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Backup Storage - Raid vs NoRaid
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Backup Storage - Raid vs NoRaid

BlueVMBlueVM Member
edited November 2012 in General

We were thinking about releasing a new line of storage based VPS. We have a couple of models lined up and we'd like to know what you guys think about them... The purchaser would be able to select what configuration they'd like at checkout.

No Raid - Policy: Data lost isn't our fault.
$3.50 per Month => 100 GB - 128/256 RAM - 400 GB Bandwidth
$7.00 per Month => 250 GB - 128/256 RAM - 1 TB Bandwidth
$13.00 per Month => 500 GB - 256/512 RAM - 2 TB Bandwidth
$25.00 per Month => 1 TB - 256/512 RAM - 4 TB Bandwidth

Raid5 - Policy: We will attempt recovery, however dataloss isn't our fault.
$4.75 per Month => 100 GB - 128/256 RAM - 400 GB Bandwidth
$9.50 per Month => 250 GB - 128/256 RAM - 1 TB Bandwidth
$18.00 per Month => 500 GB - 256/512 RAM - 2 TB Bandwidth
$34.00 per Month => 1 TB - 256/512 RAM - 4 TB Bandwidth

Raid0+1 - Policy: Barring some unforeseen act of god your data should be secure.
- Data on this plan would be backed up and accessible from 2 locations.
$7.00 per Month => 100 GB - 128/256 RAM - 400 GB Bandwidth
$14.00 per Month => 250 GB - 128/256 RAM - 1 TB Bandwidth
$25.00 per Month => 500 GB - 256/512 RAM - 2 TB Bandwidth
$50.00 per Month => 1 TB - 256/512 RAM - 4 TB Bandwidth

We plan to roll out our first offerings of No Raid within the next week, the Raid5 option within 2 weeks and the Raid0+1 ready within a month. How do you feel about the offerings? Which one would you choose? Is the pricing within a good range to make it worth while for you?

Comments

  • Dual Parity RAID 6 FTW!

  • @BlueVM said: Raid0+1

    You do mean RAID1+0, right?

  • pubcrawlerpubcrawler Banned
    edited November 2012

    Prices look good :) Think you are spot on with pricing and good to offer the uptick options that cost and explain why.

    No RAID for me.

    Going to support FUSE, right?

  • @rds100 Actually it's like this:

    RAID 0+1 = First stripe then mirror.
    RAID 1+0 = First mirror then stripe - this one would be the healthier option.

  • Just wondering: why the disparity on policy between RAID5 and RAID 10?

  • Personally, I use storage plans as an extra offsite backup (original on laptop/PC, onsite backup on NAS), so I'm not too bothered about RAID, although if was paying extra for RAID, I'd want there to be a pretty solid chance that the data could be recovered.

  • @marcm i know :) That's why i hope he made a mistake and actually meant RAID1+0 (commonly known as RAID10 here) instead of the RAID0+1 he wrote.

  • MaouniqueMaounique Host Rep, Veteran
    edited November 2012

    I also think the no raid option is better because:
    1. Data loss is not the provider's fault for any person which values their data. If I want to be sure of my data I take multiple backups in various places. Better have 2 non-raid backups with 2 providers than 1 with raid that costs double. I get redundancy for other things too, like hurricanes, fires, floods, bancruptcy of provider, server seizing, civil war, terrorist acts, whatever.
    2. The raid controller might also go bad and lose parity/corrupt data, so there is still a SPOF, even tho a hdd fails more often than a raid controller.
    I keep my personal backups on single drives, if those fail, I still have the original.

  • @rds100 - So as opposed to raid10 on the same node ours would be two servers in different datacenters. The primary server would house the actual data with the second having the ability to be the primary in the event that the original goes down. This way even of say one datacenter gets hit by a hurricane your data is secure.

    We could do raid10 on a single box, but it wouldn't be geographically diverse. Though it really depends on demand.

    @Damian - So raid5 isn't perfect and say 2 drives fail or there's a read error of some kind when you go to rebuild the array, your pretty much SOL.

    @marcm - We thought it over, but offering 4 types of storage just seems unproductive in trying to fill all of our servers.

  • AshAsh Member
    edited November 2012

    Personally I'm not bothered about RAID. A backup service for me is exactly that .. A 'backup' of data I already have elsewhere. The really important/sensitive stuff wouldn't touch somebody else's network in the first place, so just give me as much capacity as I can get for my cash.

    If you balls up and lose it, just tell me, and i'll back it up somewhere else before it's needed.

  • Would these be strictly backup servers? Or is general storage (web server, or something like owncloud) ok?

  • @Roph

    It's backup, you can backup anything you want on it. As long as it's legal.

  • MaouniqueMaounique Host Rep, Veteran
    edited November 2012

    @Ash said: If you balls up and lose it, just tell me, and i'll back it up somewhere else before it's needed.

    Or same place if it gets restored immediately. Losing a hard drive is pretty trivial, I can put up without any problems with that, the chances thatt he other storage to be dead in the same time are slim and the chances I would also lose my main hot data while the other two are down are virtually 0 since i already have redundancy in place there.

  • I like it! Start 'er up!

    I've got backup VMs with budget-vps-hosting.com, BuyVM, Hostigation, and Securedragon. I'm a big proponent of backup VMs and have been for years. I think it's an untapped demographic for providers.

  • Why is there some legal content disclaimer for what is backup space? Either you can use the space as just dumb storage or you can use it to store and serve.

    If it is backup, nothing should be hitting that collection of data. So what does it matter what is in there?

    For instance, I use some VPSes together to store files that are video and/or music. Both collections lack any "licenses" or "receipts" to prove ownership. But all the content is "legal". To an admin those files very well would be as questionable as anything.

    Only difference with that collection compared to others is that it has limited accesses (i.e. my devices accessing it).

    Very awkward dance with storage offers so far.

  • I'd rather cover my butt than have something fail and get sued over it... Honestly our policy generally is that unless we get contacted by the MPAA/RIAA/other about piracy or for some other legal reason: it's your data do what you want with it.

    That said our storage plans will allow for their use as a serving medium as well as just plain dumb storage...

  • :) Thanks for input @BlueVM.

    Terms like that are going to be important with storage plans.

  • @pubcrawler - No problem... there are very few good storage/serving options on the market for a decent price... so hopefully this will be of use to some people :)

    -
    Side note bluevm will probably start some sort of free large file hosting based on our network as well.

  • @BlueVM, couple of loose ends on this:

    1. Will you be supporting FUSE on these offers?

    2. Which location(s) will these be available in?

    3. How soon before offering this officially?

  • @pubcrawler said: How soon before offering this officially?

    This is stated in the original post.

  • Oops :) In the next week :)

  • @concerto49 said: This is stated in the original post.

    looking forward for your offers also here... we like more options ;)

  • @pubcrawler...

    1. Not sure yet, hasn't been too much demand for it in the market.
    2. Some in a week.. some in a few weeks, some in a month - see above :)
    3. The non-raid will be on our site before the end of November with other types to follow.
  • @BlueVM said: Not sure yet, hasn't been too much demand for it in the market.

    I use Fuse to push certain very important backups from the backup machine to Amazon S3 buckets, hence yes, I would want to look for that as a start

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