Looking to create a 20TB RAID5 volume with SSD drives in an R720
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@dave247 said in Looking to create a 20TB RAID5 volume with SSD drives in an R720:
if it really matters so long as they are "Enterprise SSD" drives, right?
Even many non-enterprise drives are okay, too.
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I might end up just going with 6TB SAS spindle drives in a RAID10 to save on cost - provided the RAID controller can handle 8 drives in R10..
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@dave247 said in Looking to create a 20TB RAID5 volume with SSD drives in an R720:
I might end up just going with 6TB SAS spindle drives in a RAID10 to save on cost - provided the RAID controller can handle 8 drives in R10..
If it can't then it certainly won't be able to handle an SSD OBR5. . .
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@dave247 said in Looking to create a 20TB RAID5 volume with SSD drives in an R720:
I might end up just going with 6TB SAS spindle drives in a RAID10 to save on cost - provided the RAID controller can handle 8 drives in R10..
R10 has essentially no overhead. R5 has quite a bit, and R6 more than double R5. But R10's power comes from its simplicity.
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@dave247 said in Looking to create a 20TB RAID5 volume with SSD drives in an R720:
@DustinB3403 said in Looking to create a 20TB RAID5 volume with SSD drives in an R720:
@dave247 xByte is a Dell certified reseller/refurbisher etc, so they'll only list equipment which is certified by Dell.
You can add (more often than not) any drive you want to a Dell server, but you might lose things like Indicator light functionality (among other possibilities).
But usually most drives work just fine.
Yeah I have learned that there is Dell firmware loaded onto Dell brand drives so that's probably why only certain drives are listed as "supported" at least on Dell's website - but as you said, likely any drive will work fine. I may just not know it is dying in the iDRAC until its actually dead.
Dell only pays to test certain drives. For Dell to support them, requires that they also test them. There is no incentive for Dell to pay to test competitor's drives.
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Yeah, that is basically what happened.
They were business class drives from xByte.
I think Kingston?
Anyway ... every few hours, days the server would either freeze or reboot. Turns out it was the drives. xByte swapped them for the DELLs and they have been fine every since.
Since we have a limited number of servers, I'd probably only buy DELLs moving forward. But if there were a ton, I'd consider something else I guess.
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@dave247 said in Looking to create a 20TB RAID5 volume with SSD drives in an R720:
Hey guys,
I figured I'd post my plan here since I usually get good input that improves my decision making with these sorts of projects.
I have a spare Dell R720 with 8 x 2.5 drive bays. I need about 20TB of storage space (a little less is fine) and I'd like to use enterprise SSD drives for this. I plan to get 6 x 4TB drives in a RAID5 for about 20TB - or some other configuration that yields the same amount of space.
The first place I looked was xbyte.com and then newegg. I'm not 100% sure what drives to use or if it really matters so long as they are "Enterprise SSD" drives, right?
In the past, I usually go through Dell or xbyte to purchase the proper supported hardware for servers (CPUs, RAM, Cards, etc).
Drives I'm looking at now: https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100011695 600415791 601114487 601117981 601325569
What's the purpose?
Micron 5210 ION are the least expensive options out there. Performance is okay but nothing can touch the $/TB.
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@PhlipElder said in Looking to create a 20TB RAID5 volume with SSD drives in an R720:
@dave247 said in Looking to create a 20TB RAID5 volume with SSD drives in an R720:
Hey guys,
I figured I'd post my plan here since I usually get good input that improves my decision making with these sorts of projects.
I have a spare Dell R720 with 8 x 2.5 drive bays. I need about 20TB of storage space (a little less is fine) and I'd like to use enterprise SSD drives for this. I plan to get 6 x 4TB drives in a RAID5 for about 20TB - or some other configuration that yields the same amount of space.
The first place I looked was xbyte.com and then newegg. I'm not 100% sure what drives to use or if it really matters so long as they are "Enterprise SSD" drives, right?
In the past, I usually go through Dell or xbyte to purchase the proper supported hardware for servers (CPUs, RAM, Cards, etc).
Drives I'm looking at now: https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100011695 600415791 601114487 601117981 601325569
What's the purpose?
Micron 5210 ION are the least expensive options out there. Performance is okay but nothing can touch the $/TB.
Array monitoring and status from the controller.
I get that price per gb is important, but functionality needs to be considered too.
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@DustinB3403 said in Looking to create a 20TB RAID5 volume with SSD drives in an R720:
@PhlipElder said in Looking to create a 20TB RAID5 volume with SSD drives in an R720:
@dave247 said in Looking to create a 20TB RAID5 volume with SSD drives in an R720:
Hey guys,
I figured I'd post my plan here since I usually get good input that improves my decision making with these sorts of projects.
I have a spare Dell R720 with 8 x 2.5 drive bays. I need about 20TB of storage space (a little less is fine) and I'd like to use enterprise SSD drives for this. I plan to get 6 x 4TB drives in a RAID5 for about 20TB - or some other configuration that yields the same amount of space.
The first place I looked was xbyte.com and then newegg. I'm not 100% sure what drives to use or if it really matters so long as they are "Enterprise SSD" drives, right?
In the past, I usually go through Dell or xbyte to purchase the proper supported hardware for servers (CPUs, RAM, Cards, etc).
Drives I'm looking at now: https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100011695 600415791 601114487 601117981 601325569
What's the purpose?
Micron 5210 ION are the least expensive options out there. Performance is okay but nothing can touch the $/TB.
Array monitoring and status from the controller.
I get that price per gb is important, but functionality needs to be considered too.
Not sure I get the response. All SATA drives will have standard SMART. SAS would have more.
Not sure if the Dell firmware tweaked versions would make any difference there.
Care to elaborate?
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@PhlipElder said in Looking to create a 20TB RAID5 volume with SSD drives in an R720:
@DustinB3403 said in Looking to create a 20TB RAID5 volume with SSD drives in an R720:
@PhlipElder said in Looking to create a 20TB RAID5 volume with SSD drives in an R720:
@dave247 said in Looking to create a 20TB RAID5 volume with SSD drives in an R720:
Hey guys,
I figured I'd post my plan here since I usually get good input that improves my decision making with these sorts of projects.
I have a spare Dell R720 with 8 x 2.5 drive bays. I need about 20TB of storage space (a little less is fine) and I'd like to use enterprise SSD drives for this. I plan to get 6 x 4TB drives in a RAID5 for about 20TB - or some other configuration that yields the same amount of space.
The first place I looked was xbyte.com and then newegg. I'm not 100% sure what drives to use or if it really matters so long as they are "Enterprise SSD" drives, right?
In the past, I usually go through Dell or xbyte to purchase the proper supported hardware for servers (CPUs, RAM, Cards, etc).
Drives I'm looking at now: https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100011695 600415791 601114487 601117981 601325569
What's the purpose?
Micron 5210 ION are the least expensive options out there. Performance is okay but nothing can touch the $/TB.
Array monitoring and status from the controller.
I get that price per gb is important, but functionality needs to be considered too.
Not sure I get the response. All SATA drives will have standard SMART. SAS would have more.
Not sure if the Dell firmware tweaked versions would make any difference there.
Care to elaborate?
The Dell Firmware is what is specifically needed to take advantage of iDrac monitoring, light status etc. Without that, the functionality is hit or miss and may not work.
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@DustinB3403 10-4
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Now the alternative approach would be to just get a supermicro system and load that up with whatever you want at around the same price point and not have to fret over Dell Firmware. . .
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Like any of these chassis
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And if you really didn't need a dual socket board (or an extreme amount of RAM), this board might work well too SuperServer 1019S-MC0T.
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@dave247 do you already have the chassis or are you looking to buy today for this?
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@scottalanmiller said in Looking to create a 20TB RAID5 volume with SSD drives in an R720:
@dave247 said in Looking to create a 20TB RAID5 volume with SSD drives in an R720:
I might end up just going with 6TB SAS spindle drives in a RAID10 to save on cost - provided the RAID controller can handle 8 drives in R10..
R10 has essentially no overhead. R5 has quite a bit, and R6 more than double R5. But R10's power comes from its simplicity.
Right and I would only do RAID10 with HDDs and RAID5 or 6 with SSD
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@DustinB3403 said in Looking to create a 20TB RAID5 volume with SSD drives in an R720:
@dave247 do you already have the chassis or are you looking to buy today for this?
I already have the R720 chassis loaded with desired CPU and RAM so I'm sticking with it. Just need to find the right drive config.
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@dave247 said in Looking to create a 20TB RAID5 volume with SSD drives in an R720:
@DustinB3403 said in Looking to create a 20TB RAID5 volume with SSD drives in an R720:
@dave247 do you already have the chassis or are you looking to buy today for this?
I already have the R720 chassis loaded with desired CPU and RAM so I'm sticking with it. Just need to find the right drive config.
Gotcha, so yeah you may just have to play wack-a-mole with the drives.
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I'm thinking I may just go with 4 of these drives: https://www.newegg.com/micron-5210-ion-7-68tb/p/1Z4-00CB-00035
4 x 7.68TB SSD in RAID10 for 15.36TB of storage
