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I'm trying to build a raid 5 array for our file server using the following: 1. Dell Poweredege R530 - server 2. Windows Server 2016 - OS 3. 3x 4TB SAS - Hard Drives 4. PERC H330 mini - embedded raid controller of dell server

But in my inquiries from diff. forums, I get these ideas: 1. There's a risk in Raid 5 using large disk, like rebuilding array takes times and probability of failing another disk during the rebuild is more likely to happen. 2. And raid controller without cache is not wise to use in a parity raid.

Since the PERC H330 is an entry-level raid card which does not have the cache. Is it more wise to use software raid in this situation or stick to using the built in raid controller? Should I go building the Raid 5 array with 4TB disk? What's should be the best option for this?

Thanks.

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First, indeed, using 4TB drives in RAID 5 is not the best option due to rebuild time. Next, Storage Spaces consume a lot of CPU resources to calculate parity, so again, 4TB drives in Storage Spaces Parity is also not the best way to go. The most optimal workaround would be to add one more drive (H330 supports span RAID arrays) in RAID 10.

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With such big drives, any RAID5 array (both software and hardware) is a bad choice. I suggest you to buy a forth 4 TB disk and to create an hardware RAID10 array, which will suffer less from the missing cache.

Storage spaces is not bad, but you need specific competencies to administer it properly.

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    Parity RAID implementation within Storage Spaces (+Direct) has been horrible always though. Mar 25, 2019 at 22:14
  • ZFS has no write hole, has ARC and optional ZIL / L2ARC. ZFS equivalents of RAID5/6 aren’t bad at all.
    – RiGiD5
    May 18, 2019 at 10:12

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