[SOLVED] Storage spaces or Raid

fastcompany2

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Oct 8, 2018
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I need to setup a computer for work that acts as our main pc to use and as our file server. there is only one other pc that needs to pull info off the database stored on it so its not a big office environment or anything. The idea was to use a dell precision t3610 with a ssd boot drive which was already purchased for something different that didn't work out. I was going to add a icy dock drive bay https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994216 and 4 2.5 WD 1tb black drives. Without experience with either I would like to know if using a raid card with raid 10 or just using storage spaces mirror and striped would better suit me. I would like to have redundancy and decent speed. our data base after being in use for about 10 years is around 750 GB so having 2 TB of storage will outlast this system. and one more probably very stupid question just can't find the answer any where. I have 6 sata ports in the t3610. 2 of them are reserved for ODD. does that matter? can I hook a hdd to one of those ports since I will need 5 without buying an additional card.
 
Solution
I'm going to say that the way the database is updated upon posting a repair order is very in efficient. I don't have any way of changing this. the database is created/updated via repair order software. I'm not even sure I can look into the databases directly other than using the repair order software.

Fair enough.
But if we consider a RAID 0 with HDD's to be "twice as fast" as a single HDD (it isn't, but for the point of discussion), your "30 seconds" reduces to "15 seconds".
Which is still WAY too long for db interactions.

That should be on the order of milliseconds, not "tens of seconds".


So to your original question - Storage Spaces or RAID?
I'd try it with just the Storage Spaces stripe first.
See what happens.

Along...

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Without knowing a lot more about your environment, any suggestion is simply a guess.

What OS?
How many users?
What type of data?
How much data goes back and forth from this 'server'?

Instead of 4 x 1TB drives, a single 4 or 6TB, another one for a mirror, and then something else for a real backup.
Keep it simple and stable, rather than fancy and fragile.
 

fastcompany2

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Windows 10 pro for the os. Only 2 users. ( 2 pc's shared amongst whomever is in the office) it's an automotive repair shop. Our repair order software writes to a sql database. The writes usually bog down the 1tb hdd for about 30 seconds whenever a repair order is posted. I did plan on a standalone 4tb external drive for regular backups. I was only looking at the smaller 1tb drives so I could mirror and stripe to possibly increase performance. The only thing I can't get away from is whenever an order is posted from the second machine and it has to write to the database over ethernet. This doesnt happen much as most of the repair order wor is done off the "server".
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Making a single write to a SQL db should NOT cause any lag...especially not "30 seconds".
No matter what type of drive it is.

There is something else going on.
I'm thinking a very much non-optomized db, which no drive type or config will fix.
 

fastcompany2

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Oct 8, 2018
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I'm going to say that the way the database is updated upon posting a repair order is very in efficient. I don't have any way of changing this. the database is created/updated via repair order software. I'm not even sure I can look into the databases directly other than using the repair order software.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
I'm going to say that the way the database is updated upon posting a repair order is very in efficient. I don't have any way of changing this. the database is created/updated via repair order software. I'm not even sure I can look into the databases directly other than using the repair order software.

Fair enough.
But if we consider a RAID 0 with HDD's to be "twice as fast" as a single HDD (it isn't, but for the point of discussion), your "30 seconds" reduces to "15 seconds".
Which is still WAY too long for db interactions.

That should be on the order of milliseconds, not "tens of seconds".


So to your original question - Storage Spaces or RAID?
I'd try it with just the Storage Spaces stripe first.
See what happens.

Along with a good automated backup routine, of course.
 
Solution

fastcompany2

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Oct 8, 2018
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ok. one thing to add about our db. normally with a shop management program you will post out a job with labor operations such as labor op 1 is a saved operation that is say for an oil change with .5 hrs labor and 5qts of oil. at my shop we work on everything not normal. rarely do we use an operation code. most jobs on a repair order are typed out upwards of 700 characters with new random parts and labor added every time. i cant imagine saving something like this to a sql db can be very efficient. and yes i have heard that speed does not double but wouldn't that be nice lol. appreciate the help.