Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2000 14:24:54 +0000 (GMT) From: Marc Tardif <admin@wtbwts.com> To: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Subject: hardware vs software stripping Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.10.10001301401360.60037-100000@server.b0x.com>
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I've been reading the freebsd-scsi mailing list, the dpt.com website and searching all over the web to find a solution for performing fast reads on an array of disks. The best choice seems to be raid-0 for our database using postgresql. The alternatives are either raid-1 which seems too wasteful on disks or raid-5 which provides fault tolerance. This last option could substituted for a tape backup and the possibility of a few minutes down time in case of disk failure. Problem is: hardware or software? For hardware, I've been looking at the smartraid iv controller from dpt and perhaps their smartstation7 for an array of 7 x (9 or 18 gig drives). Although this solution isn't out of our price range, it seems to be better suited for raid-5. Considering raid-5 does stripping at the byte level, it might not even be as fast as raid-0 which also saves on redundancy. Therfore, for something as simple as stripping, using such hardware could be overkill. Besides, I'll still have to use ccd to do the stripping of the disks for raid-0. For software, I think freebsd's ccd could provide all the services required for very fast i/o on a straight array of disks and at a fraction of the cost of the raid alternative. Unfortunately, I have never witnessed the virtues of raid myself and I am not in a position to make an educated decision. I would therefore appreciate if someone from this mailing list could share their experience to help with my dilemna. Thanks in advance, Marc To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-scsi" in the body of the message
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