caching storage partition

[mineblaster]

anyone got any ideas ive got a 16tb storage partition that i would like to cache in my server i did try a ram cache awhile ago but it was a trial

 

the server 24TB in raid 6 via an lsi 9270

480gb of ssd in raid 1 (for the os but a partition can be made)

 

it runs server 20120 R2 standard

 

i can also make use of a micron p320h 300gb that spareish at the moment 

 

 

im looking at trying to get better writes to a 16TB mechanical partition

and some better iop performance for game servers 

 

 

 

[brwainer]

Caching is normally done at the RAID level, either on the card if hardware RAID, by attaching SSDs to the same card as the HDDs (if using a card that supports it, which yours doesn't appear to), or in the software if using software RAID (e.g. Storage Spaces). Any software product that does caching that isn't built into the RAID itself is, as a general rule, not as reliable and trustworthy with the data.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Use storage spaces and setup it up with storage tiering with the ssd.

 

 

1 hour ago, brwainer said:

Caching is normally done at the RAID level, either on the card if hardware RAID,

Not normally, its mostly done in software.

1 hour ago, brwainer said:

not as reliable and trustworthy with the data.

Umm.... ZFS? Software is fine.

[leadeater]

Have a look at this https://www.romexsoftware.com/en-us/primo-cache/

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Use storage spaces and setup it up with storage tiering with the ssd.

 

 

Not normally, its mostly done in software.

Umm.... ZFS? Software is fine.

ZFS would fit in to the built in category.

 

If we go way back in time, SCSI, yea the only caching was on RAID cards but even that was rather slow due to PCI-X bus speeds. Right at the end it got pretty fast but PCI-E came in and replaced it very quickly compared to most technology changes.

 

@mineblaster

Does your LSI 9270 have the BBU module installed? Active write-back cache should make it perform very well.

[brwainer]

2 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Use storage spaces and setup it up with storage tiering with the ssd.

 

 

Not normally, its mostly done in software.

Umm.... ZFS? Software is fine.

By software not being as reliable, I meant software that is not a part fo the RAID itself. Storage Spaces, ZFS, and similar software RAID that have builtin caching are good. Putting some layer on top of the RAID is not.

[mineblaster]

@leadeater @Electronics Wizardy

 

my lsi dose not have bbu installed i got a super cap for it and it wouldn't post .

i do have a 16 port hba i could make use of.

i havent used storage spaces before is guides and tips that a noob should know

i did have the trial of primo cache aswell.

[leadeater]

26 minutes ago, mineblaster said:

@leadeater @Electronics Wizardy

 

my lsi dose not have bbu installed i got a super cap for it and it wouldn't post .

i do have a 16 port hba i could make use of.

i havent used storage spaces before is guides and tips that a noob should know

i did have the trial of primo cache aswell.

That's odd, installing a super cap/bbu shouldn't cause problems with posting. It shouldn't change anything at all in that regard since it's the raid card firmware itself that detects that.

 

I would try and get that working first since it will make a huge difference to your RAID 6 performance, 10x if not more.

 

As for storage spaces there's some really good guides online already and if you do a search on the forum theres a number of forum topics on it I have already posted in which should cover everything you need to know.

 

You would have to break your current RAID 1 SSDs and use those as the SSD tier and use the micron as your boot drive, basically why I suggest getting the write-back cache working on the raid card first. You could do a temporary test and install the cache module without the cap/BBU and force write-back on to see if the performance is good enough.

[mineblaster]

2 minutes ago, leadeater said:

That's odd, installing a super cap/bbu shouldn't cause problems with posting. It shouldn't change anything at all in that regard since it's the raid card firmware itself that detects that.

 

I would try and get that working first since it will make a huge difference to your RAID 6 performance, 10x if not more.

 

As for storage spaces there's some really good guides online already and if you do a search on the forum theres a number of forum topics on it I have already posted in which should cover everything you need to know.

 

You would have to break your current RAID 1 SSDs and use those as the SSD tier and use the micron as your boot drive, basically why I suggest getting the write-back cache working on the raid card first. You could do a temporary test and install the cache module without the cap/BBU and force write-back on to see if the performance is good enough.

i cant boot from the micron it dosent support it

[leadeater]

3 minutes ago, mineblaster said:

i cant boot from the micron it dosent support it

Woops, good point I never bothered to check what type of SSD it was.