Windows home server & RAID1 Question

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viperguy

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#44567 28-Oct-2009 10:59

howdy guys and gals, just a quick question regarding WHS.

If i were to install it on a mobo-based RAID1 array, would WHS try to do its own thing to the drives, or would the mobo-based raid array appear as one drive to WHS?

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freitasm

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#267640 28-Oct-2009 11:15

You wouldn't need a RAID if using WHS. Let it do its own thing, will make recovery a lot easier if needed.

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viperguy

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#274786 20-Nov-2009 17:38

for peace of mind i went ahead and did it anyways, damned if it wasnt a mission slip-streaming the raid drivers into the install though

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#274802 20-Nov-2009 18:47

I don't think that was quite a good idea though...

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#274817 20-Nov-2009 19:46

WHS is a "just a bunch of disks" style NAS with file duplication/replication across multiple drives (where requested).

Using RAID1 is basically pointless complexity.

viperguy

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#274820 20-Nov-2009 19:51

not in terms of protecting the operating system partition

Ragnor

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#274823 20-Nov-2009 20:06

I don't really see the benefit of doing that when you can just do regular disk images of the OS partition, these will be pretty small and then use the 2nd drive you would have used for RAID1 for more storage space.

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#274826 20-Nov-2009 20:11

The OS doesn't need to be protected. If the drive fails just replace it - all the pointers will automatically be rebuilt when you reinstall it with the option of "Recover". The whole idea is to make it easy, quick to install if needed - and reduce the cost...

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redjet

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#274836 20-Nov-2009 21:06

freitasm: The OS doesn't need to be protected. If the drive fails just replace it - all the pointers will automatically be rebuilt when you reinstall it with the option of "Recover". The whole idea is to make it easy, quick to install if needed - and reduce the cost...

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The beauty of WHS is that you don't have to worry about RAID as it does it all for you.

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viperguy

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#274873 21-Nov-2009 00:22

freitasm: The OS doesn't need to be protected. If the drive fails just replace it - all the pointers will automatically be rebuilt when you reinstall it with the option of "Recover". The whole idea is to make it easy, quick to install if needed - and reduce the cost...

perhaps, but i like the idea of just being able to throw another drive in and click rebuild and getting on with my life

sbiddle

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#274929 21-Nov-2009 10:56

I still believe the inability to easily back up the OS install is still a shortcoming of WHS.

If you are using WHS solely as a NAS solution then a reinstall is't going to be anything more an an inconvenience. If you're using WHS as a server and installing additional applications on the OS drive then a reinstall means a lot more work.

Running a RAID1 setup does at least give you protection from HDD failure which is certainly the most common cause of data loss.

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#274931 21-Nov-2009 10:57

And that's fine - it's a personal option. It's just that in most cases it may be an unnecessary cost. But it's possible and if you want go for it.

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#275406 23-Nov-2009 11:06

I would also let WHS do it's own thing. But in saying that I would use a server class drive for the system partition. It is more expensive but well worth it for the added MTBF.

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#275569 23-Nov-2009 18:25

sbiddle: I still believe the inability to easily back up the OS install is still a shortcoming of WHS.

If you are using WHS solely as a NAS solution then a reinstall is't going to be anything more an an inconvenience. If you're using WHS as a server and installing additional applications on the OS drive then a reinstall means a lot more work.

Running a RAID1 setup does at least give you protection from HDD failure which is certainly the most common cause of data loss.

I might be missing something obvious but why can't you just do a nightly/weekly whatever drive image of the OS partition (C:) with whatever 3rd party imaging tool you feel like?

Restoring from a drive image with a the imaging tools bootable cd + usb hard drive is pretty easy these days.

viperguy

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#275592 23-Nov-2009 19:23

Ragnor:
sbiddle: I still believe the inability to easily back up the OS install is still a shortcoming of WHS.

If you are using WHS solely as a NAS solution then a reinstall is't going to be anything more an an inconvenience. If you're using WHS as a server and installing additional applications on the OS drive then a reinstall means a lot more work.

Running a RAID1 setup does at least give you protection from HDD failure which is certainly the most common cause of data loss.

I might be missing something obvious but why can't you just do a nightly/weekly whatever drive image of the OS partition (C:) with whatever 3rd party imaging tool you feel like?

Restoring from a drive image with a the imaging tools bootable cd + usb hard drive is pretty easy these days.

still sounds like more hassle than simply throwing a new drive in and clicking rebuild, for the sake of $130 for a terabyte drive (or less if the drive is smaller)

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#275595 23-Nov-2009 19:28

Ragnor:
sbiddle: I still believe the inability to easily back up the OS install is still a shortcoming of WHS.

If you are using WHS solely as a NAS solution then a reinstall is't going to be anything more an an inconvenience. If you're using WHS as a server and installing additional applications on the OS drive then a reinstall means a lot more work.

Running a RAID1 setup does at least give you protection from HDD failure which is certainly the most common cause of data loss.

I might be missing something obvious but why can't you just do a nightly/weekly whatever drive image of the OS partition (C:) with whatever 3rd party imaging tool you feel like?

Restoring from a drive image with a the imaging tools bootable cd + usb hard drive is pretty easy these days.

My understanding is that this doesn't work - the pointers for the storage pool are all stored on the OS drive. You can clone the drive to move it to a bigger HDD but if you back it up using something like True Image and any files in the storage pool change then you apparently risk corruption of the data.

Remember that WHS is also based on Windows 2003 Server so most apps like True Image home won't work anyway - you need the server versions.