Windows server at OVH - using RAID 0

[Dennis]

Aloha boys and girls,

 

We're trying to setup a Windows server we rented from OVH, but not even OVH have had any luck in telling us how we should do this. Everything we try ends with the same result - 1 usable disk with 160GB of space.

We have a server with 3x160GB SSD, and we'd like to use RAID 0 instead of RAID 1 or 5, but nothing have worked this far.

 

The latest reply from them was

Hello,

 

Thanks for your return, if you always want to use RAID 0 on your dedicated server, I invite you to convert your 2 others disk on dynamic disk.

 

After you will be able to create your RAID 0. To do it :

 

- Disk manager

- Convert others disks on dynamic disk

- After that, you can use the "Add Mirror" functionality (by right-clicking the volume on the existing disk) and choose the RAID 0.

 

I remain at your disposal for any further information.

 

Regards,

 

T***** R.

OVH Support

 

We have used their installed, but we're not able to add a mirrored disk - we're not able to click 'Next' when assigning disk space to the disk.

 

Has anyone had luck configuring RAID 0? We take remote backups every day, so we want to get the most out of our space, and this has worked for us on Linux so far.

 

EDIT:

It might be worth mentioning that the same employee wrote the following to me a few days before:

For security reasons, it's not possible to make a RAID 0 on your dedicated server. With the configuration you choose, you will have a RAID 5.

 

I have no idea what to believe at this point. The last couple of days it has been collecting dust in their datacenter while they try to help me by giving two different answers.

[icekohl]

This post has me all confused.

 

Raid 0 is striped not mirrored and can only be achieved with an even number of drives in my experience.

 

Do they not offer Hardware RAID? Its simple, reliable and performs better....

[TXGS]

This post has me all confused.

 

Raid 0 is striped not mirrored and can only be achieved with an even number of drives in my experience.

 

Do they not offer Hardware RAID? Its simple, reliable and performs better....

 

Or bios raid could be an option as well if they are not providing you with a hardware RAID controller.

[Raizio]

I'd always go with bios/onboard RAID instead of software/windows RAID.

Windows would just use the cpu to offload to.

 

RAID0 requires 2 or more disks. No need to be even; You're thinking about RAID1 or RAID10.

 

However, I thought OVH did offer fairly cheap RAID controllers with their servers.

[Dennis]

I haven't messed with Windows servers for more than two years, so my knowledge is limited regarding configuration of SSD. We've made it work on Linux without many problems, so I have no idea why it won't work on Windows - we've installed both servers using the OVH server manager.

[NoDoze]

Your post sounds confusing....So I may not be understanding correctly...

 

From what I understand you are trying to RAID 0 out of the 3 drives?

 

Firstly, if an OS is installed you can't create an array. I think the first quote, the tech is talking about the two remaining drives, whereas the second quote (two day) is in reference to a clean install.

 

Second, not all datacenters allow RAID 0, which is why it's falling with their device manager, it probably doesn't allow for it. Windows software RAID sucks anyways, huge resource hog. Your better off with an onboard RAID, or dedicated RAID controller.

 

Third, with linux you could do anything! It rocks! Even create an array AFTER the OS install!

[Dennis]

Your post sounds confusing

Yes, I might've been very drunk when I made this thread (actually I'm very sick atm and have had a fever for the last couple of days, so that might be why ). Somehow it made sense to me that RAID 0 was the same as no RAID.

 

I'm still sick, so I'm just gonna explain this so even I can understand it at this time:

If possible, we want all three SSD's to be 'extended' (3 x 160Gb = a 480Gb drive). I'm not sure if that's possible. If not, we want to have a single drive with the OS installed (could be RAID) and then the remaining disk space on another drive. I managed to get this: http://i.imgur.com/vSCxxlD.png.

[Raizio]

For them to be extended.

You can either do JBOD(Basically not RAID, but will be seen as one big drive.)

Or do a RAID0, then it'll also be extended and striped. I think with either option, if one disk fails..the entire drive fails.

 

What you did also works though.

But I am still against using the OS to control it; It's just a safety measure;

If using BIOS/onboard to do it. It's safe from any OS faults.

[Dennis]

I reinstalled the server using the OVH installer. C drive has 45Gb assigned.

I went into Disk Management at converted all disks to dynamic disks as told by their support and create a new spanned volume of the remaining disk space.

 

Would this work? I really have no idea how this should be done in BIOS... Never messed with RAID on Windows, and on Linux it is pretty straight forward.

[Dennis]

As I've already stated, I'm not very familiar with SSD on Windows. Is moving files at 2.2-2.5GB/s a fine speed?

 

The reason why we don't want RAID, is because we already do backups every day on remote servers.

[Raizio]

Mate, normal hdd's will move at 180mb/s at the most.

I think we can see SSD power at work here, working together.

[Dennis]

Great. Some of my questions have most likely been very noobish, but I'm very insecure working on Windows server (almost 2 years since I did, and that was with regular HDD), and I want it to work as it should

[marcelokruk]

That are excelent speeds for windows, we run all servers with two ssd's in Raid 1 and i got 1Gb-500Mb/sec so that speeds are fine.

[ECF]

If you are doing a single logical drive and taking backups, you shouldn't even bother with RAID.

[Raizio]

If you are doing a single logical drive and taking backups, you shouldn't even bother with RAID.

 

Does single logical drive beat RAID0?

[ECF]

Two different animals all together. RAID 1 or 10 copies everything across all drives. If a drive fails your systems stays running, and you can have them hotswap in a new drive.

 

Having 1 logical drive is simply that. 1 drive that can fail and wipe your OS. Obviously the drawback here is you would be down until the datacenter could replace the drive, reload the OS, re-install TCAdmin, configure and then move your data backups over.

 

IMHO you should run RAID 1 or 10 which would mirror all of your drives using a hardware RAID controller, as well as performing your data backups. Downed servers = clients complaining

 

Unless of course you have some expensive backup software that is taking a snapshot or ISO of the entire server (including the OS) which you can restore easily and in a small amount of time. Or a realtime backup system.

[Dennis]

We have a server that's used for backups and testing. In case one of our other servers' hardware fails, we are gonna temporarily move everything to that server (including the IPs) and wait for the guys in the datacenter to change the disk.

 

If multiple servers go down, we're just out of luck... Hope that it'll never happen!

[Raizio]

Two different animals all together. RAID 1 or 10 copies everything across all drives. If a drive fails your systems stays running, and you can have them hotswap in a new drive.

 

Having 1 logical drive is simply that. 1 drive that can fail and wipe your OS. Obviously the drawback here is you would be down until the datacenter could replace the drive, reload the OS, re-install TCAdmin, configure and then move your data backups over.

 

IMHO you should run RAID 1 or 10 which would mirror all of your drives using a hardware RAID controller, as well as performing your data backups. Downed servers = clients complaining

 

Unless of course you have some expensive backup software that is taking a snapshot or ISO of the entire server (including the OS) which you can restore easily and in a small amount of time. Or a realtime backup system.

 

I specifically said RAID0, not 1 or 10. RAID 0, is rather alike a logical drive, especially in terms of dependability.

 

I run RAID1 or 10 myself, depending how many drives I am using.

1 at the least. Temporarily move everything would still cost time.

If it's during peak hours that can be a nasty 1-2 hours at least!