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I'm configuring specification for PC that will be used as host for virtual machines. I planned to use 120 GB SSD drive for OS (Windows) and 3x1TB in RAID 5 for Virtual machine.

I'm wondering if it's good idea. What happen if Drive with OS fails? Will it be possible to instal Windows on new drive and rebuild RAID on 3 SSDs? Or should I make RAID 1 with 2 120GB SSD for Windows?

Siewak
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    Please don't use R5, it's 2020, it's been dangerous to use for over a decade now - friends don't let friends use R5 :) - R1/10 or R6/60 are the only games in town, or ZFS if you're that way inclined. – Chopper3 Feb 24 '20 at 13:35
  • Why not make a backup of the 120GB on something else, even on the RAID ? That way you will be able to restore it if needed to another SSD. – Overmind Feb 25 '20 at 12:26
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    @Chopper3 RAID5 is not inherently dangerous, it's just dangerous if you have large enough drives and don't know the URE probability of your drives. Many enterprise drives have low enough URE probability that RAID5 is still a viable option, especially when talking sub-TB drives. – Stuggi Feb 25 '20 at 13:15

2 Answers2

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  1. Consider Hardware RAID over Software RAID as it has no OS dependencies.
  2. Make OS RAID 1 as you plan to do it for the storage.
  3. What is the guest OS? Consider RAID 5 with HDDs for the case it is more a "read-intensive" lab. Otherwise RAID 5 will bring you the capacity of two disks and write the performance of a single one.
A.Newgate
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It should be possible to restore storage spaces to, effectively, a new Windows installation (https://serverfault.com/a/550221/507179).

If high availability is a factor, it's not a bad idea to present the system from a mirrored drive set anyway.

(And as always: When budgeting for the machine, make sure to include the costs of a decent backup solution: RAID is not backup.)

Mikael H
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