New RAID 10 NVMe SSDs

[Think]

I am looking to build a high performance and large capacity NVMe RAID 10 array out of 6 drives. And I'd like to follow the rule that RAID arrays shouldn't be built out of the same drives in order to decrease the likelihood that all will fail at the same time.

I'm currently looking at Micron MAX 9300 12.8 TB U.2 drives, and am now looking for suggestions for a good "partner" drive for the RAID 1 pairs in the RAID 10 array - ideally of similar performance and capability. Any suggestions? Samsung PM1725b?

Thanks!

 

[T_Minus]

I don't think anyone is advocating mix-match drives in present time.

Maybe 10 years ago, but never have I seen an enterprise solution of 8 or 24 or 48 drive array using non-matched drives for sake of reliability.

Have you seen this in enterprise non-DIY builds?

 

[EffrafaxOfWug]

I'd echo T_Minus on this one; if you're building an NVME RAID10 array then I'd assume the prime emphasis would be on speed, in which case you'd be limiting yourself in performance if one of the types of drives you use was slower than the other. This is why almost every enterprise storage system uses the same drive so performance is even across the whole array.

Mixing and matching drive types is a Nice To Have when it negligibly affects performance, but reliability of even HDDs is good enough that I wouldn't consider it a priority requirement in this day and age, even less so for SSDs.

Yes, there's the odd bad drive design (deathstars for example) or firmware bug (e.g. that recent HP one where the controller stopped responding after 32768hrs runtime) but those are a) edge cases b) better served by having a robust replacement and backup in place and c) not worth compromising array performance for if that's your stated goal.

 

[Think]

Ok, thanks. That simplifies things.

 

[i386]

backup

+1

 

[Jannis Jacobsen]

I thought the rule of thumb was to get drives from different batches, not from different vendors?

-j

 

[EffrafaxOfWug]

If you can do that, then yes - if you know you're going to be building an array of X units of size Y, you can buy some now, some more in three months time, maybe more after that. I tend to find this varies a lot depending on people's spending patterns, budgetary controls and/or impulse control however.