Hello Andreas, Thanks for your response.
Which SQL Database? What kind of data? What kind of application?
This MySQL with InnoDB tables database is intended for collecting real time test/process data from the running equipment log files and providing raw data for data analysis software to display results over the FCGI web interface. Web server, data analysis software and database should be residing on the same box to reduce network traffic.
Mirroring introduces write penalties, and at least in theory speedups read access. It also enhances (again in theory, it all depends upon the specifics of the hardware) data safety, as you have a complete second harddisc backup. :)
Striping increases read and write speed. (Again it depends upon hardware, there are certain gotchas with IDE drives) It also increases the probability of data loss due drive defects.
We have two el'cheapo SideBus soft Raid0 EIDE controllers and four ATA100 EIDE 40GB hard drives. Sorry we can't afford SCSI. Budget is tight. There are two possible solutions: We can set up two Raid0 arrays and mirror one another simultaneously or synchronizing them once a day. Or we can just leave these hard drives where they are and spread data directories across all four of them. My major question is which method is better for best performance and what FS (EXT2, EXT3, ReiserFS, JFS) is better to use for this task? Thank you in advance for any advises or sources of information. Alex