rodolini

Hi All,

Thanks again for everyone who has contributed their knowledge on this topic.

Here is my update. I have ordered a an OWC 48T ThunderBay from B&H.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1431796-REG/owc_other_world_computing_owctb3sre48_0s_48tb_thunderbay_4_raid_5.html

I am still debating whether to set it up as RAID 10 or RAID 5. Thanks to the comments here I specifically asked the OWC tech what he thought about the two types and he said that for Windows machines and/or hardware RAID that he would definitely recommend RAID 10 but since the OWCs come with SoftRAID, he thought that RAID 5 will give me some strong benefits.

I am purchasing the Enterprise version because, even though it is a bit more expensive, it should give me more reliability and durability (I have lost a drive once in my life and it was painful.)

I asked about buying 1 or 2 additional drives for future use and the tech said that I will need to wait to see which drives the unit comes with because all of the drives need to be the same size, brand, and speed. He also suggested that I wait until drive prices come down because they are having problems with stock because of the chip shortages.

While I am waiting for it to arrive, I now need to start on my search for cloud backup. Thanks to everyone who commented about that.

So far my thought are BackBlaze, Amazon S3, Google and Apple iCloud. Sounds like my biggest problem will be finding something that is reliable but will still take large amounts of data and be affordable (sounds like a pipe dream) I don't need to access the cloud data unless I have a failure on the drives.

Now I know why I put off doing this for so long!

PS. The OWC tech actually said that I had a pretty good handle on the parameters for RAID and JBOD! Thanks y'all!

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I think you will be very satisfied with that unit! I've lost a power supply on an OWC drive, but never had one fail, other than directory scrambles (recoverable). That said, they're all backed up!

jscorbin Loc: Woodinville, WA

Thanks for the update, Suzanne, and for the information you got from the OWC tech. This helps to explain some of the widely varying opinions here.

One thing, if you use a MacBook Pro, OWC recommends that you configure as RAID 4 rather than RAID 5 for Mac notebooks.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I agree. The ONLY advantage of RAID 5 over 1+0 is the percentage of parity overhead, and given a choice between RAID 4 and RAID 5, I would chose RAID 4 every time - much better small and large file performance. I would just add that the benchmarks shown in OWC’s RAID tutorial are only applicable to their RAID implementation and should not be taken as a general indication of performance with other systems/configurations.

rodolini

Hi everyone, sorry for the delay but I wanted to get back to you about my final decisions.

So, I went with the 48T OWC ThunderBay4.

After comments here, I went back to compare, RAID 4, RAID 5 and RAID 1+0. Here is what I came up with (NOTE: All of these descriptions are based on the above configuration, I don't know if they would be different using a different hardware and software combination).

RAID 4 and RAID 5 seem to be pretty similar except that RAID 4 should be used with SSD drives and RAID 5 should be used with HDDs. Also, RAID 4 will put the parity info on a dedicated parity disk and RAID 5 distributes the parity info across drives.

Since I have HDDs I was set to go with RAID 5 until I got to the point of setting up the RAID drive and in one of the notes within the software while setting it up, there was a note which mentioned that RAID 1+0 would be safer in case of a power outage. Since I live in Northern California (which is the land of rolling power outages) I chose to go with RAID 1+0, even though that only gives me 24T of actual storage. I think this is a worthwhile trade for me.

I also looked into cloud storage and have decided to go with BackBlaze because they are the only ones with affordable unlimited storage and I have a lot of data.

So that is my setup. A lot more work than I expected but I am relieved to have it all decided.

So far the RAID drive is super fast and staying cool even though it's been hot. I would definitely recommend this combination.

Thanks for all of your help!

Suzanne

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Good choices Suzanne, especially 1+0 instead of RAID 5. It’s a mystery to me why they say RAID 5 is for HDs and RAID 4 for SSDs. Unless I was configuring a small file server for multiple concurrent users, I’d choose RAID 4 every time, regardless of the type of drives.

Thanks for getting back to us with your final decisions.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Sounds great! In your area, 1+0 makes perfect sense.

Just curious — what is your application? Video? Stills? Audio?…

rodolini

I have been shooting stills for years(decades) but have recently started doing a lot of still composites and video work. I was surprised how much I am loving the video but the files are starting to add up and the composite files are also huge.

Once I started using 45MP bodies, my storage needs really increased.

If you'd like to look at some of my work, I do have a website (a work in progress) it is: www.atali.com

I don't have any videos on it yet because I am still learning.

Thanks.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Very nice work indeed.

rodolini

Thanks!

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Do you need to access your 11TB of data on a regular basis? Your needs might be better served with a scheme that includes archiving as well as copying for redundancy. I would seriously consider Synology for their industry-leading support and creative array solutions - many of which are modular and easily expandable.

This is a good read on RAID performance, which is always a tradeoff between speed/error correction/cost/data safety and integrity. If cost is no consideration, then you can have all pretty much everything else:

https://blog.storagecraft.com/raid-performance/

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Worthwhile read but I would point out that the writer’s comments about RAID 2,3 and 4 not being produced anymore are not correct, Network Appliance (NetApp), a key storage manufacturer and the company that first made NAS a viable player in the market (changing the entire storage marketplace) and introduced a NAS file system with “snapshots” (WAFL) is a RAID 4 architecture. RAID 4 (block striped with separate parity drive) has excellent both small and large file performance, and if available, as it is in the array the OP purchased, it’s a good choice - much better than RAID 5, especially for large (image) files.

Cheers

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Nice work!

If still photography is visual storytelling about a moment in time, then Video is visual storytelling with a timeline.

Audio is the most important part of communicating that story. Crafting good soundtracks is the secret to powerful filmmaking.

rodolini

Thanks!

I am learning how to shoot video, work with audio and assemble and edit in Premiere. Lots of fun but lots of work.

The audio is the part I am least familiar with…

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

If you’re on a Mac, try Final Cut Pro. It can run circles around the Mac version of Premiere Pro for most projects. It also has great built-in pro audio features. Windows users should use Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve.

Curtis Judd’s YouTube channels have some great audio training and equipment reviews.