[WinMac] RAID for OS X Server

Subject: [WinMac] RAID for OS X Server
From: Wilcox, Curtis (cwilcox[at]esm.rochester.edu)
Date: Mon Mar 18 2002 - 18:54:59 EST

We want to set up an OS X Server to primarily be a file server (yes, we
could do that with OS X client but we have other plans as well). What we
would like is a disk configuration which approaches parity with our Dell NT
file server.

2 drives in a RAID1 configuration for OS
3-4 drives in a RAID5 configuration for data

It appears there are a few options for the OS drives. OS X's built-in RAID
support won't work because you can't use it on the boot drive. I think one
workable option is an IDE RAID card with 2 internal drives but the option
I'm leaning toward is an external pair of SCSI drives like one of these from
Acard. http://www.acard.com/eng/product/raid.html Actually the drives are
IDE but they connect to the computer's SCSI bus.

The RAID5 is harder, a lot of the external options don't support RAID5 or
don't include the RAID controller which is a problem since it seems no one
makes a SCSI RAID controller for Mac.

Does anyone have any experience with hardware RAID systems on a Mac which
support RAID5?

We don't need hot swap capability and it's okay if the drives are actually
IDE with a SCSI bridge. We would like the interface to be Ultra2 SCSI (80MB)
or better. If the RAID controller has to be configured by connecting it to a
PC, that's fine as long as it doesn't matter what the file system will be
(HFS+). If there's a system with 5 or more bays which can support some as
RAID5 and some as RAID1 and is bootable, that would be even better.

I've heard that some SCSI RAID controllers for PC may work by configuring
the card on a PC then moving it to the Mac. We don't need boot capability on
the RAID5 drives so that could be okay as long as it appears normal to the
Mac.

One problem with these RAID systems is I don't see how they could report
their status to the Mac. It seems like if a drive goes dead, we won't know
it until someone goes into the server closet, typically only once a week.
Bonus points for a method for monitoring the disk status.

The LaCie TX12000 looks good but it's $5500 before you even buy the
(expensive) drives and is overkill for our needs. I don't really know
anything about Fibre Channel or SANs to know if they should be considered.
They don't seem designed for our needs. If I can't find the right package
for RAID5 to get the redundancy I want, I'll be looking for RAID0+1 or RAID1
for the data drives.

While I'm on the subject, I'd be interested in tape drive recommendations
for this system. I'm looking for any that work with OS X and can store at
least 20GB natively. My hope is to use UNIX tools ported to support HFS+
rather than something like Retrospect which always seemed slow and clunky
compared to what I use on the Dell, Ultrabac. The point of using this server
is as primary file storage so backing up workstations is not part of the
plan.

I don't have a fixed budget yet for this server but I'd like to avoid
spending more than $5000 on the storage system (disks and RAID, not
including backup). 

-- 
Curtis Wilcox              Eastman School of Music
cwilcox@esm.rochester.edu

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