Re-Configuring Your Maxattach Nas 6000 Drive Arrays; Best Practices - Maxtor NAS 6000 Administration Manual

MaxAttach NAS 6000 Administration Guide

Re-Configuring Your MaxAttach NAS 6000 Drive Arrays

Any change to your RAID configuration can lead to loss of all user data, system lock up, or both.
Before considering any RAID changes, completely read the appropriate sections of this manual.
Before performing any RAID re-configuration, ALWAYS back-up your data.
The RAID array configuration can be changed in all logical drives except C:\ and D:\
which are reserved for Max OS 2.0 and drive E:\ which shares the same physical drives in
a separate partition.

Best Practices

System disk management best practices recommend several key tips for optimizing your
disk arrays:
Identify as many of your major disk uses as possible before allowing users on the system.
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If necessary, consider areas for high performance read/write operations where RAID 0
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+ 1 arrays may be appropriate.
If necessary, consider areas for maximum reliability where RAID 1 arrays may be
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appropriated.
To minimize the time an array is in a critical state due a single array disk drive failure,
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consider freeing up one or two physical hard disk drives and designating them as Hot
Standby Drives. This is especially important if the system is located a long distance from
the administration personnel. When an array is in a critical state, the failure of any
additional array drive member will lose all user data in the array. With Hot Standby, the
failed drive will be replaced and the rebuild process started immediately.
If largest possible disk volume size is required, consider RAID 5 for optimum solutions.
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For absolute solutions, consider RAID 0.
For additional security where absolute maximum size is not required, you may need
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JBOD.
Regardless of the RAID configuration selected, make the arrays as large as possible so
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that they don't have to be changed.
If you know that some arrays will be changed in the future, make them the last arrays to
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be configured. The GAM requires a LIFO approach to decommissioning drives and
disassembling arrays. The last array built must be the first to be decommissioned. If you
must reconfigure your first array, you will have to decommission all higher arrays
before working on the first array.
Think long term. Configure your arrays as large as possible and then leave them alone.
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Chapter #4 - Overview - NAS 6000 Disk Array
11/07/01 -- Revision 2.0.03A
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Chapter #4 - Overview - NAS 6000 Disk Array
Re-Configuring Your MaxAttach NAS 6000 Drive Arrays
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