Hi, My workstation is currently equipped with a pair of Western Digital Red 1 TB SATA disks in a software RAID 1 setup. Some stuff like working with virtual machines is a bit slow, so I'm thinking about replacing the disks by SSD. I'm hesitating between three different setups: 1) Use a relatively small SSD (120 to 240 GB) to reinstall the system on it. Keep the two SATA disks in a RAID 1 array and mount /home on it. 2) Use a larger SSD (500 GB to 1 TB), install everything (including /home) on it. Keep the two SATA disks in a RAID 1 array and mount them on /data for storage. 3) Get rid of the disks and go full SSD, with a 1 TB disk. Any advice from the hardware gurus on this list? Cheers, Niki -- Microlinux - Solutions informatiques durables 7, place de l'?glise - 30730 Montpezat Site : https://www.microlinux.fr Blog : https://blog.microlinux.fr Mail : info at microlinux.fr T?l. : 04 66 63 10 32 Mob. : 06 51 80 12 12
If I were you, I'd do the 2nd ... use a larger SSD (1 TB), and keep the mirror set (raid 1) for /data Walter On 26.12.2020 21:20, Nicolas Kovacs wrote:> Hi, > > My workstation is currently equipped with a pair of Western Digital Red 1 TB > SATA disks in a software RAID 1 setup. > > Some stuff like working with virtual machines is a bit slow, so I'm thinking > about replacing the disks by SSD. > > I'm hesitating between three different setups: > > 1) Use a relatively small SSD (120 to 240 GB) to reinstall the system on it. > Keep the two SATA disks in a RAID 1 array and mount /home on it. > > 2) Use a larger SSD (500 GB to 1 TB), install everything (including /home) on > it. Keep the two SATA disks in a RAID 1 array and mount them on /data for storage. > > 3) Get rid of the disks and go full SSD, with a 1 TB disk. > > Any advice from the hardware gurus on this list? >
I have seen significant improvement when virtual machine disks are on their own spindle/ssd. I would add an SSD and put the VM's on it. Mike On 12/26/2020 3:20 PM, Nicolas Kovacs wrote:> Hi, > > My workstation is currently equipped with a pair of Western Digital Red 1 TB > SATA disks in a software RAID 1 setup. > > Some stuff like working with virtual machines is a bit slow, so I'm thinking > about replacing the disks by SSD. > > I'm hesitating between three different setups: > > 1) Use a relatively small SSD (120 to 240 GB) to reinstall the system on it. > Keep the two SATA disks in a RAID 1 array and mount /home on it. > > 2) Use a larger SSD (500 GB to 1 TB), install everything (including /home) on > it. Keep the two SATA disks in a RAID 1 array and mount them on /data for storage. > > 3) Get rid of the disks and go full SSD, with a 1 TB disk. > > Any advice from the hardware gurus on this list? > > Cheers, > > Niki >
On 12/26/20 12:20 PM, Nicolas Kovacs wrote:> Any advice from the hardware gurus on this list?I think your request lacks at least one critical consideration: What is the cost of down time? You've got a RAID1 setup now, so I have to assume that you've decided at some point in the past that the down time you'd incur replacing a disk when one fails is great enough to buy a second disk.? SSDs aren't immune to failure.? Right now, I'm operating on a degraded RAID1 volume while I wait for an RMA for a SAMSUNG 860 QVO that I installed just over one year ago.? For me, the cost of the outage justified the redundant storage device.? It was expensive, but it's a cost that paid off this year.
On 27/12/20 7:20 am, Nicolas Kovacs wrote:> Hi, > > My workstation is currently equipped with a pair of Western Digital Red 1 TB > SATA disks in a software RAID 1 setup. > > Some stuff like working with virtual machines is a bit slow, so I'm thinking > about replacing the disks by SSD. >I noticed tremendous improvement when I migrated my VM QCOW2 discs to a Crucial MX500 1TB drive.? Previously, they were on a HGST Travelstar 1.5TB drive spinning at 5400rpm. You'd get better performance if you stripe set as opposed to a mirror set on that spinning silicon. <digress> When I noticed this improvement, I starting digging up on why the marked improvement.? During my k8s setup, I recall measuring IOPS using FIO [0] in order to ensure ETCD functioned appropriately. When I measured IOPS on my 1.5TB drive, it recorded a value of 37 IOPS.? With the MX500, that number is 1092 IOPS. [0]: https://www.ibm.com/cloud/blog/using-fio-to-tell-whether-your-storage-is-fast-enough-for-etcd </digress>