Re: mkfs options for a 16x hw raid5 and xfs (mostly large files)

[Ralf Gross <Ralf-Lists@ralfgross.de>]

Bryan J Smith schrieb:
> Use multiple cards on multiple PCI-X/PCIe channels, each with
> their own RAID-5 (or 6) volume, and then stripe (OS LVM) RAID-0
> across the volumes.

The hardware is fixed to one PCI-X FC HBA (4Gb) and two 48x shelfs.
The performance I get with this setup is ok for us. The data will be
stored in bunches of multiple TB. Only few clients will access the
data, maybe 5-10 clients at the same time.
 
> Depending on your network service and application, you can use
> either hardware or software for the RAID-5 (or 6).
> If it's heavily read-only servicing, then software RAID works great,
> because it's essentially RAID-0 (minus 1 disc).
> But always use the OS RAID (e.g., LVM stripe) to stripe RAID-0
> across all volumes, assuming there is not an OS volume limit
> (of course ;).
> [...]

I always use SW-RAID for RAID0 and RAID1. But for RAID 5/6 I choose
either external arrays or internal controllers (Areca).

Ralf