Anybody use FlexRAID

[LUZR4LIFE]

A few friends and I have been doing research on the best way to do a RAID 5 without a card (can't afford). One of my friends came across FlexRAID and says that he like the feature etc. I am hoping to get my server up tonight and test with my clone drives before I dump all of my data in it.

I was wondering what you thought about it and if you came across any issues.

THANKS

[Carozzeria]

I'm not sure what you mean by can't afford. A nice RAID 5 card is at most thirty dollars. That's nothing compared to what the hard drives in the array cost.


Anyways... FlexRaid seems like a cool idea. The performance as well as the CPU overhead seem like the only downsides.

[LUZR4LIFE]

Originally Posted by Carozzeria

I'm not sure what you mean by can't afford. A nice RAID 5 card is at most thirty dollars. That's nothing compared to what the hard drives in the array cost.

A good RAID 5 card is going to cost a few hundred. I am staring off with 6X2TB.

[kwiksilver]

I was looking at Flexraid, Unraid, FreeNAS, and Drobo recently for backup solutions. I never did end up making a decision. :-\

[LUZR4LIFE]

Originally Posted by kwiksilver

I was looking at Flexraid, Unraid, FreeNAS, and Drobo recently for backup solutions. I never did end up making a decision. :-\

I heard about UnRAID also, I just haven't had time for much. I have been trying to setup my server now for a few months. I have everything just no time. I started to install my OS last night, so I will make a image when I am done and start playing with different programs etc. I have a 890 UD3H (AM3+), 1090T and 8GB HyperX laying around so I didn't go with a Drobo or a RAID enclosure.

[Spartacus]

Drobo - Couldn't bring myself to buy a 500$+ NAS enclosure
Flexraid, Unraid, FreeNAS - Couldn't bring myself to rely on software to manage important drives simultaneously.

Once Hard drive prices drop I'm grabbing another 2TB spinpoint for my HTPC (combined with the 2 I already have) and 3-2TB WD caviar green and putting them in a JBOD USB 3.0 enclosure, alot cheaper than a drobo and I can still pull the drives just fine if the device fails. I'll use syncToy or another similar program to do mirroring backups every night in a 1-1 form. This will segregate all the data away from a single powersupply and they will be on separate battery backups (the HTPC on one and the enclosure on the other that my TV/receiver etc are on)
That's the best cost/safety driven option I'm going with.

[Odanez]

Originally Posted by Spartacus

Drobo - Couldn't bring myself to buy a 500$+ NAS enclosure
Flexraid, Unraid, FreeNAS - Couldn't bring myself to rely on software to manage important drives simultaneously.

Once Hard drive prices drop I'm grabbing another 2TB spinpoint for my HTPC (combined with the 2 I already have) and 3-2TB WD caviar green and putting them in a JBOD USB 3.0 enclosure, alot cheaper than a drobo and I can still pull the drives just fine if the device fails. I'll use syncToy or another similar program to do mirroring backups every night in a 1-1 form. This will segregate all the data away from a single powersupply and they will be on separate battery backups (the HTPC on one and the enclosure on the other that my TV/receiver etc are on)
That's the best cost/safety driven option I'm going with.

the wisest choice imo - screw RAID for home redundancy - it is ok for business though

[BigO]

Personally im using Freenas with 3 zfs pools (4*1tb WD Blacks-raidz1/4*1tb Greens-Raidz1/8*2tb WD Greens-Raidz2) for a grand total of 22TB usable.

I have already moved arrays from one controller to another and having parity information stored on the drives makes things a breeze. While i agree that for the most part a simple copy job between a few drives is enough but for those of us who have alot of data that they really dont want to loose and cant afford to do a 1-1 ratio on there are some alternatives that work and are not that expensive.

I have heard of those other OS's (Flex and Un Raid) and they seem to be pretty good but i went with Freenas because ZFS is a pretty robust file system that was created by SUN and works pretty good from a stability/redundancy/speed aspect.

You'll need to really look at your current needs and most importantly, think about your future needs, i have a very large movie and TV collection that feeds my HTPC (XBMC) plus storage for music and my wifes precious photos and home movies.

Please PM me if you need any more details on how i set mine up or check out there forums:

https://sourceforge.net/apps/phpbb/freenas/index.php

[kwiksilver]

Originally Posted by BigO

Personally im using Freenas with 3 zfs pools (4*1tb WD Blacks-raidz1/4*1tb Greens-Raidz1/8*2tb WD Greens-Raidz2) for a grand total of 22TB usable.

I have already moved arrays from one controller to another and having parity information stored on the drives makes things a breeze. While i agree that for the most part a simple copy job between a few drives is enough but for those of us who have alot of data that they really dont want to loose and cant afford to do a 1-1 ratio on there are some alternatives that work and are not that expensive.

I have heard of those other OS's (Flex and Un Raid) and they seem to be pretty good but i went with Freenas because ZFS is a pretty robust file system that was created by SUN and works pretty good from a stability/redundancy/speed aspect.

You'll need to really look at your current needs and most importantly, think about your future needs, i have a very large movie and TV collection that feeds my HTPC (XBMC) plus storage for music and my wifes precious photos and home movies.

Please PM me if you need any more details on how i set mine up or check out there forums:

https://sourceforge.net/apps/phpbb/freenas/index.php

Which version of FreeNAS are you running?

[BigO]

Im running a stable version of 7 :

0.7.2 Sabanda (revision 5543)

[LUZR4LIFE]

Originally Posted by BigO

Im running a stable version of 7 :

0.7.2 Sabanda (revision 5543)

I will have to get with you on that setup. I had friends try freenas but the new version sucks from what I hear. I wanted to go with freenas but wasn't sure. I need to do something quick because I am running low on my storage.

[dutch dude]

asrock raid card 14 euro