0

I'm setting up a new web/database server that will perform a lot of read/write operations. So I want to use a RAID controller and use RAID 10. I need some help to decide what kind of hard drives I should get? VelociRaptor? SAS? (Is it worth the cost?)

Yoni
  • 13
  • 3

2 Answers2

2

SAS - very expensive drives. Velociraptors - pretty much best bang for the buck. Question is - what do you need? you dont say at all.

I run a server with now 12 soon 16 raptors in 2 raid 10 groups (one 6 for hyper-v, one 6 for a sql server alone), 300gb model, and I am VERY happy with them.

But then I need them.

Your "a lot of read/write operations" is like "I drive a lot". WHat is driving a lot per year for you? Hint - I sometimes do 10.000km a month. It really depends on point of view.

In general, Raptors have good IO and are better per dollar than SAS drives. If you need a LOT of iops, then nothing beats higher end (Intel) SSDs - hands down, but you pay a LOT per gb. DO you need them? Depends. What is a lot of operations for you?

TomTom
  • 51,649
  • 7
  • 54
  • 136
  • "A lot" varies quite a bit depending on who you ask. Performance metrics are the only way to be sure in these circumstances (and @TomTom congrats on your 10K!) – sysadmin1138 Nov 27 '10 at 17:36
  • Expecting the workload to be similar to stackoverflow. – Yoni Nov 27 '10 at 17:41
  • @Yoni and how big will be the working set? If the database will be below 10-20GB SSDs are a better choice: two 32GB SSDs won't be *really* expensive and will provide much higher IOPS. As for workload, I'd say that stackoverflow has about 1:4 write:read ratio. – Hubert Kario Nov 27 '10 at 17:49
  • the database is over 200gb, that's why performance is a big issue. – Yoni Nov 27 '10 at 17:57
  • for such big database I'd go with Chopper3 suggestion and install 15k SAS drives. – Hubert Kario Nov 27 '10 at 18:22
  • No. Two 256gb RAM discs are blowing the SAS drives out of the water still. Look at the Intel or other high end SSDs. It will be expensive, though. My main database now has 800gb and I am growing it FAST - I have atable expecting about 1.5 billion rows per day startring 1st of december. – TomTom Nov 27 '10 at 18:50
  • Just make sure you get SSDs that are meant to be used in the enterprise. Intel has some, as do some other vendors. We talkg of nearly 100 times the speed of a SAS drive. Your db set is still trivial - so the cost overhead wont be that bad. – TomTom Nov 27 '10 at 18:51
2

If you expect your disks to be used (i.e. actual significant activity) for more than 30% of the time then go for proper enterprise SAS disks as >95% of disks only have a 30% "duty cycle" and going over this will impact their lifespan and potentially the support you get from the manufacturer. I always use enterprise SAS disks (usually 15krpm ones) for DB work as anything less, in my experience, is money badly spent.

Chopper3
  • 101,299
  • 9
  • 108
  • 239