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WHS Question on External Storage
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Author:  thobel [ Sat Feb 26, 2011 1:28 am ]
Post subject:  WHS Question on External Storage

I have a Dell XPS 420 http://www.dell.com/us/en/gen/desktops/ ... _420&s=gen I use for a WHS I'm looking to add

TowerRAID TR5UT-BP - 5 Bay USB 3.0 / eSATA Hardware RAID 5 Tower w/ 6G PCIe 2.0 HBA (Black)
http://www.sansdigital.com/towerraid-plus/tr5utbp.html

I'm wondering a) Will it work with my current hardware (I was planning on using 5 2TB Drives)
Also I want to be ready for when Vale is completed so should I set it up as Raid? Will my existing WHS have a problem with it as Raid? If I do not set it up as raid will WHS be able to add all 5 drives?

Author:  mike1812 [ Mon Feb 28, 2011 5:16 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: WHS Question on External Storage

(a) yes. you have a choice of adding the included esata card to your Dell, then connecting via esata, or connecting via USB. And yes, 2TB drives work well in these - I have a 4 bay version from Sans Digital hooked to my EX470.
(b) Vail does not offer an upgrade path; that is, you cannot put the Vail disk into your WHS 1.0 server and perform an upgrade - it will simply install Vail and wipe out everything else. So whatever you do with this server is not relevant to Vail. Please search this and other sites for more info on the "migration" to Vail, as it will be completely different from "upgrading" to the new software.
(c) Your current WHS should see the raid array fine (if setup properly). I don't know raid, so someone else will have to point you in the proper direction on how to do this.
(d) if you setup as JBOD (i.e., NOT raid), then WHS will see all 5 drives just fine (assuming you are within the 32 drive limitation in total). In fact, for the average user (i.e., ME!), this is by far the easiest method, but you are limited to using WHS duplication to protect your data, or leaving duplication off and risk losing info when a drive dies. Using raid is a great tool to reduce the risk of data loss, but I don't want to take the time to learn how to configure it.

Author:  thobel [ Mon Feb 28, 2011 5:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: WHS Question on External Storage

mike1812 wrote:
(a) yes. you have a choice of adding the included esata card to your Dell, then connecting via esata, or connecting via USB. And yes, 2TB drives work well in these - I have a 4 bay version from Sans Digital hooked to my EX470.
(b) Vail does not offer an upgrade path; that is, you cannot put the Vail disk into your WHS 1.0 server and perform an upgrade - it will simply install Vail and wipe out everything else. So whatever you do with this server is not relevant to Vail. Please search this and other sites for more info on the "migration" to Vail, as it will be completely different from "upgrading" to the new software.
(c) Your current WHS should see the raid array fine (if setup properly). I don't know raid, so someone else will have to point you in the proper direction on how to do this.
(d) if you setup as JBOD (i.e., NOT raid), then WHS will see all 5 drives just fine (assuming you are within the 32 drive limitation in total). In fact, for the average user (i.e., ME!), this is by far the easiest method, but you are limited to using WHS duplication to protect your data, or leaving duplication off and risk losing info when a drive dies. Using raid is a great tool to reduce the risk of data loss, but I don't want to take the time to learn how to configure it.


Thank you for the response. My plan is to get the external array or build a new server with internal drives not sure what one yet. Once its built I would move the data onto the new "vail" server. I just needed to make sure the Dell would not have an issue with the esata card. I'm assuming when you setup raid you enter the esata card bios and it has nothing to do with the pc's raid. Also How can I setup the OS so that its NOT adding the NON raid/external drives to the data pool?

Author:  mike1812 [ Tue Mar 01, 2011 8:44 am ]
Post subject:  Re: WHS Question on External Storage

thobel wrote:
Thank you for the response. My plan is to get the external array or build a new server with internal drives not sure what one yet. Once its built I would move the data onto the new "vail" server. I just needed to make sure the Dell would not have an issue with the esata card. I'm assuming when you setup raid you enter the esata card bios and it has nothing to do with the pc's raid. Also How can I setup the OS so that its NOT adding the NON raid/external drives to the data pool?


According to the Dell site spec's, it looks like there are enough PCIe slots for that card to work, but again, I gave it a cursory glance. You should check the speed (4x,8x, etc.) of the card and make sure the PCIe slots on the Dell are at least that speed.

I believe your assumption is correct re: raid on the external enclosure having nothing to do with PC's raid settings.

I don't follow the last question? So you are going to have 5 drives in the external bay in a raid configuration attached to the Dell. What other external drives are you referring to? In WHS, when you attach a drive, it prompts you to select whether you want to add to the drive pool. Just say no, and those that you don't want will not be added to the storage pool.

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