Which SATA drives for large RAID 5 array?
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From: Eli on 23 Mar 2005 19:01 I'm putting together an iSCSI storage array in a 3U hot-swappable chassis. Up to 15 drives, though I'll start with 7 to 10, depending on individual the drive size. Which current line of drives would you recommend for this task? - Western Digital's "RAID Edition"? - Seagate, with the 5 year warranties? - Some other? Speed is much less of a concern than reliability. The array will be worked fairly hard. Are there actually any differences between Western Digital's RAID Edition and their other SATA drives? Is Seagate's 5 year warranty any indication of their suitability to high load tasks, or is more of a marketing angle?
From: dg on 23 Mar 2005 19:22 The RAID edition drives have 1 major difference. I am not going to explain it perfectly, know that now, I only read the info once. With ordinary SATA drives if the drive takes too long to respond, the RAID controller MIGHT assume that the drive is bad and run the array in a degraded state. As you can tell, this could cause major problems. If you had 2 drives assumed bad just because they took too long, your raid 5 array would die. I am under the impression that the RAID edition drives do something out of the ordinary to let the controller know they are NOT dead. Check WD website, they have a white paper on the new RAID drives. The seagate 5 year warranty may be purely marketing. I suppose you could look at the MTBF ratings and see if they make you feel better. The 5 year warranty IS purely a marketing strategy, I mean, why else would they do it? Im not saying the drives aren't good, but what other reason could they have for extending the warranty-they want people buying their drives. --Dan "Eli" <nospam(a)thanks.com> wrote in message news:da0441d2gcjtvjhnte8r29qlp4vh469aue(a)4ax.com... > I'm putting together an iSCSI storage array in a 3U hot-swappable > chassis. Up to 15 drives, though I'll start with 7 to 10, depending > on individual the drive size. > > Which current line of drives would you recommend for this task? > > - Western Digital's "RAID Edition"? > - Seagate, with the 5 year warranties? > - Some other? > > Speed is much less of a concern than reliability. The array will be > worked fairly hard. > > Are there actually any differences between Western Digital's RAID > Edition and their other SATA drives? > > Is Seagate's 5 year warranty any indication of their suitability to > high load tasks, or is more of a marketing angle? >
From: Arno Wagner on 23 Mar 2005 20:24 Previously Eli <nospam(a)thanks.com> wrote: > I'm putting together an iSCSI storage array in a 3U hot-swappable > chassis. Up to 15 drives, though I'll start with 7 to 10, depending > on individual the drive size. > Which current line of drives would you recommend for this task? > - Western Digital's "RAID Edition"? > - Seagate, with the 5 year warranties? > - Some other? > Speed is much less of a concern than reliability. The array will be > worked fairly hard. Make sure you have hot or at least cold spares. Personally, with >8 drives I would not feel comfortable without a hot spare or RAID6. > Are there actually any differences between Western Digital's RAID > Edition and their other SATA drives? The RAID edition will stop recovery atempts on read errors after a short time and allows the controller to se a failed sead insted of a timed out (by the controller) disk access. I think this is fairly useless, unless you are running a degraded array for a longer time. If you do that you are practically begging for your data to be destroyed. > Is Seagate's 5 year warranty any indication of their suitability to > high load tasks, or is more of a marketing angle? Definitely higher reliability. Exchanging a drive under warranty causes significant cost with the manufacturer. Arno
From: J. Clarke on 23 Mar 2005 21:46 Arno Wagner wrote: > Previously Eli <nospam(a)thanks.com> wrote: >> I'm putting together an iSCSI storage array in a 3U hot-swappable >> chassis. Up to 15 drives, though I'll start with 7 to 10, depending >> on individual the drive size. > >> Which current line of drives would you recommend for this task? > >> - Western Digital's "RAID Edition"? >> - Seagate, with the 5 year warranties? >> - Some other? > >> Speed is much less of a concern than reliability. The array will be >> worked fairly hard. > > Make sure you have hot or at least cold spares. Personally, with >8 > drives I would not feel comfortable without a hot spare or RAID6. > >> Are there actually any differences between Western Digital's RAID >> Edition and their other SATA drives? > > The RAID edition will stop recovery atempts on read errors after a > short time and allows the controller to se a failed sead insted > of a timed out (by the controller) disk access. I think this is fairly > useless, unless you are running a degraded array for a longer time. > If you do that you are practically begging for your data to be destroyed. > >> Is Seagate's 5 year warranty any indication of their suitability to >> high load tasks, or is more of a marketing angle? > > Definitely higher reliability. Exchanging a drive under warranty > causes significant cost with the manufacturer. Which cost is built into the price. > Arno -- --John to email, dial "usenet" and validate (was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)
From: Arno Wagner on 24 Mar 2005 09:48
Previously J. Clarke <jclarke.usenet(a)snet.net.invalid> wrote: > Arno Wagner wrote: >> Previously Eli <nospam(a)thanks.com> wrote: >>> I'm putting together an iSCSI storage array in a 3U hot-swappable >>> chassis. Up to 15 drives, though I'll start with 7 to 10, depending >>> on individual the drive size. >> >>> Which current line of drives would you recommend for this task? >> >>> - Western Digital's "RAID Edition"? >>> - Seagate, with the 5 year warranties? >>> - Some other? >> >>> Speed is much less of a concern than reliability. The array will be >>> worked fairly hard. >> >> Make sure you have hot or at least cold spares. Personally, with >8 >> drives I would not feel comfortable without a hot spare or RAID6. >> >>> Are there actually any differences between Western Digital's RAID >>> Edition and their other SATA drives? >> >> The RAID edition will stop recovery atempts on read errors after a >> short time and allows the controller to se a failed sead insted >> of a timed out (by the controller) disk access. I think this is fairly >> useless, unless you are running a degraded array for a longer time. >> If you do that you are practically begging for your data to be destroyed. >> >>> Is Seagate's 5 year warranty any indication of their suitability to >>> high load tasks, or is more of a marketing angle? >> >> Definitely higher reliability. Exchanging a drive under warranty >> causes significant cost with the manufacturer. > Which cost is built into the price. Correct, but prices have to be competitive and Seagate is not massively more expensive than others... Arno |