Replacing RAID disks? 2

[cpjust]

Hi,
We have a 4 disk RAID 5 array with Seagate Cheetah 36GB Ultra3 SCSI 10K RPM disks. Today we swapped one that died with another disk of the same model.
We don't have any more of the same model and they're becoming harder to find each day since it's pretty old... We do have a spare Maxtor Atlas 36GB Ultra320 SCSI 10K drive. I was wondering if there would be any problems if we use that if another drive dies, or do we really need an identical disk?

 

[kmcferrin]

It doesn't have to be the exact same make and model, but that helps. You definitely want to make sure that they are the same spindle speed and capacity though, otherwise you could get some strange performance issues. Other than that, it shouldn't make a difference.

 

[ADB100]

It should be fine. I had a RAID-5 array across four 18.2GB Compaq drives, two of them were the same type and the other two were different. Three of them were 10K and one was 7.2K. It worked for the duration of the array's life - about 12-months and then I ran out of space.

I have in the past though had issues with some non-Compaq/HP SCSI drives (identical 9.1GB Fujitsu drives) not working well in a Compaq RAID array; they all gradually failed, however they worked fine when in a non-RAID configuration.
I now have four Seagate Cheetah 72.8GB drives in a RAID-5 configuration off the same Compaq Smart 431 controller and these work perfectly (so far).

HTH

Andy

 

[cpjust]

From what I've seen on the web, the Seagate ST336706LC looks like it's a Ultra-160 SCSI, while the Maxtor is Ultra-320. They're both 80-pin 36GB & 10K RPM. Would the 160 vs 320 matter?

 

[LWComputingMVP]

No, the 160 vs. 320 would not matter. That's maximum throughput on the bus and with more than a single disk, the maximum throughput you'll see from each disk is 160.