XigmaNAS

Hi,

I need some advice about my hardware config for my nas4free.
* Supermicro X7SLA-H-O
* Memory 2Gb (Max)
* 8x 2Tb SATA Disks
* 1 Dell Perc 6/i controller

Purpose of nas4free
* Office documents for 4 users.
* Streaming audio / video / pictures
* Back-up

I have a second identical config for back-up

My worries
* Data corruption
* Monitoring hardware and RAID5 set
* Performance
* Power consumption

Hello
Raid5 with 8disks should be avoided. A double parity array is the way to go
In fact Raid should be voided, period.
The way to go is ZFS (e.g. Double Parity RaidZ2)
But with such little amount of memory, plus the fact that the proccessor is low performance, will perhaps lead to stable system, but not fast.
ZFS also needs to take control of your disks. I don't know if Perc controller supports IT mode. You can still use the Controller as RAID, but the best thing is in IT mode.
Data corruption should not be an issue with ZFS, but to be sure ECC Ram should be used (I don't use ECC, but it is recommended)
But I see that your motherboard supports non ECC..

@ChriZathens:

What's the power consumption of your NAS?
Why double parity. You mean if i loose one array the damage is minimized?
The intension of seperate controller is that i don't need the CPU power for the RAID calculations.
Why use ZFS?

Regards

cookiesmonster wrote:The intension of seperate controller is that i don't need the CPU power for the RAID calculations.

actually is better Soft Raid than Hardware RAID.

http://augmentedtrader.wordpress.com/20 ... ings-raid/
http://www.computerweekly.com/news/1367 ... s-and-cons

Please read more about ZFS in this powerfull powerpoint: http://forums.freenas.org/threads/slide ... oobs.7775/

cookiesmonster wrote:Why double parity. You mean if i loose one array the damage is minimized?

double parity = RaidZ2 is like raid6, you can lose 2 drives and your valuable data is still available, minimun disk number is 4, but can be more of course.