RAID 6 Stripe Size

[trag1c]

I currently just finished installed 5x 4TB Seagate NAS drives into my server so now I am at the point of initializing my array on my Adaptec 5805 raid card. Its easy enough to create an array but I am unsure of what I should put for my stripe size. My available options are 16KB - 1024KB with each step being a power of 2 with the default being 256KB. Any guidance on this would be greatly appreciated.

[unijab]

Might benefit you to decide what kind of work load you expect and test performance at varying strip sizes.

[trag1c]

2 hours ago, unijab said:

Might benefit you to decide what kind of work load you expect and test performance at varying strip sizes.

My workload is a weird one as file sizes are sporadic. I basically have 3 primary file types.

 

1) Source code files which are typically a few kilobytes. 

2) 3D Models and textures which range from 50MB to a few hundred megabytes

3) Audio and Video clips which are several gigabytes in size.

 

However I will start testing with a large git hub repo, random video files that are a couple hundred MB's as well as single ~8GB video.

[trag1c]

5 hours ago, unijab said:

Might benefit you to decide what kind of work load you expect and test performance at varying strip sizes.

Does it matter if the RAID array is fully initialized for the purpose of testing. I started at 1024KB block size over 2 hours ago and its only at 6%. I have the option to do quick initialization for the array though.

[unijab]

Yes. Performance will be very different if it is still doing  initialization.

Though you could so some tests during this period also just so you know what to expect when  you have to replace a disk and you still need to work with your data.

[trag1c]

7 hours ago, unijab said:

Yes. Performance will be very different if it is still doing  initialization.

Though you could so some tests during this period also just so you know what to expect when  you have to replace a disk and you still need to work with your data.

Alright. This will be a very lengthy testing process then as I left it overnight and its now at 57%.