Another Hardware vs software RAID discussion - Repo

[dhayes16]

Hello All.
So most of our customer sites are small to medium-sized. Sites with 5-6 VM's Max...Mostly smaller. Over the many years, we have been deploying Dell servers as BDR's running Windows server with VBR installed and a separate DAS volume formatted for ReFS. And, for the last year or so we have been deploying Linux Hardened Repo's on higher-end xeon based HP workstations (not servers). We do NOT use NAS devices as repos anywhere.

The Windows server OS on some of those legacy BDR's is long in the tooth and needs to be updated but the hardware is still solid and supported by the Linux kernel. We were thinking of wiping the Windows OS and deploying Linux on those boxes. We have already done this on a couple and it works perfectly. We have exclusively used Ubuntu server. However, I noticed that Veeam has a preview build of a Linux hardened repo running Rocky with enhanced security settings so I wanted to check it out. But the requirements clearly state HARDWARE RAID only. Now this got me thinking....

All of the repos we have deployed are SOFTWARE RAID. For the Linux boxes we have been deploying Linux MDM with XFS in RAID-1 configurations (no need for other RAID options since the storage requirements are not that great). Basically, we have the Linux-hardened repo as the primary repo and then backup copy jobs to Wasabi or Azure. This solution has worked fine.

But as these systems get wiped and reloaded should we consider installing Hardware Raid Controllers with battery backup? All of the repos out there are plugged into UPS devices for battery backup so we were thinking that software RAID via MDM would be OK because we have battery backup for the entire device.

I know based on the mountain of posts here that software raid seems to be discouraged. But my main concern is that if we have a support issue Veeam might not support us since we are using software RAID as opposed to hardware RAID.

Any thoughts on this and should we be shopping for some hardware raid cards?

Thanks
Dave

[HannesK]

Hello,
if you are able to manage software RAID and it works for your needs, then there is no "hard" argument against that. As long as you ensure it works, our software will run fine.

For the Veeam Hardened Repository ISO we require hardware RAID because building a software raid configuration would create a huge complexity in the installer. Also, we do not want to deal with the performance impact of missing RAID controller caches. Sure, one can do things in software combined with the right hardware, but that increases complexity for customers and Veeam support.

Best regards,
Hannes

[dhayes16]

Thanks Hannes for your reply. The added complexity to support software raid during the initial installation of the veeam provided hardened build makes complete sense. But it would be ideal if it supported it some time down the road.

I just finished up a Rocky 9.4 build for a hardened repo box with mdm software raid and it works perfectly. Very straightforward.

Is Rocky now the "favored" distro for a hardened distro? Certainly being a clone of enterprise RHEL helps that case.

Again thank you!!

[HannesK]

I noted the request for software RAID support

Yes, we use Rocky Linux in our appliances now, but there are no plans to drop Ubuntu support if that was the background of question.

[Gostev]

For the Veeam Hardened Repository ISO we require hardware RAID because building a software raid configuration would create a huge complexity in the installer. Also, we do not want to deal with the performance impact of missing RAID controller caches. Sure, one can do things in software combined with the right hardware, but that increases complexity for customers and Veeam support.

Also we highly recommend BBWC for added reliability. Too many issues in Support on configs without one.