After waffling for a couple months as to whether to use RAID or not, I decided to try to wait until the DE bug is fixed and build a server without RAID. Then it occurred to me that even if the bug is patched in June, it could be another 6-12 months before we are sure it is reliable. I can't wait that long, so I am now planning this:
Run 4x 1TB drives on an 8 port RAID card in RAID 6, for about 1.85TB. The array would then be broken into 1TB and .85TB volumes, and only the .85TB volume would be used for WHS. I should be able to get by with that much space until DE is fixed. After the patch is verified as safe, I would present the unused 1TB volume to the DE pool.
That would leave 4 ports open which I could use later using online capacity expansion of the array, presenting 1 or 2TB volumes at a time to WHS.
I figure that gives me ~5TB of well protected storage space for data, a roomy .85TB landing zone, hot swapping, and more space efficiency as I would not need to mirror folders. Even more space could be added using the MB SATA ports, which I would have to protect by mirroring everything.
Is this a sound plan, or am I missing something? I understand that this is not a preferred or supported setup as far as MS is concerned, but without a firm date for bulletproof DE functionality I need to come up with a solution.
It occurred to me that I could just break the array when DE is fixed and present individual drives, but that seems like a waste if I already have the hardware and a working setup.
