Storage Space Direct

Question

so i am looking at setting up storage space direct and i have my 3 servers

and i watching this video on your site https://youtu.be/raeUiNtMk0E in the in beginning it stated that he has 3 servers but he explained nothing about what sort of RAID system was on them just that they was 3 servers with storage, would it be fair to say that as an added layer of protection RAID should be included in the setup, and if so what would be the recommend RAID type

Answer 1

Hi Kevin,

Hope you're doing well.

Certainly! When setting up storage space for your three servers, implementing RAID can indeed provide an added layer of protection. Here are some RAID options you might consider:

1. If you have three drives, RAID 5 is a good choice. It combines striping and parity across drives. In case of a drive failure, the system uses parity information from the other drives to reconstruct the lost data². RAID 5 requires at least three drives and balances performance with redundancy³.
2. RAID 0 improves speed and efficiency by splitting data into blocks and writing it simultaneously across multiple disks. However, it doesn't provide fault tolerance or redundancy. Use RAID 0 for non-critical storage where performance is a priority¹.

Remember that RAID configurations vary based on your specific needs, so choose the one that aligns best with your requirements.

Best Regards,

Ian Xue

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Answer 2

OK...i understand that, however

what i am trying to look for is a definitive recommendation about using RAID in an S2D environment,

should RAID be used on a physical level first before implementing S2D

Answer 3

Hey,

RAID arrays should not be used with S2D. It is recommended to use HBAs or RAID controllers, which can pass SAS drives to the OS. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/storage-spaces/storage-spaces-direct-hardware-requirements

As for local redundancy, S2D handles it. Nested resiliency is supported for 2 node clusters. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-stack/hci/concepts/nested-resiliency

In any case, you should not use physical hardware RAID with S2D. It is not supported.

If you don't have a RAID controller supporting direct passthrough of SAS device, StarWind VSAN can be used instead. https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-virtual-san

Cheers,

Alex Bykovskyi

StarWind Software

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