Hello, I just bought a DELL Server Poweredge R450 server, which has 384 GB RAM, and 4 ssd drives of 1.92TB each with a speed of 6Gbps. This server has a PERC H745 RAID card. My question is, what is the best configuration to perform in the SSD arrays. Should I create the RAID with the physical hardware, and in proxomox only create the LVM? Or should I use ZFS from proxmox?
Server configuration recommendation
- Thread starter Leonardo Ramirez
- Start date
You shouldn't use ZFS with raid cards. See here: https://openzfs.github.io/openzfs-docs/Performance and Tuning/Hardware.html#hardware-raid-controllers
So if you can't switch/flash your raid card to HBA-/IT-mode I would use HW raid with LVM-Thin ontop.
So if you can't switch/flash your raid card to HBA-/IT-mode I would use HW raid with LVM-Thin ontop.
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I read the link. I have a similar setup to Leonardo with mirrored consumer grade ssd on lsi hw raid with bbu using lvm thin.
To clarify I would get better performance and/or security if I switched the raid to jbod and used zfs ?
Thanks
To clarify I would get better performance and/or security if I switched the raid to jbod and used zfs ?
Thanks
Best configuration:
Disable RAID hardware and expose direct the HDDs to the linux system (HBA mode) and make a
RAID10 F2 with mdadm.You will get: Capacity 2x 1.92TB, Read Speed 4x drives, Write Speed 2x drives plus you can loose 2 drives and you're still online.
Never tried RAID10 F2 but I would wonder if that could reach a comparable performance to a HW raid with caching and BBU. SW raid can only use the system RAM for caching and that is not battery backed up so sync writes can't be cached.
Better performance for sure plus interchangeability.
In case of Hardware RAID if you have some issue with the raid card you need another raid card of the same type to get back your data.
With linux mdadm raid you just need some SATA/SAS connectors (direct on motherboard or another generic HBA card) and your RAID is back online by one command (mdadm assembly).
Thank you for the replies. I have spare server so will give Raid10 a try. Which storage to use with raid 10 setup. Is that still LVM thin ?
Hi everyone,
I don't want to open a new thread because I have now the same server and I am now planning to install proxmox and need some information or best practice.
The server is filled with 2 x 480GB SSD (Hypervisor?) and 2 x 1,92TB SSD for Data.
My plan is to configure both sets in an RAID1 HW-Raid configuration, but how or what do I configure in proxmox? The proxmox and its vm should run on the 2 fast 480GB SSDs and the main data should be on the 2 x 1,92TB SSDs.
For better understanding I am planning to install a Windows 10 VM with the host and main application on disk/partition C and all the big Data should be on disk/partition D as it holds over 500gb of data for the main application.
Or is there a better solution how to install this?
I don't want to open a new thread because I have now the same server and I am now planning to install proxmox and need some information or best practice.
The server is filled with 2 x 480GB SSD (Hypervisor?) and 2 x 1,92TB SSD for Data.
My plan is to configure both sets in an RAID1 HW-Raid configuration, but how or what do I configure in proxmox? The proxmox and its vm should run on the 2 fast 480GB SSDs and the main data should be on the 2 x 1,92TB SSDs.
For better understanding I am planning to install a Windows 10 VM with the host and main application on disk/partition C and all the big Data should be on disk/partition D as it holds over 500gb of data for the main application.
Or is there a better solution how to install this?
Option 1 would be ZFS. Great data integrity and features but got a massive overhead. So not the best performance, you will loose additional 20% capatity, needs several GBs of RAM for its cache and (depending on the workload) can kill conaumer grade SSDs really quickly.
So best used with enterprise SSD and ECC RAM.
Second option would be HW/onboard raid (you create raid1 in UEFI/BMC or HW raid fireware before installing) and then LVM/LVM-Thin on top.
So best used with enterprise SSD and ECC RAM.
Second option would be HW/onboard raid (you create raid1 in UEFI/BMC or HW raid fireware before installing) and then LVM/LVM-Thin on top.
Okay great due the fact that I only have 32GB ECC RAM I will go with the HW-Raid. What about the two Raids and its use in PROXMOX for VMs and Data?