Hello smart people!

I just accepted delivery of the following:

One G5 Xserve, 2Gb RAM, 240Gb internal drive, Apple Fibre Channel PCI-X card, video card, no RAID card

One Xserve RAID, 1Tb (250Gb x 4); expect to add 1-2Tb before I format to RAID-5

The RAID will host ~1Tb of genomics data, the Xserve will host software to run queries on these data. Xserve will also be used to to host MySQL software and databases, and a Mailman discussion list.

I intend to format the RAID drives as RAID-5 (I’d rather not have to rebuild this much data). Is this the best way to go?

I can quickly get another SATA internal drive for the Xserve, if necessary. I’d appreciate advice on best practice for guaranteed uptime of the Xserve. I need guaranteed security of the MySQL databases and a quick way to get the OS up and running in case of software failure. First inclination is to partition the first drive (30Gb for OS, remainder for data); is this advisable?

Thanks in advance for any input and expertise.