From owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Aug 27 09:47:34 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7BC361065670 for ; Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:47:34 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bsd@fluffles.net) Received: from mail.fluffles.net (fluffles.net [80.69.95.190]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 312F88FC1D for ; Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:47:34 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bsd@fluffles.net) Received: from [10.10.0.2] (cust.95.160.adsl.cistron.nl [195.64.95.160]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) (Authenticated sender: info@fluffles.net) by mail.fluffles.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id C186EB29D5E; Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:31:47 +0200 (CEST) Message-ID: <48B51EDD.8010906@fluffles.net> Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:31:09 +0200 From: "fluffles.net" User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.16 (X11/20080724) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Jim Pazarena References: <43B3F341.5030906@mac.com> <48B484D8.1050406@ccstores.com> In-Reply-To: <48B484D8.1050406@ccstores.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: your advice on vinum, RAIDs X-BeenThere: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion of FreeBSD hardware List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:47:34 -0000 Jim Pazarena wrote: > Could someone please advise my best course of action for RAID? If you're building a database server, you dont need MB/s but IOps. Have you considered an SSD for this cause? The Intel SSD that arrives in Q4 2008 is said to do about 4.000 random write IOps, much more than the 100-200 a HDD will do. If you put two 256GB SSDs in RAID0 (geom_stripe) you have a 500GB volume with capable of lots of IOps. Just make sure there is no stripe misalignment, so pick stripesize 64KiB and label directly on the RAID device. Thus no partitions on the RAID device; this is the simplest to avoid a misalignment. You can put the SATA disks straight on the motherboard so you don't need a hardware controller. This saves cost and compensates for the high cost of SSD disks. But you don't need many! And unlike HDDs, an SSD would be quite safe to use in RAID0 mode. You should always have backups, ofcourse. RAID can never replace those. - Veronica