RAID + SSD drives

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jmchristy

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Aug 15, 2007
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I plan on building a new system from scratch on the ASRock x58 Extreme mobo with i7 processor.

I want to move towards using SSD drives, and determine if I can see significant improvements with SQL database performance vs regular HDD. The SQL database is about 18GB, and I have applications which access that database and pull alot of data off of it.

Would using the RAID from the motherboard be just as good as using an add-on raid controller for the SSD drives? I'm looking to use RAID 5, 3 Intel 80GB x25 SSD drives. Or am I just wasting my money with the SSD drives?
 
Solution
sminlal
It really depends on what it is you're trying to speed up. If you don't care as much about how long it takes to boot the OS and get SQL up and running, and if (once all that's done) the performance of the data base is what you're trying to maximize, then yes - you should definitely use the SSD to hold the DB files.

I'd recommend getting a single SSD to start with and see how it performs for you. If you're not satisfied, you still have the option to buy another one to use in RAID.

Do bear in mind, though, that while SSDs are a LOT faster than hard drives for random reads, they may not that much better at...
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yes and no:) wht application are you using? and what SQL is it MySQL or MS SQL Server? 18Gb is not a lot and it depends what operations are using and how the Db is set up. Again I have mentioned so many times: sata standard is half-duplex, not a plus for DB applications. You'd be better off setting up a dedicated SQL server. ( and cheaper as well).
 
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MS SQL Server 2000

This is for testing only really, it will be my work box. Plan on running virtual test machines, and wanted to see how well it would perform. The SQL server is basically a datawarehouse which is accessed by .NET & Access applications over the LAN. Like I said though it's not production, just testing a copy of the production database.

After I saw a demo of some SSD drives in a RAID array, with applications and other processes running incredibly fast...I assumed even on a smaller scale with RAID 5 and only 3 drives would be faster than even the best sata HD. Not just for SQL mind you, but for any other process.
 
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yeah, I have MS SQL 09 running in a VM ( my os is Server 08 enterprise) and i do a lot of testing our DB is in petabyte range now, for networking we have myri and lan over the branches. You should consider a xeon system, ( i have a dual e5520 setup). Anyway, Again it depends on your setup ( how many VMs you will run and the application intensity and your raid. but i do not think you 'd be unhappy with ssd :) I have 4 SAS 15K drives and I'm happy:)
I cannot speak about sdd in raid b/c i do not have any on hand experience 🙁 okay, not yet :) maybe will buy a couple and test how they do. But knowing the underlying architecture , smaller db's should be faster, but you'd get diminishing returns with growing DB pages
 
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we discussed something similar in this thread :http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/252057-32-raid-7200rpm-raid-raptor

you'd always be better of with a dedicated hardware raid
 
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If access to the database is predominantly reads and if there's a lot of random I/O activity, even an un-RAIDed SSD will give you a big performance boost. Adding RAID will boost your ability to handle more simultaneous queries, but probably won't improve individual query performance much.

If you have even a modest amount of updates to the database then RAID 5 is a very bad choice, as even with SSDs it will severely impact performance.
 
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I'm really not going to have many virtual machines at all, 3 tops. They will be sitting idle mostly probably too.

It's taken our database 6 years to grow to the size it's at now, doesn't grow all that quickly.

So what type of RAID controller would you recommend for SSD drives? I appreciate your feedback :)
 
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well it's up to your budget :), At home in my machine I have a software raid Highpoint rocketraid 2640x4- pcie, but I have a dual xeon setup and it gives me enough computational power to dump raid on the cpu, it's i think the cheapest pcie based, but i n general i've had good experience with both 3ware, LSi and Highpoint so any pcie based hardware raid would be just fine like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118099 or this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115063
make sure the controller you are buying supports your sdds, Highpoint is picky about that ( they only support one type)
 
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I'm really just using it for testing purposes. Would it be more worthwhile to just buy a single SSD drive for the database, and have my OS on a regular sata HD RAID?

I don't want to just throw money away on a RAID 10 SSD setup if I don't have too.
 
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It really depends on what it is you're trying to speed up. If you don't care as much about how long it takes to boot the OS and get SQL up and running, and if (once all that's done) the performance of the data base is what you're trying to maximize, then yes - you should definitely use the SSD to hold the DB files.

I'd recommend getting a single SSD to start with and see how it performs for you. If you're not satisfied, you still have the option to buy another one to use in RAID.

Do bear in mind, though, that while SSDs are a LOT faster than hard drives for random reads, they may not that much better at writes. So if you have a write-intensive database then don't expect miracles.
 
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Solution
I think that's what I'll do, purchase a single SSD drive and see how it works.

If I'm not satisfied with the performance then i'll just stick with regular HD's until the technology is a little more proven
 
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