Best RAID setup

[Subhro Kar]

On 26-Jan-2011, at 6:26 AM, Don O'Neil wrote:

> I'm getting ready to setup a new FreeBSD 8.1 64 bit server and wanted to
> know everyone's thoughts on which way to go. software RAID 5 (or 10) or
> hardware RAID 5 (or 10).

If you need to select between software and hardware RAID, then by all means go for hardware RAID. RAID 10 is always faster than RAID5 and the difference really stands out when writing data.

> I currently have a 3Ware card in one of my servers
> and it works great, but I haven't really been keeping up on what the latest
> RAID support is.


All RAID cards (that I have come across) support both RAID 10 and RAID5. So there is a fair chance that your card will not disappoint you.
> How is the ZFS support these days? Is it production ready?

ZFS is fine. I use it on my prod boxes and so far there have been no issues.

> What about hardware RAID, is there a compatibility list somewhere with what
> hardware (or pseudo hardware) RAID controllers are supported? 

Didn't get this question though.

> 
> 
> 
> I'm just looking for the most stable, and production ready RAID that can
> handle at least 1 TB disks and create volumes in the 3-4 TB range. Any
> thoughts, feedback, caveats, etc. are welcomed.

You need to RTFM.

Thanks
--
Subhro Kar
Visit my Blog: http://blog.80386.org