All this top-posting is getting me down, but ...
mchristi> Sure, just keep your raid group size at a reasonable level, to mchristi> avoid double disk failures, and use multiple raid groups. I had a mchristi> semi-large volume running RAC for about a year which had 6 groups of 12, mchristi> so 72 spindles in the volume. (I certainly wouldn't use a raid group mchristi> of 72 though!)
Rick.Ehrhart> Don't forget there is double parity RAID on 6.5 and later.
mchristi> I believe there is still a limit of 24 with DP. Not positive though.
See the Storage Mangement Guide, e.g. at
http://now.netapp.com/NOW/knowledge/docs/ontap/rel65r2_gf/html/ontap/mgmtsag...
for NetApp's current (6.5) guidelines. Briefly, for most filers,
raid4: default raidsize = 8, maximum raidsize = 14 raid_dp: default raidsize = 16, maximum raidsize = 28
As regards Michael's putative raid group of 72 disks,
| Note | If as a result of a software upgrade from an older version of Data ONTAP, | volumes that contain RAID 4 groups larger than the maximum 28 disks exist, | NetApp recommends that you convert the volumes in question to RAID DP as | soon as possible.
but I don't think there's ever been a version of ONTAP that would let you go as high as 72! (I have a vague memory that 56 may once have been allowed, long long ago.)
Chris Thompson Email: cet1@cam.ac.uk