Recommended storage scheme for home server? (LVM/JBOD/RAID 5...)
- by j-g-faustus
Are there any guidelines for which storage scheme(s) makes most sense for a multiple-disk home server?
I am assuming a separate boot/OS disk (so bootability is not a concern, this is for data storage only) and 4-6 storage disks of 1-2 TB each, for a total storage capacity in the range 4-12 TB.
The file system is ext4, I expect there will be only one big partition spanning all disks.
As far as I can tell, the alternatives are
individual disks
pros: works with any combination of disk sizes; losing a disk loses only
the data on that disk; no need for volume management.
cons: data management is clumsy when logical units (like a "movies" folder)
are larger than the capacity of any
single drive.
JBOD span
pros: can merge disks of any size.
cons: losing a disk loses all data on all disks
LVM
pros: can merge disks of any size; relatively simple to add and remove disks.
cons: losing a disk loses all data on all disks
RAID 0
pros: speed
cons: losing one drive loses all data; disks must be same size
RAID 5
pros: data survives losing one disk
cons: gives up one disk worth of capacity; disks must be same size
RAID 6
pros: data survives losing two disks
cons: gives up two disks worth of capacity; disks must be same size
I'm primarily considering either LVM or JBOD span simply because it will let me reuse older, smaller-capacity disks when I upgrade the system. The runner-up is RAID 0 for speed.
I'm planning on having full backups to a separate system, so I expect the extra redundancy from RAID levels 5 or 6 won't be important.
Is this a fair representation of the alternatives? Are there other considerations or alternatives I have missed? And what would you recommend?
