What should I consider when selecting drives for use in a SCSI RAID configuration?
What do I need to consider when selecting drives for use in a RAID configuration? Can two different hard drives be used in a mirroring or RAID array, or must they be identical brands and models?
Hard drives for RAID. Mix hard drives in a RAID array?
Most SCSI RAID controllers will accept different kinds of hard drives. The hard drives should match in capacity points and rotational (RPM) speed. At best, all drives in an array will be identical–at the same firmware revision level.
RAID can be used with any size hard drive. The smallest capacity drive will determine the largest logical volume size for all drives in the array.
Whenever possible select drives from an approved vendor drive compatibility list. This ensures that the hard drive is tested, and should function reliably with your SCSI RAID controller. Untested configurations ’should work’ too. But for best results, select only tested and compatible drives for your SCSI RAID controller. Most SCSI controller vendors publish a hard drive compatibility matrix on their Web site.
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