New Server SAS or SSD

[karldenton]

Looking at purchasing a new file server.

 

Would you get 2 x SSD for OS and 6x SAS for data or would you put all 8 as SSD's?

[Michael]

SATA, SAS, or SSD works. It depends on your requirements vs. budget. SSD Enterprise is the most expensive and generally far lower capacities, so not ideal for a file server serving many users.

 

I don't see why you'd just put the OS on SSDs?

[mavhc]

Hopefully the server has enough RAM to keep its working set, if it doesn't an SSD for the OS would be faster. Also updates, reboots would be faster

[Oaktech]

Unless you are feeling flushed with cash I would stick to ssd for OS and SAS for storage.

[Sagima]

If you don't get all SSD - don't put the OS on them. Seems quite a waste.

 

I've just been looking at this but we haven't decided anything yet. I am leaning towards a bunch of SDD in RAID 5 as opposed to my usually bunch of SAS in RAID 10. I'm not even sure an all SSD server would need a RAID card.

I'm not buying mine for a few months though so let me know if having a SSD fileserver turns out to be a mistake.

Pricing isn't massively different between the two setups.

Also spotted an SFP+ card that could connect it to my fibre switch for my all SSD fileserver but then I'm not sure about that either.

[Michael]

I just don't see there's a need to put the OS on just SSD. Yes it boots faster, but then actually processing requests, the difference will be negligible. DHCP or DNS requests for example will not be noticeably quicker, as they're quick on any medium.

 

The difference between SAS and SATA is also negligible also depending on what you're doing and how many users and/or virtual instances you're serving. If you're implementing lots of virtual instances, then SSD or SAS makes more sense, but for a single standalone box, not really.

[zag]

Id' always recommend SSD for all storage, and have been for years. Its just far more reliable.

 

You can get the Samsung 2tb SSD's are actually quite cheap these days.

[synaesthesia]

SSD. It's not all that expensive. We've not long kitted out ours with 6TB of SSD storage via Samsungs SM863 drives. If that wasn't an option then I'd be happy to suggest mixing and matching. If you're virtualising, keep the host running on SDCard/USB, have the guest OS drives on SSD for quick booting should you need to do so then prioritise data as per it's location.

Decent SAS drives are rarely cheaper than their SSD counterparts. Beforehand we used enterprise level SATA drives with no issues but increasing demands meant that SSD was a no-brainer.

[Arthur]

+1 to what @zag and @synaesthesia said. SSDs are a no brainer, especially with HDD manufacturers like Seagate phasing out 15K HDDs...

 

SSDs Kill The 15K HDD, Seagate Rolls Out Last Generation

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Morning Karl,

 

I can put together a lovely server for you with enterprise grade ssds if you with.

 

give me a call or drop me an email with your requirements and I'll get you a great price