- Dec 23, 2006
- 6,886
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Our work file server has 3 or 4 1TB drives in raid 5. We only use about 350-400gb of the array, and while I haven't benchmarked it it feels extraordinarily slow. As in, 30 minutes to copy a 4gb file from the desktop of the server itself to the array
Right now, we're on 100mbit lan, we will be moving to gigabit in a couple of months and I've been thinking an SSD array might be a good bit faster for us, but I don't know enough about it to be sure, or know about potential pitfalls, so I have a few questions
We have 22-25 users, and the server is mostly Autocad .dwgs and related documents, with ~10-40gb worth of files r/w a day
1: Does this sound even feasible? 4x 256gb drives for ~700gb array, should be about $800 for consumer drives
2: Would enterprise drives be needed? Would I be able to just use consumer drives with an extra spare (still cheaper) to make up for the difference?
3: Is raid 5 even the best way to go? We don't really need more than ~500gb, would 4 256gb drives in raid 10 be better? I want fast, but the ability to have at least one, preferably 2 drives that could fail
4: Would a hardware raid card be needed/worth it? I imagine probably so, but I know even less about those. What's a good one?
5: SSD's R/W reliability - What would be a realistic failure rate for SSDs in a service like this? I'm sure it'd be more than disk drives, but I've no idea how much more. Lose a drive once a year maybe? 6 months? 18 months? They're so cheap now as long as it's not a drive every month or two I'm not worried about cost of replacement, but I'd want to avoid server downtime at all costs, even if that means doubling up on parity
6: Any important features I should look up on for SSD's here? I don't know much beyond they're fast as hell and trim is good.
7: Anything I'm missing, or alternative suggestions?
TIA
Right now, we're on 100mbit lan, we will be moving to gigabit in a couple of months and I've been thinking an SSD array might be a good bit faster for us, but I don't know enough about it to be sure, or know about potential pitfalls, so I have a few questions
We have 22-25 users, and the server is mostly Autocad .dwgs and related documents, with ~10-40gb worth of files r/w a day
1: Does this sound even feasible? 4x 256gb drives for ~700gb array, should be about $800 for consumer drives
2: Would enterprise drives be needed? Would I be able to just use consumer drives with an extra spare (still cheaper) to make up for the difference?
3: Is raid 5 even the best way to go? We don't really need more than ~500gb, would 4 256gb drives in raid 10 be better? I want fast, but the ability to have at least one, preferably 2 drives that could fail
4: Would a hardware raid card be needed/worth it? I imagine probably so, but I know even less about those. What's a good one?
5: SSD's R/W reliability - What would be a realistic failure rate for SSDs in a service like this? I'm sure it'd be more than disk drives, but I've no idea how much more. Lose a drive once a year maybe? 6 months? 18 months? They're so cheap now as long as it's not a drive every month or two I'm not worried about cost of replacement, but I'd want to avoid server downtime at all costs, even if that means doubling up on parity
6: Any important features I should look up on for SSD's here? I don't know much beyond they're fast as hell and trim is good.
7: Anything I'm missing, or alternative suggestions?
TIA