RAID suggestions?

I have a Win2000 Server that I want to run as a mail server/web server. It currently only has one hard drive, but I want to implement some form of fault tolerance before making it live. What would be the best recommended way to do that without spending a ton? I was thinking of a second hard drive but what next? Do I need a RAID card, and what level of RAID would provide me the best fault tolerance?

Thanks for any suggestions...
Johnny5

 

Thanks, that was an interesting article. The scenario I am looking at is to have multiple hard drives, probably just 2, that are consistently mirrored and then one will automatically switch to the other in the event of a crash or other event. Is that what level 1 does then? I want to implement Fail over: "In a mirrored system, when one of the disk drives crashes, the system will automatically use the mirrored drive until the original drive is replaced. Because an exact replica of the data exists on that drive, this fail over process does not interrupt normal operation." So I am wondering how exactly to do this...is it built into Windows 2000 Server to do this, or do I need 3rd party software? Do I need a controller card or anything?

Thanks Again!

 

Raid1 is what you are looking for if you want to mirror the two drives. Take a look Here for some really excellent info on the various RAID configurations with upside/downside and other information.

Win2K Server will allow Raid0, Raid1, Raid5 to be set up in software. You'll need to make your disks dynamic rather than basic but that is easily done without causing the system any problems.

Look at the Microsoft Online help site for specifics about setting up Raid0 and Raid5. Raid1 (couldn't find a specific article there) will be similar.

 

I guess the big question would be. How important is the data on the mail server?

Anything less than a raid 5 array with a hot swap would be playing with fire.

On the IDE side I love the Promise SuperTrac 6000 Here

About 500 bucks with 4 hot swap enclosures.
Add 4 (or up to 6) drives and your good to go with a very redundant system.

Promise will do a one time sale at wholesale cost if you call them and get them to send you the forms to fill out.

 

Thanks for all the info. Now my big question is: Whether I decide to go with either adding 1 hard drive or a 5 drive array, can I implement the RAID solution without having to rebuild or copy my existing drive with all the web and mail data on it? In other words, can I just pop in a hard drive, go into Windows 2000 Server Disk Management and set to implement RAID 1 or something, and have it be good, or do I need to copy the hard drive to some other source using Drive Copy or Ghost, rebuild the server with 2 drives and RAID, and then reload all the information after that is set up?

 

Why? Mirroring would be more than adequate for most mail servers.

I prefer hardware RAID to software RAID, but given the criteria of the original post, software RAID would be effective and not result in a rebuild of the system.

 

Would getting a RAID controller card and a second drive and installing the two require a rebuild or could I just pop them in and configure RAID 1 through the management software that comes with the RAID card and it would build the redundancy from the existing main disk?

 

OR...would it be fine to just get a second drive and use Windows 2000 to configure RAID1? And if so, does anyone have a link to clear instructions on how to do that in Win 2000 Server?

 

Here