minutes at 104 MB/s and my parity is 1% complete eek.gif

This is going to take a while, guess it's a Theater movie night smile.gif

lol

I am doing mine now too.

20TB

I am on about 28%

haha...
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post #111 of 165
2/8/13 at 6:10pm
Dark Slayer what kind of case you have ?
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post #112 of 165
2/8/13 at 6:11pm
Thread Starter 
58 minutes and 10%, guess the time and percentage is pretty accurate
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post #113 of 165
2/8/13 at 6:13pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mfusick View Post

Dark Slayer what kind of case you have ?

Thermaltake armor
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post #114 of 165
2/8/13 at 9:26pm
I recently jumped on the FlexRAID ship too. My media collection is ever growing like all of you and needed some sort of protection. Loving it thus far. It took 11 hours to compute my 3TB worth of data when I first initialized the pool, lol.

And can you guys link to which label maker you are using?

Dark_Slayer, some pics of your server will be appreciated ^_^
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post #115 of 165
2/8/13 at 9:42pm
Reading some of the posts in the previous pages, a question arises in my mind. Let's say you have 10DRUs and 2PPUs. 1 DRU and one 1 PPU fails, will the DRU still be recoverable? What about the PPU? What if 2 DRUs and 1 PPU fails, what happens in that case?
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post #116 of 165
2/9/13 at 7:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dark_Slayer View Post

Thermaltake armor

nice. Oldschool like mine?

Or new school ?

I have my full 10 bay tower Armor with all the accessories just sitting around now. It's a shame cause it was a nice case.

I replaced all the fans. Added the HDD bays. Added USB3.0. Have bunch of Sata and Sata power accessories.

I should have just went with the Norco in the first place. I probably spent an extra $100 retrofitting that case to be a server machine, then replaced it anyways.
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post #117 of 165
2/9/13 at 7:56am
Quote:
Originally Posted by amarshonarbangla View Post

I recently jumped on the FlexRAID ship too. My media collection is ever growing like all of you and needed some sort of protection. Loving it thus far. It took 11 hours to compute my 3TB worth of data when I first initialized the pool, lol.

And can you guys link to which label maker you are using?

Dark_Slayer, some pics of your server will be appreciated ^_^

I think it is a brother or a Ptouch.


We have a few of them in my office we use to label the tops of folders.

They sell a 2 pack at Costco for like $14.

Works well.

http://www.staples.com/Brother-Refurbished-RPT-1290-Label-Maker/product_365078
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post #118 of 165
2/9/13 at 7:59am
Mine has completed... and I now have new 20TB drive. Everything worked great.

I have a few 2TB and one more 3TB seagate I want to include. But I am going to copy over some data first. I want to use the 3TB seagate for Parity and sell of the WD green, and two 2TB greens.

I'll use the cash for another 3TB Seagate.
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post #119 of 165
2/9/13 at 8:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by amarshonarbangla View Post

Reading some of the posts in the previous pages, a question arises in my mind. Let's say you have 10DRUs and 2PPUs. 1 DRU and one 1 PPU fails, will the DRU still be recoverable? What about the PPU? What if 2 DRUs and 1 PPU fails, what happens in that case?

I'll take a crack at this:

You can only handle as many simultaneous failures as you have PRU drives. So I believe you might be ok in that situation.

I know you can use 2 PRU and suffer 2 DRU failures.

The chances of having two simultaneous failures and one of them being a PRU is very unlikely. I am not sure even if you could not recover that would be much of a negatative factor against FLEXRAID. I just don't see that happening.

I think 99% of the time your just going to suffer a failed drive. rebuild/replace it and move on.

I have never had two drives go bad at the exact same time. Especially since most users are using drives of different sizes, brands and purchase dates. The chance for simultaneous failure is small.

Power surge /lightning might but honestly I think that is over rated as a serious threat too. That almost never happens.
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post #120 of 165
2/9/13 at 8:04am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dark_Slayer View Post

58 minutes and 10%, guess the time and percentage is pretty accurate

how long did it take ?

Mine took a while but was done when I woke up.
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