RAID 10 vs SAN - Which is best for SIMS SQL Data?

[chrisjako]

Just building a new 2012 server with SQL 2012 for our new sims database this September (we are re-opening the school under a new DFE). I've been looking at the disk benchmarks and comparing old server with DELL MD3000i SAN to our new server which has RAID 10 (4 x 146GB 15k SAS with hot spare)

 

These are the results:

 

 

On the left is the old SQL server with SAN and right is New SQL server, the new SQL server is 10x faster on smaller file and 26x faster on larger files for read but the write speed lags by 3x behind until 64kb where it gets up to 3x faster at 8Mb files

 

No question that reading our new sims database will be blisteringly fast in comparison to the old one but I'm concerned about the write speed at smaller files.

 

Does anyone know what sort of data sizes SIMS writes back at? Will this decrease at smaller files have much of a performance impact when taking registers?

[ITGURU]

I wouldn't think you'd notice any difference. Even on a 2 x 6 Core Server with RAID 10 you can get database timeout or lock other users out when running intense reports or editing dates within the academic year, so we have found.

 

probably takes 2 seconds to save a register or load a student record.