How to setup raid windows server 2008 r2

I will be installing Server r2 enterprise edition. I want a mirrored raid setup of this installation for redundancy in the event of SSD failure. If yes then what is the best way to go about this? Like can the installer set this up, or do I install to only one disk and then turn on mirroring after the install, or maybe it is not possible I don't like to use bios level raid controllers as it makes it very hard to take the drive and stick it in another machine if needed, ditto for hardware raid if you don't have the same card available.

Thanks for your help, Regards, Bryce Stenberg. But if you insist, here are your instructions straight from Microsoft. Maybe I will use the hardware raid after reading that lot. If the concern is great there, then you could seek out some inexpensive SATA raid contorllers and buy two one for the system and one for the shelf.

Sure it's double the cost but it may be worth it for your piece of mind. Oh yeah.. It shutdown dirty and trigger a resync. You said and used Raid5! How to set up s oftware RAID 1 step by step? To set up software RAID, do as following: 1. Then, open a window. Please tick another dynamic disk, and click "Add Mirror" button: 3. After completing, you will see the following screen. Two Methods Offered. Still Need Help? Have your problem been solved?

If not, please input query in the search box below. Convert Basic Disks to Dynamic Disks. While in the Disk Management interface, select the disks. Please initialize the disks.

Repeat for your second GB Disk. You will receive a prompt to select your secondary disk. Select your disk and confirm the maximum amount of disk space. Then you will select your File System for this new Volume. Best Regards,. Is there a hardware raid controller involved? If so you can do the configuration in raid controller bios system bios if controller is integrated I setup a raid 5 and then partition it accordingly.

There no sense to waste the rest of gb for operatiing system besides giving you some fault tolerance. I successfully created the two dynamic disks, but no lmatter where I right click on the volumes i. If you want to use a hardware solution to create RAID 5, please consult the manufacturer of your system. Creating a mirrored volume is similar to creating spanned and striped volumes.

Additionally, like with striped volumes, the partitions on the mirrored disks will be the same size. Figure 3 shows an example of a mirrored volume. Right-click the unallocated space in the bottom window of the middle pane you want to create the volume on. Click New Mirrored Volume. On the Welcome screen, review the message, and click Next. On the Select Disks screen, select the disks you want to use for the mirrored volume, and click Add to place them in the selected option.

Select the size you want to make the volume, and click Next. Select how you want mount the volume. You can choose to mount to a drive letter, to mount a folder on an existing drive, or to not assign any mount point. After you make your selection, click Next. Next, you can select how to format the drive.

You will see a warning dialog box if the drives need to be converted to dynamic drives for mirrored volumes. After you review the warning, click Yes. If you lose a hard drive in a mirror, the mirror has failed redundancy. You will need to replace the failed drive, remove the existing mirror, and then re-create the mirror. Right-click the half of the mirror in the bottom window of the middle pane that is still working.

Select Remove Mirror; you will a screen similar to Figure 4. Select the drive that has failed on your server to remove the mirror from. When you remove the mirror for the drive, this will remove the mirror.

Then you are ready to re-create the mirror. To re-create the mirror, right-click and select Add Mirror. In the Add Mirror dialog box, select the new volume you want to create the mirror on. You will see the drive status of synching, and when the drive has completed the sync, you will see a status of Healthy.

You may choose to stop using an existing mirror.