Guidance on RAID 10 Multimedia Server Array on Adaptec + SSDs

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Logikal

New Member
Jun 8, 2018
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0
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Hello Gents,

I'm new to posting on the forum, long time viewer, first time poster (cant believe I just typed that)

I could use guidance & direction on my new Server Storage array - primarily used for Plex, however also for Video Editing destination/outputs. I already have a 4 x 4TB RAID 5 w/ SSD cache(cade) from LSI, however the controller is continuously outputting errors, and has dropped a drive (twice) Since this array is now 90% full, I'm using this opportunity to create a new storage solution.

The BoM consists of the following :

1 x Adaptec (Microsemi) Smart Storage 3514-24i RAID Controller w/ Integrated Flash Back up
8 x Seagate 12TB Exos SATA 7200RPM HDDs (PN#ST12000NM0007)
Consumer Grade Intel Platform (Core i7-7700K) Asus Motherboard, Melanox10GB Network card with Twinax connection to UBNT 10GB switch, connecting to my workstation and several other PCs)
Windows 10 Pro OS platform
Enterprise SSD's for Caching ***** ? (Don't have them yet)

Caveats of the Scope of Work are:

Must reside in a smaller (shallow) 4U Rackmount chassis - Due to the shallow wall-mount rack already installed) I'm using a cheap Norco 431 Chassis
Chassis only holds 9 HDDs or 8 HDDs and 2 SSDs

My question/vision is the following:

To run a 8 drive RAID 10 (48TB) with SSD Caching - Maximum Speed possible, Fitting into this chassis, using this RAID card and the drives listed above

Does SSD Caching make sense here? If so, What drives should I use for the SSD caching considering my multimedia-heavy application.

Cost is not a primary driver. Performance and reliability are.

Thanks in advance guys

L
 

aero

Active Member
Apr 27, 2016
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And conversely, if the workload is largely sequential, then the cache won't help at all, and could hinder.

I'm not really sure, but it sounds to me like what you'd be doing is mostly sequential IO.
 

Logikal

New Member
Jun 8, 2018
2
0
1
Thanks for the replies Gents. It sounds like for my purpose, the RAID 10 alone (without Cache pool) would be the best course of actions.
I will execute this and re-post my results. Thanks again!