To RAID or not to RAID?

[Gurm]

So "in-between" would be what? 64k? That's the "recommended" size for a non-media array, according to the FastTrack manual.

So nobody here feels that 3 separate drives would be better? (He asks, taking a deep breath and preparing to hit "format" on a 90-gig partition...)

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[xortam]

64K is too large. I would think that you want to set it to 16K or 32K. What are your choices? What is the typical file size that you work with?

[Gurm]

Hrm. Typical file size? Well, this'll have the system and everything else on it. At work it'll be mostly a server, but if I do it at home it'd have games, MP3's, and everything else.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[xortam]

I would set it to 16K. If you ever want to do a/v editing, I would add a second controller and array and set that to 64K or larger.

[Gurm]

Ok, I'm taking the plunge:

Dual IBM 7200RPM U100's as a RAID0 Array
32k blocksize (a reasonable compromise I think)

WD 7200RPM U100 as drive D.

Cross your fingers and wish me luck!

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[cjolley]

You go boy!
chuck
(crossing fingers, wishing luck)

[Dr Mordrid]

My input on stripe size;

For A/V and any other use that uses large sequential writes you should use a small stripe size. 4-16k is good. Small stripe sizes keep all drives on the array constantly active.

Larger stripe sizes, 64k or larger, are best for random file access. Think of it in terms of the type of access a file or web server would require.

Dr. Mordrid


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===================
Asus P3B-F 6 PCI
PIII/850
Gigabyte GA-6R7+ slotkey
Matrox G400/Flex3D
Matrox RT-2000
256 megs RAM
Promise SuperTrak100 (4 x 60g IBM 75GXP: 240g RAID0)
AWE64 Gold
===================

[Gurm]

It's a moot point (the stripe size) since the FastTrack 100 "Lite" won't let me do anything other than 64k. Although it does ask whether I want to use "server", "desktop", or "a/v" optimization... which one would think would affect stripe size... oh well.

Seems to run.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[xortam]

Check your manual.

Defining Typical Application Usage
Allows the user to choose the type of PC usage that will be performed in order to
optimize how FastTrak100 handles data blocks to enhance performance. Your
choice will determine the block size used. You may choose from: A/V Editing (for
audio/video applications, or any similar application that requires large file transfers),
Server (for numerous small file transfers), or Desktop (a combination of large and
small file sizes).

Selecting Stripe Block
For RAID 0 Striped arrays only, you may manually select the “stripe block size.”
Use the Spacebar to scroll through choices progressing as follows (1, 2, 4, 8 ,
16 . . . 1024).
The size selected affects how FastTrak100 sends and retrieves data blocks from
the drives. You will need to perform your own testing to determine how the data
block size is affecting your particular use of the array. In general, a larger block
size is better when handling large data transfers (such as in A/V editing or graphics)
while a smaller block size is better when handling e-mail and other common server
data. The default is 64K.

Stripe Size - a value can be set from 1KB to 1024KB sector size. The size can
directly affect performance. In the FastBuild BIOS, the “Desktop” default is 8KB
while “Server” and “A/V Editing” are 64KB.

[Gurm]

Xortam,

Give me some credit, dude. I checked the manual and it has all these wonderful instructions. Option 3 is supposedly "define array". Great, except on MY motherboard option 3 is "view array". Oops! The manual covers the FastTrack 100, whereas I'm stuck with the FastTrack 100 "Lite". I don't know if there's a way to flash the BIOS to the full version or what, but it's not doable the way it is.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[xortam]

O.K. dude. It wasn't clear from your earlier questions if you had read the manual. I also had thought you said in your earlier post that it gave you a choice of three optimizations which would therefor yield different stripe sizes.

FYI ... I also found the following on the Mylex web site ...

It's very dependent on not only the type of application, but the type of
system and configuration. In general, for typical random-access functions,
or for accessing smaller files, the default 32K stripe size is probably just
fine.

For large sequential access functions such as reading a huge multimedia
file, or compiling, etc, the largest stripe would be most efficient. Of
course, this may be different depending upon your specific configuration and
use. It can also be dependent on the application, since some software
defines the block transfer size according to its internal needs.

You can think of it in terms of getting to the data quickly - if you're
looking for smaller files, it's quicker if the specific stripe segment isn't
so large you get a lot of unnecessary data along with the desired file -
transferring the extra data takes up time. However, with large sequential
files, larger stripes will be faster because there will be fewer seeks.

The problem arises when you have a mixture of the two - you can't change the
stripe size on the fly without recreating the array and reinstalling, so
what's the best compromise? That's hard to say - you'll have to decide that
based on your own needs.

[Gurm]

Anyone who has any information on this mobo, please speak up! I get the impression that I'm supposed to have the full RAID, when instead I have just RAID "Lite". Grr...

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[UncleJoe]

Well, Xortams link was to promise site and FastTrack100 manual ... That has information about retail Promise controllers, not intergated ones. There seem to be some little differencies between retail and oem onboard chips ... At least my oem ultra100 on A7V didn't work with SUSE linux 7.0 (because of some different product id or something like that), but retail were supposed to work. I think that there should be all information in your mobo manual. (Or in release notes of newest bios if there is any changes to previous.)

-J-

[Jammrock]

Was just checking out the Promise SpeedTrak100's online. 6 IDE CHANNLES!!! That means you can create (assuming you have the space and a PS that could handle it) a 12 drive array!!! Eeh gads!

That means you could technically setup a true RAID 0+5 (mirrored stripped with parity array) using lower cost IDE drives. Imagine setting up a RAID 0+5 using 6 IBM 75 GB, 7200 RPM drives. Each drive would have its own channel, your CD/DVD/CD-R drive could run on their own local controller. That would be a speed system!

Too bad the controller is $400+ and each drive is $450+... there's always dreaming.

Jammrock

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Athlon 650
256 MB PC133 CAS3 from Crucial
40 GB storage from WD
Matrox G400 (it's not dead yet!)
SB Live! the original full retail, still going strong
Klipsch ProMedia v.2-400, the PC speakers that goes BOOM!
Hope Matrox releases the G800 before rebuild time, becuase the end is near!

[Wombat]

Adaptec has something similar. The cool part is that it presents itself to the system as a single SCSI device if you want it to.