Intel 750 SSDs booting in RAID1

[ddrueding]

Trying to work with a software vendor to approve running their software on moderately modern hardware.

As much as going back to Server 2003, 15k SAS, and quad-core Xeons would be a walk down memory lane, I'd like something a bit....faster? Quieter? More energy-efficient?

I'd also like to run inside a hypervisor or other VM infrastructure.

To make as strong a case as possible, I'm going to spec relatively serious hardware. Chief amongst them is the shiny new Intel SSD that seems to be winning every benchmark they can throw at it.

The Intel 750 is available in a 2.5" form factor using the SFF-8639 connector. It seems that the motherboards that ship with this connector don't support them in RAID.

Would anyone here be able to recommend a RAID card that can support a pair of these in RAID-1 as the boot device without hurting performance too much? I haven't looked at RAID cards in a really long time.

Thanks!

 

[CougTek]

That drive model is a consumer drive. It is meant to be used in a workstation, not a server. It communicates via the PCI-E interface, but a RAID controller has SAS 12Gbps interface. At the very least, you'd need a server supporting NVMe drives.

The drives you should be looking for are the Intel DC P3600 or DC P3700. They are the server-targeted siblings of the Intel 750 SSD. Or you could skip PCI-E drives and opt for a Samsung DC 845 Pro, which isn't quite as fast, but also not nearly as expensive while still beating 15K SAS drives silly and being more versatile with RAID controllers compatibility.

 

[ddrueding]

Thanks for the info CougTek, but that completely blows out the budget. This machine will run the POS system of a small country club, 3 office employees and 5 registers. The software alone (they are requiring full Server and SQL installs) is going to be a killer cost and the hardware shouldn't realistically need much. Just trying to tick all the boxes.

 

[Buck]

Thanks for the info CougTek, but that completely blows out the budget. This machine will run the POS system of a small country club, 3 office employees and 5 registers. The software alone (they are requiring full Server and SQL installs) is going to be a killer cost and the hardware shouldn't realistically need much. Just trying to tick all the boxes.

The DC 845 Pro that Coug mentioned is priced similarly (but slightly more) to the Intel 750.

 

[ddrueding]

The DC 845 Pro that Coug mentioned is priced similarly (but slightly more) to the Intel 750.

Thanks for that, was in too much of a rush and just got to the Intel offerings.

 

[Handruin]

You seemed to be pretty focused on the SSDs for storing the data. Are you able to share the full requirements of this project? What amount of budget is allotted for backups? What is the anticipated storage growth needs per month/quarter/year? What does downtime cost the customer per hour, per minute if the POS system is down? What is requiring them to run Server and SQL server? That seems fairly heavy-weighted for managing 3 office employees and 5 registers.

I like the idea of running a hypervisor to abstract you from the hardware. I can't tell if your budget would allow for VMWare's licenses so you might have to manage with Hyper-V, Xen, etc.

 

[Mercutio]

Has there been some change in the status of RAID support with SSDs that I haven't heard about? Every time I've tried to RAID1 SSDs, even with SLC drives, they've died inside of a year.

 

[Stereodude]

Every time I've tried to RAID1 SSDs, even with SLC drives, they've died inside of a year.

I've done RAID-1 with Intel SSDs without any issues for years on an ICH controller. With old 80gB G2 drives and newer 730 series drives.

 

[ddrueding]

You seemed to be pretty focused on the SSDs for storing the data. Are you able to share the full requirements of this project? What amount of budget is allotted for backups? What is the anticipated storage growth needs per month/quarter/year? What does downtime cost the customer per hour, per minute if the POS system is down? What is requiring them to run Server and SQL server? That seems fairly heavy-weighted for managing 3 office employees and 5 registers.

I like the idea of running a hypervisor to abstract you from the hardware. I can't tell if your budget would allow for VMWare's licenses so you might have to manage with Hyper-V, Xen, etc.

For some reason copying the text out of their PDF breaks the formatting impossibly.

Like Stereodude, I've never had an issue with SSDs in RAID1 (or 10 for that matter).

 

[Chewy509]

There's only 2 systems I know of that take those sorts of requirements: Oracle ERP w/POS and Microsoft Dynamics RMS (Store Operations). I've used/installed/supported the latter extensively at my last job before going back to Uni, and specs were quite high then. The version I installed/supported (v1.x/v2.x) was written in VB/VC++, but IIRC v3.x was meant to be a complete rewrite in .NET 4.0 and was expected to really push the min requirements up significantly...

The other POSs (from IBM and HP) are both Java based, and the requirements of MS SQL and .NET don't match...

 

[ddrueding]

I've seen similar specs on a couple occasions:

1. When it was copy/pasted by a manager from some bigger, more impressive competitor.
2. When it was written by programmers who don't actually know much about hardware.

 

[Mercutio]

At least they're letting you use SQL Express. Whatever they're doing can't be THAT serious.

 

[ddrueding]

...and once I talked to their IT guy he was totally cool. They use VMWare on their hosted product and completely support the latest Server and DB versions. The only thing they are concerned about is the wireless bridge between two of the buildings. I'm sure it won't be a problem, they're just unfamiliar with it.

 

[CougTek]

The only thing they are concerned about is the wireless bridge between two of the buildings.

I will impersonate Chewy and suggest FSO.

 

[ddrueding]

I Googled but couldn't identify "FSO"?

 

[CougTek]

Free Space Optical.

I asked for a quote from FSONA early last year and their products were interesting. We did not end up purchasing their solution though because our management chose to move us to a building further away without direct line of sight. In you case though, it would probably be a very good solution.

 

[ddrueding]

Ah, thanks, but I already have a very quick and reliable Ubiquiti link in place (a pair of PowerBridge M panels) hidden completely in the attics of their respective buildings and still showing 65+ Mbps and very low latency.

Their uncertainty is that they don't have experience with wireless links like this and would prefer I bury fiber.