Admins: I'm not sure where best to ask this, but this sub-forum seems most appropriate. Please move this thread if you feel it would be better off elsewhere.
Current scenario: PERC H700 with 2x 500GB disks in RAID-1, 12x 3TB disks in RAID-6, 6x 2TB disks in RAID-6. Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter installed on RAID-1.
I'm currently looking to expand my storage and improve its performance. I am intrigued by Storage Spaces, and have heard it supports "tiering" to allow SSDs to cache frequently-accessed files to improve performance.
I'd like to know if the following is possible:
Keep my existing hardware RAID arrays intact, and add SSDs in a separate tier, thereby using Windows Storage Spaces to accelerate access to the already-existing hardware RAID arrays.
If this is not possible, I am looking at migrating across to a new hardware platform (Asus P9A-i C2750 with 16GB DDR3) with new disks (12x 4TB WD Red Pro) and new SSDs (4x 250GB Samsung EVO 850) and moving to using FreeNAS with RAID-Z2. Would the board and RAM I have support such an amount of storage? I head that FreeNAS requires a lot of RAM to work properly when dealing with large arrays. I'm also interested in long-term usability, as if I moved across to using FreeNAS I'd also want it to support adding a second disk shelf (of 12x 6TB disks and 4x 250GB SSDs - I'm using Lenovo SA120 JBOD shelves).
Current server hardware specs:
Asus KGPE-D16 motherboard,
2x Opteron 6134 CPUs,
96GB (8x8GB and 8x4GB) DDR3 ECC Reg,
PERC H700 with BBU,
Chenbro CK23601 SAS expander,
X-Case RM-424 (similar to Norco RPC-4224),
2x 500GB HDD (RAID-1),
12x 3TB HDD (RAID-6),
6x 2TB HDD (RAID-6),
PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 860.
Proposed server hardware specs:
Asus P9A-i motherboard,
Intel Avoton C2750 CPU,
16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 non-ECC UDIMM,
2x on-board 8-port SAS controllers,
Chenbro CK23601 SAS expander (primarily to provide two external SFF-8088 connectors),
2x Lenovo SA120 JBOD shelves,
12x 6TB HDD (in SA120),
4x 250GB SSD (in system chassis),
SSD OS storage (capacity and type TBD),
PicoPSU 160-XT powering main system chassis and self-powered SA120 disk shelves.
Please let me know what you guys think would be the optimum hardware for maximum performance, maximum capacity and minimum power usage.
Thank you!
Current scenario: PERC H700 with 2x 500GB disks in RAID-1, 12x 3TB disks in RAID-6, 6x 2TB disks in RAID-6. Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter installed on RAID-1.
I'm currently looking to expand my storage and improve its performance. I am intrigued by Storage Spaces, and have heard it supports "tiering" to allow SSDs to cache frequently-accessed files to improve performance.
I'd like to know if the following is possible:
Keep my existing hardware RAID arrays intact, and add SSDs in a separate tier, thereby using Windows Storage Spaces to accelerate access to the already-existing hardware RAID arrays.
If this is not possible, I am looking at migrating across to a new hardware platform (Asus P9A-i C2750 with 16GB DDR3) with new disks (12x 4TB WD Red Pro) and new SSDs (4x 250GB Samsung EVO 850) and moving to using FreeNAS with RAID-Z2. Would the board and RAM I have support such an amount of storage? I head that FreeNAS requires a lot of RAM to work properly when dealing with large arrays. I'm also interested in long-term usability, as if I moved across to using FreeNAS I'd also want it to support adding a second disk shelf (of 12x 6TB disks and 4x 250GB SSDs - I'm using Lenovo SA120 JBOD shelves).
Current server hardware specs:
Asus KGPE-D16 motherboard,
2x Opteron 6134 CPUs,
96GB (8x8GB and 8x4GB) DDR3 ECC Reg,
PERC H700 with BBU,
Chenbro CK23601 SAS expander,
X-Case RM-424 (similar to Norco RPC-4224),
2x 500GB HDD (RAID-1),
12x 3TB HDD (RAID-6),
6x 2TB HDD (RAID-6),
PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 860.
Proposed server hardware specs:
Asus P9A-i motherboard,
Intel Avoton C2750 CPU,
16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 non-ECC UDIMM,
2x on-board 8-port SAS controllers,
Chenbro CK23601 SAS expander (primarily to provide two external SFF-8088 connectors),
2x Lenovo SA120 JBOD shelves,
12x 6TB HDD (in SA120),
4x 250GB SSD (in system chassis),
SSD OS storage (capacity and type TBD),
PicoPSU 160-XT powering main system chassis and self-powered SA120 disk shelves.
Please let me know what you guys think would be the optimum hardware for maximum performance, maximum capacity and minimum power usage.
Thank you!