VPS with a single SSD as storage

[drmike]

Well, I am probably the resident RAID hater  Some big failures of large arrays in many years past.  I get RAID, but it's headache on its own and hard to failure simulate/train.

Too many hosts just have RAID because everyone else does (keeping up with Jones effect).   RAID isn't the solution to all hosting ills. 

Probably every VPS hosts I've dealt with (probably north of 100 now) claimed to have RAID. Seeing dd tests that show very slow ala USB connected type storage speeds too often tells me most folks have no know-how about the RAID, optimization, best RAID type, drive selection, etc.  Slow disk IO is rather commonplace in this industry, except where large drive arrays and or SSD caching and or pure SSD.

I frankly, do not care about RAID with SSD.  SSD is by design highly RAID-like.  Drive failures, yes they happen.  Backups are the solution, not RAID.

Will I be irked when a VPS gets blown away due to bad drive, sure.  I get irked any time I have to re-do work, configs, etc.  Will RAID reduce that likelihood?  It should.  In reality?   Not always true.

Pure SSD is peppy.

Now if a provider could couple pure SSD with a drive that supported built in crypto speed enhancements (AES maybe?) then some new ideas come to mind.   Not viable with small storage chunks like 5GB though.  

 

[sleddog]

Yes RAID can fail. But more often it provides a fallback. When a single drive fails, there's no fallback, nada, nothing, zip. RAID isn't a 100% solution but it's a damn site better than a single drive for catastophic failures.

For some buyers this offer might be attractive, for others, not. It depends on the need. But it's important to manage the expectation.

 

[fapvps]

Fine. That allows consumers to decide. Don't forget the POOF! bit

I'll try to squeeze in the POOF! somewhere but no garantees. The POOF! is also possible with RAID. It all depends on the quality of the setup as well as some luck I guess. Even the best RAID setups fail with multple HBA's. Firmware issues can cause massive issues. Silent data corruption is another weak point of RAID that you don't see in single drive setups. RAID is NEVER a replacement for proper up to date backups. Too bad most customers see it as a form of backup for some reason.

 

[Slownode]

I don't trust any RAID other than 1, the bigger the array, the more likely a failure.


Even RAID1 can be a pain, my software simply uses 2 drives in parallel, completely parallel like a boss or just snapshotting. Rolling check for difference, copy & rename over, no overwrite... never directly overwrite unless you have hash checks.


Just advertise: RAID0 SSD + RAID1 HDD storage.


If someone crys about losing data on SSD... welp it's called RAID0 for a reason.

 

[fapvps]

I don't trust any RAID other than 1, the bigger the array, the more likely a failure.


Even RAID1 can be a pain, my software simply uses 2 drives in parallel, completely parallel like a boss or just snapshotting. Rolling check for difference, copy & rename over, no overwrite... never directly overwrite unless you have hash checks.


Just advertise: RAID0 SSD + RAID1 HDD storage.


If someone crys about losing data on SSD... welp it's called RAID0 for a reason.

RAID0 is another interesting option with access to raid 1.

 

[Francisco]

RAID0 is another interesting option with access to raid 1.

Uh...

RAID 0 is much much much worse than a JBOD through LVM.

With the LVM you'll be able to recoup most of your data during a failure, where as a drive completely failing in an 0 = you're boned.

Francisco

 

[drmike]

RAID0 I use with small machines limited to 2 drive channels.... Good for workstations to increase disk IO and nothing more.

That said,  replaced that concept mostly with a SSD instead.

 

[Slownode]

 

Uh...


RAID 0 is much much much worse than a JBOD through LVM.


With the LVM you'll be able to recoup most of your data during a failure, where as a drive completely failing in an 0 = you're boned.


Francisco

Actually I was thinking of just lying about it altogether. Say RAID0 but it's actually loose drives, or JBOD... I don't get the point of JBOD, it's slower than running drives separately, unless parallel R/W is now supported.

 

[fapvps]

I run RAID 0 on my main workstation with 6 15k RPM SAS drives and no cache. It is only on the OS disk and backed up weekly so I never lost anything.

Uh...

RAID 0 is much much much worse than a JBOD through LVM.

With the LVM you'll be able to recoup most of your data during a failure, where as a drive completely failing in an 0 = you're boned.

Francisco

It is just a thought. Not going into production with RAID 0.

 

[texteditor]

I run RAID 0 on my main workstation with 6 15k RPM SAS drives and no cache. It is only on the OS disk and backed up weekly so I never lost anything.

Holy hell, just buy a SSD, it will pay for itself in like 2 months of power bills.

 

[fapvps]

Holy hell, just buy a SSD, it will pay for itself in like 2 months of power bills.

What's the fun in that?

 

[Slownode]

What's the fun in that?

Running a 0+1+1, or 0+6or10?

I used to have a 0 on my computer and 1 pairs, now I have an SSD and 3 1 pairs...

 

[fapvps]

Running a 0+1+1, or 0+6or10?


I used to have a 0 on my computer and 1 pairs, now I have an SSD and 3 1 pairs...

Plus another 1 TB on the motherboard controller.