Caching a storage harddrive?

[chos5555]

Hey guys,

so, I picked up a 120GB SSD PLUS from SanDisk on Black Friday for like 25 bucks or something, I got it, because it was just a bargain, especially where I live that was like super cheap. Couple months ago I picked up 2 4TB WD Red drives(I know they are for NASs) and I put them in my pc in RAID 1... I already have a 500GB SSD as my main drive, so I was wondering is there any way I can cache the RAID array? I already tried Expresscache, but I couldn't get it to work, because it is just for OEMs and as far as I am concerned, Intel Smart Response can't cache any drive, but only the main one.

Anyone has any ideas?

 

Thanks

[vanished]

Yes you can.  I don't know how, never done it myself, but a friend does that exact (almost) thing; 2 HDD in RAID 0 accelerated by an SSD

[chos5555]

Yes you can.  I don't know how, never done it myself, but a friend does that exact (almost) thing; 2 HDD in RAID 0 accelerated by an SSD

Can you maybe ask the friend please? I tried researching and I couldn't seem to find any ways.

[vanished]

Can you maybe ask the friend please? I tried researching and I couldn't seem to find any ways.

I'll see what he says

[vanished]

Can you maybe ask the friend please? I tried researching and I couldn't seem to find any ways.

Apparently it is a BIOS level driver configured in Windows using the Intel Smart Response Technology Tool.

[chos5555]

Apparently it is a BIOS level driver configured in Windows using the Intel Smart Response Technology Tool.

Oh, I thought it was only for the main C: drive, can it actually be used for any drive?

[vanished]

Oh, I thought it was only for the main C: drive, can it actually be used for any drive?

Yeah (I can never remember his setup exactly because it's so insane but) iirc he's using an SSD for a boot drive, then he has a 2 x 3TB array of HDD cached by an old 64 GB SSD for games, and another 2 x 4TB array for mass storage

[chos5555]

Yeah (I can never remember his setup exactly because it's so insane but) iirc he's using an SSD for a boot drive, then he has a 2 x 3TB array of HDD cached by an old 64 GB SSD for games, and another 2 x 4TB array for mass storage

Oh nice, I will try to research exactly how to do it and I will try it it is too late for me to do it now tho, I will try tommorow Thanks for now

[leadeater]

Intel RST isn't the best SSD caching tool out there, was one of the first available for home use though. If you are running Windows 10 have a look at Storage Spaces, it does not have a limit on the SSD cache size.

 

There are others out there but I can remember any, I think Asus might have had a software tool for it possibly. I don't tend to trust the tools on the motherboards that much for this kind of thing. Windows Storage Spaces was originally designed for server use and is certified for use with Hyper-V.

[chos5555]

Intel RST isn't the best SSD caching tool out there, was one of the first available for home use though. If you are running Windows 10 have a look at Storage Spaces, it does not have a limit on the SSD cache size.

 

There are others out there but I can remember any, I think Asus might have had a software tool for it possibly. I don't tend to trust the tools on the motherboards that much for this kind of thing. Windows Storage Spaces was originally designed for server use and is certified for use with Hyper-V.

so, are you saying IRST has a cache size limit? How big can the cache drive be?

[leadeater]

so, are you saying IRST has a cache size limit? How big can the cache drive be?

 

Last I read about it the max size was 64GB, could be more now.

 

Edit: The ssd itself can be larger, just the max configuration value is 64GB.

[chos5555]

Last I read about it the max size was 64GB, could be more now.

 

Edit: The ssd itself can be larger, just the max configuration value is 64GB.

Ok, so when I have 120GB SSD for caching I should use Storage Spaces?

[chos5555]

Intel RST isn't the best SSD caching tool out there, was one of the first available for home use though. If you are running Windows 10 have a look at Storage Spaces, it does not have a limit on the SSD cache size.

 

There are others out there but I can remember any, I think Asus might have had a software tool for it possibly. I don't tend to trust the tools on the motherboards that much for this kind of thing. Windows Storage Spaces was originally designed for server use and is certified for use with Hyper-V.

Have you tried Storage Spaces caching for yourself? If yes, can you tell me how you set it up?I can't find how to do it anywhere.

[leadeater]

Have you tried Storage Spaces caching for yourself? If yes, can you tell me how you set it up?I can't find how to do it anywhere.

 

If you have 120GB you can use 64GB of it for caching and the rest can be used for standard storage.

 

I do use Storage Spaces and SSD caching but I'm doing it with Windows Server 2012 R2. It's a little bit easier to configure it in the server OS as its inbuilt in to the GUI configuration options, I believe in Windows 10 you have to use powershell to configure it.

 

For the size SSD your talking about it may just be easier to use the Intel caching and either see if you can use the remaining space for the OS or as a secondary drive where you store the current steam games you are playing.

[chos5555]

If you have 120GB you can use 64GB of it for caching and the rest can be used for standard storage.

 

I do use Storage Spaces and SSD caching but I'm doing it with Windows Server 2012 R2. It's a little bit easier to configure it in the server OS as its inbuilt in to the GUI configuration options, I believe in Windows 10 you have to use powershell to configure it.

 

For the size SSD your talking about it may just be easier to use the Intel caching and either see if you can use the remaining space for the OS or as a secondary drive where you store the current steam games you are playing.

Didn't you say that Storage Spaces doesn't have a limit on how big the cache can be?

[leadeater]

Didn't you say that Storage Spaces doesn't have a limit on how big the cache can be?

 

Yes that is correct, but since you only have 120GB being able to use all of it for caching won't make a huge different overall.

[chos5555]

Yes that is correct, but since you only have 120GB being able to use all of it for caching won't make a huge different overall.

OK, I see... Just out of curiosity, how much more size would make a difference?

[leadeater]

OK, I see... Just out of curiosity, how much more size would make a difference?

 

That's fairly subjective and depends on how heavy your workload is and how good the caching is. I've only used two different ones, Storage Spaces and LSI CacheCade. Although this doesn't apply to they way you are using it FreeNAS can do it too and probably has the best caching algorithm.

 

To go through all the effort of learning how to create an SSD cached pool using Storage Spaces with powershell I'd probably recommend absolute minimum of 250GB, 500GB+ even better. Also to protect from data loss two SSDs is recommended. How big the total data you are caching also effects the recommended size, in sever systems anywhere between 10%-30% is recommended by most storage vendors.

 

In my setup I have 6 Samsung Pros but I don't expect anyone do anything similar at home, I'm just crazy  

[chos5555]

That's fairly subjective and depends on how heavy your workload is and how good the caching is. I've only used two different ones, Storage Spaces and LSI CacheCade. Although this doesn't apply to they way you are using it FreeNAS can do it too and probably has the best caching algorithm.

To go through all the effort of learning how to create an SSD cached pool using Storage Spaces with powershell I'd probably recommend absolute minimum of 250GB, 500GB+ even better. Also to protect from data loss two SSDs is recommended. How big the total data you are caching also effects the recommended size, in sever systems anywhere between 10%-30% is recommended by most storage vendors.

In my setup I have 6 Samsung Pros but I don't expect anyone do anything similar at home, I'm just crazy

I was actually thinking of ditching the 120 GB ssd and maybe I will pick up 250 or 500 GB ssd, but first I need to figure out how to configure storage spaces through powershell, before I buy anything else

[leadeater]

I was actually thinking of ditching the 120 GB ssd and maybe I will pick up 250 or 500 GB ssd, but first I need to figure out how to configure storage spaces through powershell, before I buy anything else

 

Yea probably a good Idea to try it out first. You should be able to do it with your current PC if the OS is on a separate disk and you have another HDD laying around, doesn't matter if its only 80GB. Just need 1 unused SSD and HDD.

 

The nice thing about Storage Spaces SSD Auto Tier is you don't lose the SSD space in the pool like most solutions, everything in the pool is usable and all totals together.

 

Edit: By lose the space I mean the SSD is for caching only so doesn't contribute to the total usable storage space.

[chos5555]

Yea probably a good Idea to try it out first. You should be able to do it with your current PC if the OS is on a separate disk and you have another HDD laying around, doesn't matter if its only 80GB. Just need 1 unused SSD and HDD.

The nice thing about Storage Spaces SSD Auto Tier is you don't lose the SSD space in the pool like most solutions, everything in the pool is usable and all totals together.

Edit: By lose the space I mean the SSD is for caching only so doesn't contribute to the total usable storage space.

I know you said you tried it on Windows server, but can you give me a quick guide on how to set it up? I had some problems when I tried it yesterday and I couldn't find an answer online...

[leadeater]

I know you said you tried it on Windows server, but can you give me a quick guide on how to set it up? I had some problems when I tried it yesterday and I couldn't find an answer online...

 

Will have a look in to it when I get home today. 

[chos5555]

Will have a look in to it when I get home today. 

Ok, thanks

[chos5555]

Will have a look in to it when I get home today. 

I pretty much got it to work, the only thing I can't do, is increase the cache size I only have the the 1GB cache that was set when I created the pool, the storagepoolfriendlyname slot is empty when I try to list it in powershell, I do not know how to set it and I need it to increas or modify the cache. Do you know how to set storagepoolfriendlyname or how to increase cache without it?

[leadeater]

I pretty much got it to work, the only thing I can't do, is increase the cache size I only have the the 1GB cache that was set when I created the pool, the storagepoolfriendlyname slot is empty when I try to list it in powershell, I do not know how to set it and I need it to increas or modify the cache. Do you know how to set storagepoolfriendlyname or how to increase cache without it?

 

Could you copy in the commands you used to created the pools etc? You don't actually need to set the write-back cache size larger than the default 1GB if auto tiering is enabled. There is a parameter you can specify when creating the pool/virtual disk to set the size of it.

 

New-VirtualDisk -WriteCacheSize

 

Here is a slightly modified example from the Microsoft documentation, original uses mirror but you only have 1 ssd.

 

PS C:\> $SSD = Get-StorageTier -FriendlyName *SSD*

PS C:\> $HDD = Get-StorageTier -FriendlyName *HDD*

PS C:\> Get-StoragePool CompanyData | New-VirtualDisk -FriendlyName "Data01" -ResiliencySettingName "Simple" –StorageTiers $SSD, $HDD -StorageTierSizes 110GB, 8TB