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Does RAID really matter that much for a storage server?
nameserver
Member
in General
I got a dedirock deal on black friday to use it as Proxmox backup server, and realised that it is without RAID. (correct if I'm wrong)
Question is, does this really really really matter? I mean what are the chance of one of my proxmox dies and this dedirock storage's disk went broken at the same time? Or maybe I shouldn't be thinking in this way.
Thanks
Thanked by 1DediRock
Comments
This is why I have multiple backups in multiple locations
But the budget goes upppppp
My data is worth a lot for me so it's worth it. If your data isn't worth much then a single remote backup should be fine. Chances of both going poof at the same time is low, but not impossible.
Murphy's Laws will help you
Yes it matters. HDD/SSD's are guaranteed to fail, and likely before anything else. There's a damn good reason why RAID is an industry standard. Those things break.
Raid helps with recovery, but raid is not backup. If you are worried about your data, have more backups
No, it isn't. Go ahead with a RAID 0 or a JBOD.
Your data doesn't matter to us.
Zero.
Proxmox is a virtual environment, while the storage drives are physical devices. So your proxmox will keep working regardless of the hard drive failure.
Raid are only for availability in case of downtime and more performance if you have the disks and usage for.
For your storage server raid or JBOD will also depend of how quick you can restore a backup from another server in case of failure.
Personally, I prefer to do it with jbod and mergefs so that in case of failure of a disk, I only loose what was on the disks and not everything. Of course if you already have a good backup solution so that you can afford to loose and restore the data.
Hello @nameserver,
Glad to hear you got a server from us.
I can tell you from our experience the RAID does matter. We have been upgrading all of the storage servers now up to RAID 5. We have had three HD failures since we have started offering storage servers, and it does not offer the best experience. The vast majority of new VM's spun from BF etc are all now on our RAID-5 servers.
Let me know your order number, and I will move you over to one with RAID 5 no problem so you have better protection, and a better experience.
Thanks.
You need more than one copy of your data. RAID can do this for you, but you can do it yourself without RAID.
Invoice #17140
Service is greate so far, thank you.
For critical stuff, some level of redundancy is always a good idea. In any case, backups are even more important.
RAID 0 everywhere. RAID 1 are for rich people and this is LET.
But the 3-2-1 backup rule is not an option.
It depends on how important the data is to you and whether or not you can tolerate downtime while you replace a failed disk and restore from backup.
Hello @nameserver,
Awesome thanks for that.
Okay, I checked the node you are on, it's RAID 5. 
So all good.
Also, doubled your bandwidth and added IPv6.
Thanks!
Thank you very much.
I have multiple proxmox backup servers running with different providers and different datacentres
You don’t need RAID for backups as much as you need multiple backups.
Much rather have 2 backups without RAID than 1 with.
Age of drives, HDD vs. SSD, RAID or no RAID, it all stops being something you have to worry about if you’ve got enough backups.
Enough depends on how highly you value your data. For most stuff I’d say between 1-3 copies depending on importance.
Yep you man @nameserver
hey @gremeyer that is a great point.
A halfway reasonable compromise with smaller drives but not with today's 6 or even more TB drives. I strongly recommend Raid 6 (or 60) or Raid 1 (or 10).
Btw, you do know that SSD life times brutally decrease from MLC to TLC and, even way worse, QLC? So, if any possible, avoid QLC disks like the plague!
Plus of course one always should have 2 (or more, for vital data) backups at different locations at least 200 miles apart from each other and from the original's location.
Hello @jsg,
Those are some good points, thank you for that. Got it on the different drives. I will research that some more, thank you.
well, you can't count on the recovery once the HDD/SSD fails
you need real backup, RAID is NOT backup