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I'm looking for an advice regarding my home server Here are a few words about the whole system:

  • 2 PCs running Windows 7 (general purpose PC used for work, play, etc…)
  • 1 PC running Ubuntu (home server)
  • 1 PC running windows 7 (HTPC - media server PC)

Further info:

  • All data is stored at the home server
  • All media used by the media center PC (images, movies, TV series and music)
  • SVN server + repository used by everyone (we work from home)
  • All documents (used by everyone at home)
  • Backups for all PCs in my LAN

Other services on the home server:

  • SSH server
  • File (Samba) server for LAN users
  • FTP server
  • SVN repository
  • Bugzilla server (mainly for clients)
  • Web server (needed by the SVN and the Bugzilla)

I would like the server to be as reliable as possible and avoid a situation in which I will have to restore data from a backup at all.

  1. Would setting up a RAID on the home server be preferred over a good backup plan on an external HD?

  2. What type of RAID is recommended for this kind of system? (I decided that if I'm going to use a RAID, I will use a software RAID since performance is not the issue, I want it to be cheap and hardware independent. But, I can't make up my mind about the raid type 1, 0, 5, 6, and 10)?

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  • Approximately how much data do you have now? How is this likely to increase with time?
    – Austin ''Danger'' Powers
    Mar 9, 2013 at 18:44

1 Answer 1

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Decide yourself: Why is RAID not a backup?

Regarding RAID types:

  • 0 is not for redundancy, it's for speed.
  • 5 and 6 are expensive for home users.
  • 10 is both costly and unnecessary, as it's both for speed (which you don't worry about) and redundancy.

I would go with RAID1.

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  • just mirroring, it's a kind of a convenient backup, raid 10 will protect me from 2 HD failures (in some cases + it will not freeze my server during a rebuild).
    – Daniel
    Mar 9, 2013 at 18:51
  • @Daniel: Losing 2 drives at the same time is very unlikely for a home user. As you would need 4 drives instead of 2, it's double the cost. But it's your choice.
    – TFM
    Mar 9, 2013 at 18:53
  • Call us wearers-of-tin-foil-hats, but some people think certain desktop HDDs are engineered to fail. I had a drive with a 1-year data protection warranty which failed at one year to the day. Two desktop drives failing at the same time would not surprise me in the least! Regarding RAID 10, it depends on which two drives fail. You can lose everything if you lose two HDDs. RAID simply is not a backup solution.
    – rtf
    Mar 9, 2013 at 19:46

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