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This should be documented in the hardware manufacturer's installation guide. It will vary from controller to controller.
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Pressler2904 | Jul 10 2008 6:14PM GMT
Labnuke99 is correct. I can offer specific help if using an Adaptec based controller, but there are many other brands of silicon out there, and several types of controller whithin each brand…
As a rule, you’ll need one extra drive (for parity): if you have 146GB SCSI drives and need about 500GB of drive space, you’ll need 5 drives (4×146= 584 + one parity drive = 5 drives)
Make sure the drives are identical (not an absolute requirement, but it sure makes life easier…)
Make sure the the drive FIRMWARE IS AT THE SAME REV. LEVEL. this point IS important. You stand a much higher probability of seeing good drives drop off the array (NOT a good situation) with mismatched firmware.
have at least one drive available as a spare.
If the server or array enclosure is in a populated area (i.e.: not in a server room), turn off the alarm (a suggestion only… those of you who have had the pleasure of experiencing the scream of a RAID contoller with a failed drive will understand).
Decide whether you need more spindles or larger drives, and what your default block size will be. This is an area which many admins don’t consider but can seriously impact the performance of an array in any given role if done incorrectly. As a rule (general…), you want more spindles / smaller capacity drives for a database environment as opposed to fewer drives of a larger capacity for file & print or e-mail…
