SSD in server

[AlanD]

Anyone tried servers with SSD? It seems there are Sata Ssd which could give a useful life of more than 5 years even if you rewrote half the disk data each day. Not sure whether I would put them in a raid 5 or simple raid 0. Wouldn't take long to recover data from backup if a disk failed....and should be capable making things nippy for desktop clients...logging on speed sets. Or use a pic e adaptor with new m2 type drive. Not sure I would bother with redundancy...but perhaps others have different views?

[rrrrr]

We used hp enterprise ssd 400gb disks in raid 10 for database VMs. Very fast and designed for high usage unlike desktop versions. Comes with a price tag though.

Could perform a sims sql backup of around 15gb in around 1min.

[PotNoodleTech]

Yep Intel DCS3610 in my servers. Fast as stink and a lifetime/endurance that will outlast the server.

[AlanD]

Ooooh, all interesting stuff. Do you have the Intel DCS3610 in a RAID? Just for the OS? For normal storage? For Database? (I remember complaining to our MIS provider about a particular function - which was so slow....it often timed out. Apparently they hadn't realised this because their development servers all had SSDs! In reality...it was just badly written SQL...but that is the trouble when developers use fast kit, they get lazy and sloppy with their coding).

[PotNoodleTech]

Yes all VM storage, groups of 6 drives in raid 5.

[zag]

Anyone tried servers with SSD? It seems there are Sata Ssd which could give a useful life of more than 5 years even if you rewrote half the disk data each day. Not sure whether I would put them in a raid 5 or simple raid 0. Wouldn't take long to recover data from backup if a disk failed....and should be capable making things nippy for desktop clients...logging on speed sets. Or use a pic e adaptor with new m2 type drive. Not sure I would bother with redundancy...but perhaps others have different views?

 

Yep been running them for over 5 years now.

 

You don't need raid 5 anymore especially if your virtualizing and have something like veeam to restore servers quickly. Its far quicker to just restore the vm than rebuild the array.

 

And don't be fooled by "enterprise drives" they are just a marketing trick. Find a good reliable SSD and it should last many years. Our original intel 320's have been rock solid.

 

I'd suggest good battery backups as well, as SSDs can have problems when writing data and loosing power at the same time, but saying that, so can mechanical hard disks. Never experienced this myself though and I think the newer drives have protection against this. My laptop with SSD has lost power probably 200 times and never had any issues.

[whs1000]

We have Intel 520s and Samsung 840 Pro in all servers, Raid 10, no problems since we started and a big improvement over the previous SAS drives.

 

Ignored Enterprise SSD drives due to price and I personally believe they are all similar, we did purchase our SSDs in different batches just incase the same batch fails at the same time

[ICTDirect_Dave]

SSDs are becoming more mainstream for servers nowadays. We've just started offering brand new enterprise SSD drives complete with 5 year warranty.

 

Options for 200/400/600/800GB and 1TB drives.

 

They make our already awesome refurb servers even more speedy and amazing

[Fazza]

We've been using SSDs in our servers for around 4 years now - just make sure they are Enterprise grade. We only use them to mirror the C: drive where we bung the OS and use SAS drives for data.

[sonofsanta]

Yup. Been using them for user profiles for years as well as boot drives in our file servers (which we build ourselves).

 

Samsung 850 Pro gets my vote right now. 10 year warranty and ludicrous levels of data use thanks to the 40nm process node used for the VNAND. Ludicrously fast as well.

 

We run in RAID1.

[Arthur]

Our original intel 320's have been rock solid.

We have Intel 520s ... Ignored Enterprise SSD drives due to price and I personally believe they are all similar

Something to be aware of with Intel's consumer SSDs is that once their write limit is reach they will automatically brick themselves when the drive is power cycled.

 

Intel's 335 Series failed much earlier, though to be fair, it pulled the trigger itself. The drive's media wear indicator ran out shortly after 700TB, signaling that the NAND's write tolerance had been exceeded. Intel doesn't have confidence in the drive at that point, so the 335 Series is designed to shift into read-only mode and then to brick itself when the power is cycled. Despite suffering just one reallocated sector, our sample dutifully followed the script. Data was accessible until a reboot prompted the drive to swallow its virtual cyanide pill. (Source)

 

After a reboot, the SSD disappeared completely from the Intel software. It was still detected by the storage driver, but only as an inaccessible, 0GB SATA device.

 

According to Intel, this end-of-life behavior generally matches what's supposed to happen. The write errors suggest the 335 Series had entered read-only mode. When the power is cycled in this state, a sort of self-destruct mechanism is triggered, rendering the drive unresponsive. Intel really doesn't want its client SSDs to be used after the flash has exceeded its lifetime spec. The firm's enterprise drives are designed to remain in logical disable mode after the MWI bottoms out, regardless of whether the power is cycled. (Source)

[zag]

Yes I followed that experiment closely, I've just checked and I think our file server will be fine... Crystal Disk info shows its written 7tb over the last 4 years.

 

If my basic maths is correct, at that rate it will come to the end of its life in the year 2120

[Geoff]

I have a FreeNAS NAS with 16x400Gb SSDs in (just consumer drives because RAID10). It maxes out it's 10Gb NIC (Second NIC is on order so I can team them).

[LincolnE]

A couple with Raid 0 is a must for our servers these days.

 

Use this for virtual servers and the boot-up times are very impressive, good for maintenance/reboots.

[BKGarry]

Using PCIe SSD cards in mirror together with a selection of standard disks in RAID5 using windows storage spaces to manage them gives amazing speeds. This is what I use for my HyperV hosts, it still amazes me. Storage Spaces are really intelligent on what data needs to be moved where.