Question about upgrading server to RAID 0+1 or SSD

[TheRealChrisjc]

Hi guys,

I've got an Proliant ML150 G6 running SBS 2003. It has an Intel Xeon E5502 @ 1.87Ghz (dual proc) with 4GB of RAM. It currently has 2x250GB SATA 7200RPM disks, one of which I was going to use as a software RAID1, but I haven't set it up as I think the performance hit would be unreasonable without a dedicated card. I'm currently having performance problems with the server which I have narrowed down to be the disk. I'm running a few smallish databases on the server, along with exchange, hosting a very low traffic website and BES express. I want to upgrade it all, and have a fast reliable system. At the moment, everything is about 130GB. I'm thinking, would it be best to buy a decent RAID card and perhaps buy another 2 or 4 drives to run in a RAID0+1 setup, or would I be better off buying a single SSD (or even perhaps 2 smaller SSDs and a RAID card)? I think with an SSD, I would image the current drive on to that for minimal downtime, and repurpose the existing 2 drives in RAID 1 to hold the user data and company drive. All the databases and exchange etc would be left on the SSD. What other issues do I have to think about, I currently have the built in backup doing a nightly on to an external drive. I've set it to start at 2AM and currently it is still going (12:30PM!) although it looks like its almost finished. I get the idea that SSDs fail alot less frequently than spinning disks, is a RAID 1 important for them? I also have read that they have a limited number of writes avaliable, in practical terms, how long would this be in a low/middle use SBS 2003 doing everything? I'm sorry this all seems so jumbled, I really hope someone can tell me what I need to know

Thanks in advance!

Chris Clancey

 

[ShackDaddy]

I would buy another card and put in at least one more mirror. To be honest, turning your 2-disk existing setup into a mirror wouldn't create any additional disk issues. I am sure the disk issues you are having are due to SATA's relatively slow speed in relationship to the large burden you've put on a single spindle. Going to RAID1 on that disk shouldn't make any difference, but should provide some disaster recovery.

If you add an additional mirror, you can offload a lot of load from the original disk(s) and you should see performance improve in general, as long as you do a decent job distributing the load.

Dave Shackelford MVP
ThirdTier.net
TrainSignal.com