Raid5 for performance and reliability

[zag]

I'm just configuring a new file server and was wondering what settings I should use on the raid 5 partition.

 

I've been reading about DWC "Disk Write Caching", apparently this has a performance increase but makes raid 5 volumes liable to corruption if the power is lost.

 

Anyone have any experience with this?

 

I'm trying to build the most reliable file server possible, but I don't want to loose performance for no reason.

Edited April 2, 2008 by zag

[dhicks]

I've been reading about DWC "Disk Write Caching", apparently this has a performance increase but makes raid 5 volumes liable to corruption if the power is lost.

 

This seems like another name for a write-back cache. Yes, you'll want "disk write caching" turned on - otherwise every small write to the harddrive will result in a seek and the drive will spend its whole day whizzing back and forth writing data. To stop corruption on power-off, attach a UPS - a cheap (£40) one will do, you only need it to stay up long enough to get the machine to shut down properly.

 

--

David Hicks

[Jona]

And/or buy a decent radio card with on-board caching...