SSD vs SATADOM

[BamBamm]

So, I have had it recommended to me to use an SSD to boot from instead of a USB. Reading through the
Hardware recommendations, I noticed SATA DOM was mentioned. So, is there a reason to chose one over the other? I did find this, it was impressive to me...

 

[mjt5282]

I am not an expert in SSD vs. SATADOMs, both of my server chassis are full (16 disks) so I couldn't use another drive as the boot drive, the SATADOM has worked out really well for me so far. They are small and convenient, are have been reliable so far for me (Supermicro X10 motherboard). My backup server had a standard USB drive and encountered I/O errors. SO, I migrated the backup to SATADOM as well.

 

[BamBamm]

I think I found my answer... The SSD that was recommended to me is a SATA II, however the DOM is a SATA III.
The difference is 3Gb/s interface vs. 6Gb/s interface... The DOM's interface is faster, the DOM is cheaper, thus better IMHO...

 

[BigDave]

the DOM is cheaper

Because it's made with low cost/low quality MLC nand chips
Cheaper almost never (hardly ever) means dependable quality, it just means cheap

 

[mjt5282]

I think I found my answer... The SSD that was recommended to me is a SATA II, however the DOM is a SATA III.
The difference is 3Gb/s interface vs. 6Gb/s interface... The DOM's interface is faster, the DOM is cheaper, thus better IMHO...

well, it might boot faster with a SATADOM but once it reads the kernel and the drivers into memory, it doesn't really use the boot drive for disk I/O all that much. Better to invest in a large amount of RAM server your FreeNAS server ... in most cases the DOM will be cheaper than a whole SSD. In enterprise ZFS use cases, SSD drives are frequently used for synchronous write acceleration (intent log) and second level cache (ARC). see http://constantin.glez.de/blog/2011/02/frequently-asked-questions-about-flash-memory-ssds-and-zfs
for more information on these subjects.

 

[BamBamm]

Yeah, but this is receiving some good reviews.

 

[solarisguy]

I would recommend SATADOM to those who have two such ports. My motherboard has one...

 

[Arwen]

The Supermicro SATA DOMs seem nice. I wanted to mirror my original DOM and checked
around. Many DOMs are cheap, and feedback indicates that while the cheap ones may be
more reliable than USB Flash/SSD, they are not as reliable as standard SATA SSDs.

The only reliable one I could find, (I did not look that hard), were the Supermicro ones. They
have a 16GB with mediocur performance. The 32GB and 64GB have quite nice speeds;

http://www.supermicro.com/products/nfo/satadom.cfm

I had to go with the 32GB, since my original 16GB SATA DOM might have been too big for
mirroring. (And yes, that was REQUIRED, the new 32GB when divided by 2 was less than
the 16GB original.)

 

[Darren Myers]

I really like the use of SSD's as older intel SSD's 40-80Gb models can be found for cheap on ebay.

 

[Arwen]

I really like the use of SSD's as older intel SSD's 40-80Gb models can be found for cheap on ebay.

You have to be careful with older SSDs. Hard drives, while mechanical, do tend to last longer.
Older SSDs may not have much life left in them. So under-provisioning them would be suggested.
As well as asking for the SMART data before purchase, (then comparing it after you get it for
verification it was not bait and switched).

 

[Mr_N]

If your going to get a SATA DOM get one with SLC :)

 

[ECCfrenaslover]

If your going to get a SATA DOM get one with SLC :)

What are the advantages?

 

[wblock]

If your going to get a SATA DOM get one with SLC :)

This is not necessary for a boot or system drive.

As far as I'm concerned, the only advantage a SATADOM has is physical size, and the only reason to get one is if mounting locations for 2.5 drives are lacking. SATADOMs are harder to find and replace, and performance is not going to be any better than an SSD. The SATA II/III thing is misleading and only matters when you do huge serial reads, which is not something a boot drive is going to be doing much.

 

[Stux]

At the end of the day a SATADOM is just an SSD. The only difference is the formfactor.

Reliability, performance and price vary, just like they do with SSDs.

 

[Mr_N]

well SLC has improved write endurance over MLC :)
as pointed out you're not usually doing heaps of writing to your boot drive but you never know what some people will get upto with their setups :p