Raid 5 to Raid 0 ...Help?

[leg4]

Bonjour,

I have a Raid 5 system and I not happy with the overall performance.

Is there an easy way to convert this system to a Raid 0?
(I don't care about redundancy)



Thank you for your time...

[rowan]

Some details about the controller may help, that's a bit like asking where the rear demister switch is on your "car"

It may be possible to migrate from a RAID5 to RAID0 array without needing to do a backup and restore, but I'd be backing up your data anyway.

[TidalWave]

No... not without having to re-do your data, so if you're going to do it anyways, why not go to RAID-10... requires 1 more drive (4 minimum) and will give you RAID-0 performance and RAID-1 mirroring.

[rowan]

After thinking about it again I've realised a migration is impossible, because RAID0 will stripe a block of data over several drives. I was thinking more of mirroring, where there's a "spare" drive (out of the RAID5 array) that can be written to first without losing any data.

[latinasscash]

In any conversion scenario, you'll need to make a backup
copy of your data. So, even tho it is a more expensive
solution, go with RAID-10 (1+0) as mentioned earlier by
TidalWave. When data and peformance ar both critical
it is the only way to go.

RAID-10 provides better fault tolerance and rebuild performance
than RAID-01. Both RAIDs provide very good to excellent overall
performance by combining the speed of RAID 0 with the redundancy
of RAID 1 without requiring parity calculations.

Again in ANY scenario, it is a destroy and recreate AFTER
backing up your data.

[rowan]

How do you guys pushing RAID10 know he doesn't already have a 4 drive RAID5 system? :P

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is change in capacity. By moving to RAID0, you'll gain; by moving to RAID10, you'll either stay the same (if you have 3 x RAID5 - but remember you're adding a drive to stay the same) or lose (if you have 4 x RAID5)

[Steve Awesome]

If you want peace of mind *and* speed, go with RAID 1 on 10K Western Digital Raptor drives. If that's too pricey for you, then RAID 1 on SATA is your best bet. I've got 5 pairs of 1 TB Western Digital drives that are RAID 1.

[TidalWave]

RAID-1 does not give you speed, only mirroring

[Steve Awesome]

RAID-1 does not give you speed, only mirroring

That was the "peace of mind" part of the equation that I was talking about, not the speed part. If you want speed, then RAID 0 striped on the Raptors will accomplish that.