Using a m.2 pcie ssd for a web server. Terrible idea?

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DolphinsDan

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Sep 17, 2013
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I saw these Plextor M6e's for $400 for 512GB --- Plextor M6E M 2 2280 512GB M 2 PCI Express X2 Solid State Drive MLC | eBay

It's really expensive on a per GB basis, but here's the thing - what if I ran a web server on that kind of drive? There is a mysql db but it's like under 20% writes. There's lots of images.

Compared to the P3600/ P3700 going m.2 is much cheaper option.

Think it'd work?

What'd be really awesome is if someone made a 1U size adapter for m.2 drives. I can fit 2 of the 2.5" drives in a short depth chassis, plus these and it'd be great. Boot off of 160gb Intel S3500's in R1. Have 2 of these m6e's mirrored.
 

nry

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Feb 22, 2013
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I see no reason why it wouldn't work, but most server boards don't have M.2 slots from what I am aware. Where as the P3600/P3700 look to be PCIe cards.

How much traffic is this web server receiving?
You mention its 20% writes on the DB, do you have figures for how much data is written per day?

Personally I wouldn't install a M.2 SSD like that in a production environment, but guess it all comes down to what your actually hosting and what sort of availability you require.
 

lundrog

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Jan 23, 2015
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I would go with something like the Micron 800 GB Internal SSD SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" M500DC, in raid if it was me. The endurance is better. Assuming you can get them to fit.
 

Patriot

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Apr 18, 2011
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I would go with something like the Micron 800 GB Internal SSD SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" M500DC, in raid if it was me. The endurance is better. Assuming you can get them to fit.
I can't find any endurance stats on the Plextor m.2 only MTBF.
Plextor drives tend to be micron based but with in-house firmware.
If you like Micron then you should love Plextor. Ok hardware with great firmware.

Grab these while they are hot... Toshiba 480GB 2 5 inch SATA3 Solid State Drive MLC THNSNJ480PCS3 | eBay
 
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Patriot

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Of note, while I had read about Plextor switching to micron nand when I looked at my M6e m.2 I noticed it has toshiba nand. :shrugs:
 

T_Minus

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Feb 15, 2015
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I would do the math on the utilization currently and check into the SSD endurance and see how long it would last for you depending on your RAID configuration. Since it's a webserver you may also be better off having two RAID10s to spread out the endurance and also increase performance for your database if there are 80% reads it doesn't hurt to put the logs/etc on another drive/raid/partition.