Bit comfused what is more reccomended Raidz or raid on controler

[tbaror]

Hello ,

I seeing lot machines built on posts with RaidZ 1,2,3 and i wonder if i invested on good controller such as MegaRAID SAS 9271-8i or Adaptec 7805H adapter should i use the controller classic raid 5,6 .
If the answer is RaidZ what gain or loos in terms of performance

Thanks

 

[joeschmuck]

If you are using ZFS as the file system (such as in FreeNAS) then no RAID controller at all, it's all done via software. If you want to know about performance, read the forum, it's everywhere here. You need to know what your requirements are before yo build a system if you want to do it only once.

 

[tbaror]

Thanks for your answer ,
I have basically 3 requirement for 4 different storage types all connected to 10G network

1. VMware Vcenter storage (via NFS) which will host private cloud with ability to support around 160 guest's win2k12r2 based each host is around 90GB total storage should be sum up to 24~30TB and should be fast enough for guest to be responsive fast , and boot fast.
2. SVN storage serve R&D builders around 16 builders doing grid compilation many small files write many IO will need 10TB storage
3. Since we are dealing with media format types like HD DV all kind of quality 100Mbit with two audio channels etc ... this storage should sustain read/write (CIFS/SMB) sequential up to 25 streams in addition mixed type when editing video doing interleave on video and also converting from high-res to low res mp4 around 4 streams
4. SQL ISCSI server based server will serve MS cluster 4 nodes with Win2k12 SQL with hundreds db's each db file could get up to 40 gb serving our QA's users around 50TB

Given 4 requirement scenario you think ZFS raid based could handle it better , until now i used LSI raid and ZFS volumes on top of it , in addition i would like to use the L2ARC and Zil feature given 4 scenario how much SSD for each should i use
to satisfied IO and performance.
Thanks

 

[Ericloewe]

In any case, if you're going to use FreeNAS, you're going to use ZFS, not some hardware RAID solution.

You might want to consider checking out iX Systems' offerings, I hear their servers are reasonably priced. Your situation is complex enough to warrant some professional help.

 

[joeschmuck]

Ericloewe is correct, your usage sounds like something for a business and when there is money to be considered it's good to pay for support of a system that you will be dependent upon. You could build this yourself and using some LSI RAID cards flashed into IT mode will give you high speed performance you are looking for, but unless you become a FreeNAS Expert, if the system has an issue, are you going to wait around and hope you have the right answer and possibly loose all your data? FreeNAS is reliable but no matter what the system was, I'd want an expert on payroll.