RAID Backup questions

eedioteediot Join Date: 2003-02-24 Member: 13903Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Theorycrafting my server setup!</div>I'm currently in the process of acquiring parts for my ubuntu server to backup my hard-drive data.

I'm expecting, by the time I grab all the stuff off dad's server as well, upwards of 750GB, I.e I'll need 1Tb of data to store it.

I want, initially: Data mirrored on backup HDD[s] either continually or nightly, as well as offline monthly backups (i.e hotplug extra hdds, copy over, offline immediately).

My setup so far is:

Ubuntu Desktop 64bit 8.04

500w generic psu (needs to be replaced with a modern psu since this bundled one only has one SATA connector.. jesus)
AMD AM2 5200+
Gigabye MA78GM-S2H
2GB ram
60gb IDE 7200rpm hdd (not great but i just want a small one for O/S)

The HDDs I have available currently are:

3x 500gb SATA

What are my options? I've just spent a bunch of cash on this computer and other necessary things (shoes etc) so while 1Tb hdds are only $AUD 180 at the moment, I don't want to drop $360 and have 3 perfectly good 500gb hdds sitting around.

Considering the above, is it possible to:

RAID-0 two of the 500gb disks to create 1x 1Tb disk that I can store all the data on, then buy a 1Tb drive and copy everything over, use that as the primary drive and then RAID-1 (mirror) the two volumes against each other (although there would be 3 hdds in actuality)? Then use the remaining 500gb drive for... I don't know. If this works could I get 2x 750gb drives instead of 1Tb and use 1.5Tb vs 1.5Tb?

I'm unhopeful that I can actually do two levels of RAID on the drives, but I figured I'd ask.

Otherwise I'll have to do something like..

RAID-0 three 500gb drives, RAID-0 2x 750gb drives, then just use a cron job to copy over and changed/new files every morning at 3am and leave it til later, when I have a job, to get new HDDs and shift the 3x500gb as offline backups.

I don't know... I don't want to buy new drives and not find a use for the 500gb drives (obviously I'd wait a bit after getting the server offline before buying new drives to serve as online backup, anyway).

What I might do, in the meantime, is just RAID all the 500gb drives and copy everythign over to see how much data I have. If it's far enough below 1Tb that I won't pass it in the forseeable future, I might buy two 1Tb 32mb drives and use two 500gb drives as offline backups, then keep the 3rd 500gb drive in an external enclosure for my laptop.

I don't know, decisions, decisions! On top of this I need to buy a $200 TV Tuner as well, and I'm moving out soon and oh gosh :S

Comments

  • ScytheScythe Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 46NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation, Reinforced - Silver
    I've been collecting 750 gig samsungs over the last few months with the intention of building a 4x750 gig software RAID-5 backup server. All I'm lacking is a case. It'll run some variant of penguin, probably Debian. Give it wifi and hide it in a cupboard somewhere. It should do me just fine.

    --Scythe--
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