RAID and disk setup for new starwind server

[billk]

I am looking to rebuild my current OpenFiler server with the starwind software if I can get some of my issues worked out.

Current setup:

Dell PowerEdge 1850, 4 GB RAM, PERC 5/e controller connected to MD 1000 DAS array with the following disk configuration:

4 10k 300 GB hard drives
4 15k 300 GB hard drives
7 7200 RPM 500 GB Near Line SAS drives

4 of the original 10ks failed after a lightning strike, so Dell only had 15ks available for replacement.

Currently these are partitioned into two raid sets:

4 10k, 4 15k in RAID 5 plus hot spare

7 500 GB drives are in RAID 50 I think with a hot spare

I am going to connect this array up to a Dell PowerEdge 1950 III server with two Intel L5410 quad core processors and 32 GB of RAM with six 1 gb network ports.

I am going to copy off all the data onto a 5 TB western digital sentinel drive that will become my backup array when I get this rebuilt.

The current array serves up iscsi volumes to two VMware ESXi 4.1 servers, and additionally has shared volumes for ISOs, installers, etc. that are accessible on the network.

What is the best way to utilize these drives so I get the best performance using Starwind's software?

[anton (staff)]

We do recommend RAID10 for both performance and fault tolerance. For a single (your case) or dual controller setups (dual controller could do other if you have a heavy backup) RAID10 is fine. With a triple controller you can go RAID0.

[billk]

Should i combine all 14 drives into a single raid 10 volume despite the mix of sizes and speed, keeping the 15th drive as a hot spare?

[Anatoly (staff)]

This decision is up to you, my friend. I would do it in the way that you have suggested.