RAID controller - RAID performance

Juergen Weiss ( (no email) )
Sun, 5 Jul 1998 20:33:15 +0200

I want to upgrade my production server with a raid-system. After reading
several docus I am not quite sure which solution I should use:

1.
RAID-controller with 1 SCSI port and 3 harddiscs with 4,3 Gb each setup as a
RAID 5 system. Then creating two partitions 1 Gb for system 7 Gb for data
and applications.

2.
RAID-controller with 3 SCSI ports and 2 harddiscs with 2 Gb setup as a
mirror (raid 1) for system and 3 harddiscs as raid 5 like mentioned above.
This should give better performance because there are 3 SCSI channels and
also reduced head-movements because the swap-file is not located on the
discs for the applications.

I am wondering if I need the extra performance of solution 2? My server
(Dual PPRO 200, 128 MB) is not much loaded, but running most of the
applications (IIS 4.0 www and ftp, Mailserver, DNS, Radius with access DB,
fileserver for internal use). I do not have performance problems right now
with my single 4,3 Gb disc, but want to have good fault tolarance.

Also can someone recommend a good and reliable controller?

I would appriciate any comments or ideas.

TIA
Juergen Weiss

Weiss Internet Services
D-74862 B i n a u
Tel. +49 6263 45036
Fax +49 6263 45037
weiss@wwweiss.de
http://wwweiss.de