Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Question on best RAID configuration?

Hello,


I am getting a new (used) Mac Pro 2009 to replace my aging Powermac G5 as a the workhorse for my wife's home business. We are going to be using the Mac Pro for the following roles; Backup Web Server (Sandbox), File Server, Central Depository for Raw/TIFF files (15 years worth), and run Adobe CS/Cloud and Parallels to run Windows 7 for telecommuting purposes. In order to accomplish this, I figure I need to have four separate partitions/drives (Snow Leopard Boot & Applications, Mavericks Boot & Applications, File Storage, Windows). I need to also have redundant capability in order to protect 15 years worth of work as the system will be used for critical file storage. I am planning to get a Mac Pro Raid card and use four 1 Tb hard Drives to create a RAID 5 array thus creating 1 drive but with 4 partitions. We have alot of software that will not work past 10.6 and we are not upgrading or have been discontinued thus the need to still run 10.6 when the need arises, otherwise we will be using Mavericks with Adobe CC and updated software the majority of the time. We plan on backing up our File Storage partition to cloud based storage for offsite protection in case of theft/fire.


From these needs, is my RAID 5 configuration idea with 4 partitions the best idea or what other configurations could I use?


I appreciate your input,


Adrian

Posted on Feb 11, 2016 12:29 PM

Reply
3 replies

Feb 12, 2016 6:44 AM in response to Adrian Torres

Your description does not include a description of your Backup scheme, arguably the most important piece of the puzzle. RAID is not Backup. Even with a fully-redundant RAID, you still need a Backup. RAID does not protect against all problems you could face, and in particular does not protect against the very human error of accidental deletion.


I run a Home server with Mirrored RAID (via Disk Utility, no card) for the User data drives, and My external backups have been real lifesavers from time-to-time.


In addition, if you would be out of business without your data, you need to consider a plan that includes carrying some Backups off site from time-to-time.


The Apple RAID card is showing its age, and is not a very good solution today. It is troubled by its internal limits to Physical drives under 2.2TB. Its battery has been problematic: Hard-to-find and not especially long-lasting, but required for adequately fast operation.


RAID-5 has strong appeal on paper, but as RAID sizes get larger, the 'number of Read and Write operations needed to re-create' such a RAID after a failure strays into the area of the theoretical total Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) of the set of Drives. This means that the overall likelihood of losing data from a RAID-5 after a single failure is much larger than initially expected.


RAID-5 will create ONE mountable partition from your four drives. I do not know of a way to create four sub-partitions from it. If you were to do so, you would be among a vanishingly small number of users to be using it this way, and if you encountered any problems there is not likely to be any help available for you.

Feb 12, 2016 6:50 AM in response to Adrian Torres

Mac OS X is inherently a multi-User System. For all practical purposes, you can think of the system itself as invariant (it does not modify itself).

You can run Mac OS X 10.6.8 (the Server version MAY be required) as a "guest" Operating System under "Hypervisor" programs like Parallels.

The data for a particular user is isolated in that user's account, and never mixed into System data.

There is no need to have multiple User Accounts (one for each version of Mac OS X or Windows, for example) for any activity except if you run multiple versions of Mail or iPhoto, whose older and newer versions do not play nice on the SAME data.

Question on best RAID configuration?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.