Hi all,? I have a CentOS 4.5 server running on a workstation mainboard (PCI Slots only).? We have now one 200 Gigs IDE disk dedicated for e-mail server storage.? We use Communigate Pro and the server has 45 Outlook clients with the MAPI connector (All mailboxes on the server).? When a user opens Outlook, a refresh of the local cache is performed for his data.? There is a big "Public" area (about 50 Gigs) where all the projects data/infos are stored (all that on the same IDE hard disk).? Clients cache updates are performed on e-mail folder access.? We noticed server response slowdown as the number of user increased (quite normal!).? Now we want to upgrade the server to get better performance.? I'd like to know if, as a temporary cheap upgrade, software RAID with a Sil 3124 and 2 x Raptor WD740ADFD (74 Gigs with NCQ) in Software RAID 0 would bring a significant performance boost.? If it is the case, that would permit to phase out this server in 1-2 years and we'd upgrade the whole server after.Here a the specs of the actual "server":Asus A7V600 (I know, that's bad but it just works!!!)Athlon 2500+1 Gig RAM (we'll probably put 1 more gig soon if it can help)System Hard Disk: WD 80 GigsMail hard disk: Western Digital WD2000JB (IDE 200 Gigs) EXT3 on LVMBackups hard disk: 1 x 200 Gigs IDE, 1 x 320 Gigs SATA, 1 x 750 Gigs SATA -->? LVM Total of 1270 GigsAny help / experience would be appreciated.TIA,Guy Boisvert -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20071113/89b72714/attachment.html>
Guy, I don't think raptor hard drives are necessarily value for money and in your case, I believe that you'd be *much* better served with some sort of redundancy and not just plain old striping. I'd recommend that you stick with software raid and do something like this; 1 x silicon image PCI 4 port sata controller *not hardware raid* ($25 from ebay for example) 3 x 320gb sata hdd (~ $100 each here in Australia) for a total of $325 AUD you'd get around 640gb or redundant storage. 2 x 74gb raptors will cost you $400 here in Australia ..... so thats $75 *more* for almost 400gb *less* storage that is *not* redundant ! Linux software raid-5 performance is pretty good, my 4 x 400gb sata's show 155mb/s reads with 'hdparm -t'. No brainer ! Cheers, Brian. ----- Original Message ----- From: "boisvert guy" <boisvert.guy at videotron.ca> To: centos at centos.org Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 12:09:48 PM (GMT+1000) Australia/Brisbane Subject: [CentOS] Need advice on storage Hi all, I have a CentOS 4.5 server running on a workstation mainboard (PCI Slots only). We have now one 200 Gigs IDE disk dedicated for e-mail server storage. We use Communigate Pro and the server has 45 Outlook clients with the MAPI connector (All mailboxes on the server). When a user opens Outlook, a refresh of the local cache is performed for his data. There is a big "Public" area (about 50 Gigs) where all the projects data/infos are stored (all that on the same IDE hard disk). Clients cache updates are performed on e-mail folder access. We noticed server response slowdown as the number of user increased (quite normal!). Now we want to upgrade the server to get better performance. I'd like to know if, as a temporary cheap upgrade, software RAID with a Sil 3124 and 2 x Raptor WD740ADFD (74 Gigs with NCQ) in Software RAID 0 would bring a significant performance boost. If it is the case, that would permit to phase out this server in 1-2 years and we'd upgrade the whole server after. Here a the specs of the actual "server": Asus A7V600 (I know, that's bad but it just works!!!) Athlon 2500+ 1 Gig RAM (we'll probably put 1 more gig soon if it can help) System Hard Disk: WD 80 Gigs Mail hard disk: Western Digital WD2000JB (IDE 200 Gigs) EXT3 on LVM Backups hard disk: 1 x 200 Gigs IDE, 1 x 320 Gigs SATA, 1 x 750 Gigs SATA --> LVM Total of 1270 Gigs Any help / experience would be appreciated. TIA, Guy Boisvert -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner , and is believed to be clean. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20071113/6fb0111c/attachment.html>
On Tue, 13 Nov 2007 02:09:48 +0000 (GMT), boisvert.guy at videotron.ca wrote:> normal!). Now we want to upgrade the server to get better performance. > I'd like to know if, as a temporary cheap upgrade, software RAID with aSil> 3124 and 2 x Raptor WD740ADFD (74 Gigs with NCQ) in Software RAID 0 would > bring a significant performance boost. If it is the case, that wouldYou've already received a few responses about reconfiguring your entire server, so I'll avoid that route and simply answer your question straight. "No" There will not be a "significant" performance boost striping only 2 drives. The 10K RPM Raptors alone will definitely increase performance, but there is little/no real advantage striping them together. Getting any significant performance increase from a RAID array really requires at *least* 4 drives ... the more the merrier ... although I'll probably catch some flack from that statement. :-) A previous poster mentioned increasing your RAM from 1Gb to 2Gb. That was an excellent idea and should be done in parallel with whatever drive changes you make. Regards, Ken
If you are seeing iowaits that high then something needs to be done. You CAN gain performance by striping, but the downtime due to disk failure can make your decision making skills look flawed. For a mail server I highly recommend RAID10 and drives with high RPM so you get better random io performance as 99% of io on a mail home server will be random io and while regular SATA drives would be ok for a file server which is mostly sequential they will stack up io waits on a busy mail or database server. The raptors are costly because they run at 10k rpm and have low seek times, this gives them much better random io performance, but sequential io is the same with regular SATA drives. In fact sequential io performance is almost identical between 7200rpm SATA and 15000rpm SAS the real difference is in random io where the 15k drives are 2x faster (1.2MB of 4k random ios a second versus 640KB of 4k random ios a second, unbuffered). If you have an external enclosure then that will help, but make sure the array is compatible with the drives you want. SATA disks cannot go into a SCSI array, though some SAS enclosures and controllers allow you to mix SAS and SATA drives (LSI is one). Performance can trump size here so if the choice is between 200GB 7200 rpm SATA drives or 72GB 15000rpm SAS drives, if your data fits onto the 72GB drives (probably 140GB if in a 4 drive RAID10) go with the 72GB drives (taking growth into consideration too). Hardware RAID can help too if you utilize onboard battery backed up write-back cache. The more write-back cache the better, just make sure it is battery backed up (BBU). -Ross -----Original Message----- From: centos-bounces at centos.org <centos-bounces at centos.org> To: CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> Sent: Tue Nov 13 01:58:27 2007 Subject: Re: [CentOS] Need advice on storage ----- Message d'origine ----- De: Kenneth Price <kprice at nowyouknow.net> Date: Lundi, Novembre 12, 2007 10:58 pm Objet: Re: [CentOS] Need advice on storage ?: CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org>> > You've already received a few responses about reconfiguring your > entireserver, so I'll avoid that route and simply answer your > question straight. > > "No" > > There will not be a "significant" performance boost striping > only 2 drives. > The 10K RPM Raptors alone will definitely increase performance, > but there > is little/no real advantage striping them together. Getting any > significant performance increase from a RAID array really > requires at > *least* 4 drives ... the more the merrier ... although I'll > probably catch > some flack from that statement. :-) > > A previous poster mentioned increasing your RAM from 1Gb to 2Gb. > That was > an excellent idea and should be done in parallel with whatever drive > changes you make. > > Regards, > Ken > >Thanks Ken. That's a good thing to know that software striping won't really boost performance, i then won't waste money on that avenue. I cannot explain why as i don't know about Linux drivers architecture and general system low level behavior but maybe somebody on this list could give us a clue. As i said on my previous post, i found that the server is inside a rack that has a VTRAK 15100 SCSI to SATA Enclosure with a free SCSI bus (the unit has 2 independant bus) and hard disk slots. I think we have a spare Adaptec 39160 so if it's the case, i could go with this solution and buy 4 x WD 250 Gigs "YS" (RAID) serie drives @ about 75$ each and put all this in RAID 10. The unit supports NCQ. It remains to be seen how well it can perform even if they are talking about "up to 200 MBps". Regards, Guy Boisvert ______________________________________________________________________ This e-mail, and any attachments thereto, is intended only for use by the addressee(s) named herein and may contain legally privileged and/or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail, and any attachments thereto, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify the sender and permanently delete the original and any copy or printout thereof. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20071113/ab44010c/attachment.html>
boisvert.guy at videotron.ca wrote:> Hi all, > > I have a CentOS 4.5 server running on a workstation mainboard (PCI > Slots only). We have now one 200 Gigs IDE disk dedicated for e-mail > server storage. We use Communigate Pro and the server has 45 Outlook > clients with the MAPI connector (All mailboxes on the server). When a > user opens Outlook, a refresh of the local cache is performed for his > data. There is a big "Public" area (about 50 Gigs) where all the > projects data/infos are stored (all that on the same IDE hard disk). > Clients cache updates are performed on e-mail folder access. We > noticed server response slowdown as the number of user increased > (quite normal!). > > Now we want to upgrade the server to get better performance. I'd > like to know if, as a temporary cheap upgrade, software RAID with a > Sil 3124 and 2 x Raptor WD740ADFD (74 Gigs with NCQ) in Software RAID > 0 would bring a significant performance boost. If it is the case, > that would permit to phase out this server in 1-2 years and we'd > upgrade the whole server after. > > Here a the specs of the actual "server": > Asus A7V600 (I know, that's bad but it just works!!!) > Athlon 2500+ > 1 Gig RAM (we'll probably put 1 more gig soon if it can help) > System Hard Disk: WD 80 Gigs > Mail hard disk: Western Digital WD2000JB (IDE 200 Gigs) EXT3 on LVM > Backups hard disk: 1 x 200 Gigs IDE, 1 x 320 Gigs SATA, 1 x 750 Gigs > SATA --> LVM Total of 1270 Gigs > > Any help / experience would be appreciated. > > > TIA, > > Guy Boisvert > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > >if you are planning to do a full upgrade ... in future .. try out zimbra from zimbra.com -- Shibu - "Quality is truly a state of mind" One error in every 16 million transactions - Mumbai Dabbawala.