I recently received my first server - it is a HP ProLiant 320e G8. I've installed Debian Wheezy on it. I had to disable the HP Smart Array controller (B120i) because it was creating problems with the installation (I thought I read that Debian wouldn't mix well with it - hence why I disabled it... was that correct?).

I have 2 1TB SATA drives installed. I'm trying to figure out the best way to utilise the drives. The server will be 'living' in another country. So I figure I'd like to 'reduce' the chances of having to rebuild the system. So I was thinking maybe RAID 1 (Debian software RAID) for boot and system files (if that makes sense - I'm an absolute noobie to this stuff... spent days reading bits and pieces on the net). And then RAID 0 for everything else. Does this sound reasonable or just stupid?

If it is reasonable, then I'm also looking for advice on how to partition and mount the drives... I was thinking something like this:

```
sda0 4GB raid-autodetect bootable
sda1 16GB raid-autodetect
sda2 80GB raid-autodetect
sda3 900GB raid-autodetect

sdb0 4GB raid-autodetect bootable
sdb1 16GB raid-autodetect
sdb2 80GB raid-autodetect
sdb3 900GB raid-autodetect

md0 raid-level=1 ext4 add devices sda0 & sdb0 mount to /boot
md1 raid-level=1 swap add devices sda1 & sdb1 (no mount - do I have to do anything special?)
md2 raid-level=1 ext4 add devices sda2 & sdb2 mount to /
md3 raid-level=0 ext4 add devices sda3 & sdb3 mount to /home or /var???

```

Sorry for the brain dump. As mentioned, primarily trying to figure out the best way to utilise the drives & reduce probability of having to rebuild system due to drive dying.

BTW - One last question (sorry, I'm sure this is against the rules). I got both drives new. If I start them up at the same time in a RAID 1 configuration, would I expect them to die around the same time?

Thanks for any help - and please forgive my ignorance.

Thanks.

John.