I have a single Windows Server 2016 Standard Server, with 3x 4 TB drives, on plain SATA Controllers (2x On-Board Intel, 1x Add-On PCI Express Asmedia 1061). The server itself is virtualized, running on a Windows Server 2016 Standard in Hyper-V, with the disks being physically attached to the VM in Hyper-V.
I could create a regular RAID-5 Volume in Computer Management, which has been supported for several Windows Server versions (Back to Server 2000 or at least Server 2003?)
However, the big new Storage Feature since Server 2012 has been Storage Spaces, which offers Parity.
However, I haven't been able to find much information about why I would use Storage Spaces Parity over a regular RAID-5 Volume in a 3-disk/single parity setup. I've seen some discussion about more disks and using multiple redundancy (instead of just protecting against a single disk failure), and I've seen tons of discussion about Storage Spaces Direct (which seems to be the only thing anyone on Server 2016 seems to talk about).
Has anyone done any actual experience with Storage Spaces over regular RAID-5 Volumes and could advice which one would be a better option?
(Better, as in: If a drive dies, I just want to replace it and rebuild automatically, and if I have to move two working drives to another Windows 2016 server for data recovery, it just works.)
Best Answer
It's a bad idea to use parity Storage Spaces because:
1) Single parity is dangerous: every time one disk dies and you start a rebuild process there's a heavy load applied to all remaining spindles, so there are great chances you'll get second, now deadly fault.
2) Performance is horrible. I mean it! ZFS has proper journaling and variable sized parity strips, while Storage Spaces have none.
Use RAID10 equivalent or a single node Storage Spaces Direct + ReFS and a multi-resilient disks.
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/11382.storage-spaces-frequently-asked-questions-faq.aspx#Controlling_the_Number_of_Columns
(that's for performance to build a proper RAID10 equivalent)
https://charbelnemnom.com/2017/06/how-to-create-a-multi-resilient-volume-with-refs-on-standalone-server-in-windows-server-2016-ws2016-hyperv-storagespaces/
(that's for multi-resilient disk, one will give you flash-in-mirror + disks-in-parity)