New to Undaid....do I need a parity drive?

[FragaGeddon]

I'm going to have at least 4 x 4 TB drives and maybe a 2 x 1 TB drives (probably not).

Right now I have these drives running in windows and for each drive I have an external PlayBook for each drive that backs up those drives using a program called SyncBackSE. 

I have several PC's and one of them basically just runs Resilio File Sync Software. This PC I would attach the external hard drives and have it backup the files from the Unraid Drives. So if I did this, would I need a parity drive?

I know with a parity drive is if one drive dies, you can stick in a new one and have it rebuilt. But if I'm copying the files to the external drives, do I need this.

 

Thanks.

 

[JonathanM]

Parity never replaces the functionality of a real backup, it only allows rebuilding a failed drive, and keeps the data available while the drive is being replaced. Parity can't help with file corruption or deletion, so backups are needed regardless of parity.

 

If the convenience of high availability is worth an extra drive is up to you.

[FragaGeddon]

Awesome, thanks. That's pretty much what I thought, but wanted to make sure, before I gave up one drive to use as a parity drive.

So since I have external backups, I won't use a parity drive. And if that drive fails, I'll just replace it, and put files back on to it.

[FragaGeddon]

Sorry one more question. Should I invest in an sata card, that would run off the PCI slot?

I'm not worried about write/read speeds, this is basically a backup for movies, and for watching movies and TV shows, and file backups.

But is there a real benefit using a sata card with unraid?

 

[ChatNoir]

3 hours ago, FragaGeddon said:

But is there a real benefit using a sata card with unraid?

I see three main reasons :

1. your motherboard has less SATA ports than you would need
2. your MB SATA controller is somehow problematic
3. you have a bunch of SAS drives

So my advice, use the MB ports (unless #3). If you face issues with the MB, then look into an addon card. (https://forums.unraid.net/topic/102010-recommended-controllers-for-unraid/#comments)

[FragaGeddon]

Thanks.

This is the MOBO, that I'll be using with Unraid.

https://www.empowerlaptop.com/p/asus-p8h77-m-motherboard-w1711/?gclid=CjwKCAjw7IeUBhBbEiwADhiEMbI2-7bPt4h8W0m-tmLNnfJUZPsXqUjeO-hvPWRduL47HTZ1wlpGgxoC_JQQAvD_BwE

Edited May 17, 2022 by FragaGeddon

[ChatNoir]

As said above, just use the MB's ports. It works fine in +99% of the cases.

I advise to only use an add-on card if you run in the problems above.