RAID in SSHDs and HDDs

[Winyabs]

I am wondering if there is a performance and reliability difference between SSHD and HDD RAID array setups.

 

[Crunchy Dragon]

SSHDs are a between HDDs and SSDs, so you'll see a bit of a performance increase using SSHDs. As far as reliability goes, a RAID array is only as reliable as the drives that make it up.

[seagate_surfer]

You probably won't see a performance bump using SSHD's in RAID over regular HDDs, because the firmware doesn't know how to "stack" the SSD cache portion of the drives this way. Your best bet would probably be to go with hard drives rated for NAS (current Seagate branding: IronWolf). The IronWolf has firmware engineered with RAID in mind (AgileArray), with features such as vibration controls and error correction controls which boost longevity and performance when used in RAID. Standard desktop drives don't have vibration sensing nor specialized RAID firmware.

Edited February 8, 2018 by seagate_surfer
added link

[Winyabs]

15 hours ago, seagate_surfer said:

You probably won't see a performance bump using SSHD's in RAID over regular HDDs, because the firmware doesn't know how to "stack" the SSD cache portion of the drives this way. Your best bet would probably be to go with hard drives rated for NAS (current Seagate branding: IronWolf). The IronWolf has firmware engineered with RAID in mind (AgileArray), with features such as vibration controls and error correction controls which boost longevity and performance when used in RAID. Standard desktop drives don't have vibration sensing nor specialized RAID firmware.

Thats the thing i've been thinking of, weather the SSD part of SSHD would be useful in a RAID.

Thanks for the enlightenment.

And also yeah Ironwolf is on my mind since it is cheaper than sshd compared to size

[seagate_surfer]

3 hours ago, Winyabs said:

Thats the thing i've been thinking of, weather the SSD part of SSHD would be useful in a RAID.

Thanks for the enlightenment.

And also yeah Ironwolf is on my mind since it is cheaper than sshd compared to size

Only other thing would be maybe going with some kind of SAS solution, there are certain drives built for enterprise RAID with NAND cache, Exos 10E2400 comes to mind, it has 16GB NAND cache, but then you get into the whole SAS and enterprise level equipment dealio, probably a lot more intense and costly than you want to go as it's usually secure databasing type stuff.

[Winyabs]

6 minutes ago, seagate_surfer said:

Only other thing would be maybe going with some kind of SAS solution, there are certain drives built for enterprise RAID with NAND cache, Exos 10E2400 comes to mind, it has 16GB NAND cache, but then you get into the whole SAS and enterprise level equipment dealio, probably a lot more intense and costly than you want to go as it's usually secure databasing type stuff.

I was also thinking of Exos drives.

Can you tell me exactly what the difference bet ween a Firecuda an Ironwolf and Exos.

[seagate_surfer]

45 minutes ago, Winyabs said:

I was also thinking of Exos drives.

Can you tell me exactly what the difference bet ween a Firecuda an Ironwolf and Exos.

The differences between IronWolf and FireCuda relate to what we've already discussed above. It does relate to some of the physical hardware on the drives, but also to the firmware which tells the drive what exactly it is going to be used for and which use-case fits best. While the article is a couple of years old, Storage Review did some interesting digging on what makes desktop drives different from NAS drives, you may be interested in looking through that:

http://www.storagereview.com/pick_the_right_drive_for_the_job_24_7_nas_hdds_vs_desktop_hdds

You can also find our YouTube video on choosing the right drive for the right job here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JORAaU95YZ8

Once you get into enterprise-level stuff like Exos, you start thinking more expensive equipment, controllers that require a different connection type from SATA called SAS, more complex internal components, considerations for a lot more massive vibration, heat, etc. Basically it's an entirely different world and the hard drives have to be built differently, with more complex firmware to deal with that world.