[Dovecot] OT - small hd recommendation

[Daniel L. Miller]

On 8/31/2011 12:41 PM, Thomas Harold wrote:
> On 8/30/2011 5:43 PM, Daniel L. Miller wrote:
>> A little OT - but I've seen a few opinions voiced here by various admins
>> and I'd like to benefit.
>
> RAID-10 is fine (note that the default mdadm RAID10 isn't actually 
> RAID10, but it works well enough).  RAID-6 won't be faster (and will 
> probably be worse) although RAID-6 does do a bit better in a 
> double-drive failure over RAID-10.  The only way to get more 
> performance out of (4) drives is to switch to 10k or 15k SAS (or SSDs).
>
> [...]
>
> (Take a look at /dev/disk/by-id, /dev/disk/by-uuid, etc. Export a copy 
> of that information on a daily/weekly basis off of the machine.  In a 
> software RAID environment, it gives you better information about which 
> drive serial # failed rather then relying on lights.)
>
> Our mail server is 3-way RAID1 (triple mirror) for the OS and mail 
> queue with a 5-disk RAID-10 (4+spare) for mail storage.

Given my extensive requirements - I haven't yet filled my existing 320GB 
- size isn't a big deal.  Am I actually deriving much benefit from 
4-disk RAID10 using 160GB discs - vs a 2-4 disc 1TB RAID1 array?

-- 
Daniel