Question HP ProLiant ML350 Gen9 and SSD Samsung EVO 870 best configuration

[Tec_Info_Junior]

I hope I'm posting this in the right category, but if not, please forgive me.

Hi.

I need your advice on the following situation:
- My company has two HPE ProLiant ML350 Gen9 servers (1 x Xeon E5-2690 V4, 32GB RAM) that I'm just starting to set up.
- In both I'll install Windows Server 2022 Standard.
- One will have a Domain with an active directory that will support no more than 16 workstations and will also have shared folders for these workstations to access.
- The other server will have a suite type client-server accounting system.
- The workload on both will be irregular since not all users will be working at the same time at all times.
- The SATA SSDs I have for these servers are Samsung 870 EVO 500GB, which I will mount in the front trays of the chassis. Note: We don't have the financial means to purchase the HP ones.
- My intention is to install two Samsung 500GB drives in RAID 1 on both servers using the integrated B140i controller. Note: Can´t obtain a external RAID Controller (Ex.: P440ar) for the same financial situation.

QUESTIONS:

1.- In which of the following scenarios will I get the lowest noise impact from the fans?:

• Using two SSDs in RAID 1, as I mentioned before?
• Using a single SSD in AHCI mode?

I'm asking this because I get the impression that the fans behave differently depending on whether it's RAID or AHCI.

I really prefer RAID 1 for its benefits, but I also don't want a couple of jet engines in my server room randomly making such noise, since I'll have to be working within it frequently.
So, in case your recommendation were RAID 1, I ask you the following so:

2.- Is there a "way" to silence the fan noise so I can use RAID mode?

3.- How should I configure these values when creating RAID 1 in the B140i configuration, based on what I've outlined here?:

• Strip Size / Full Stripe Size (8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 KB)
• Sector/Track (32, 63)
• Size (Max, Custom)
• Caching (Enable, Disable)

Please, I apreciate your most honest recomendation, even If it has to be in AHCI.

Thank you for allowing me to post this topic here, as I need to clear up these doubts before getting started.

Thank you. Best regards.

PS: Pardon my bad english, i used google translator.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Fan noise should never be a reason to not have proper hardware failure protection. As a business, unless you have network boot capabilities which bring your servers back into production with a simple reboot and the press of a few keys to have it boot off the network, you should absolutely have at a minimum RAID 1 configured for the OS. A day of downtime that it takes to bring the system to a minimal state to restore from backups is a day too long of lost productivity for 16+ other people who are sitting there not being able to work....

As for the strip size, that depends on the hardware and the data you are storing/accessing on these drives. It is always best to use a straight multiple of the physical drive's internal block size so that the strip size aligns with the underlying disk. Caching also is dependent on the hardware. If the system has batteries/capacitor internal on the controller and disk drives that will ensure the controller and disk drives receive power long enough to finish all pending data transactions, then you can enable write caching (if it does not, I would not enable write caching, but read caching can be enabled if supported without write caching).

(this all being said, I hope this isn't just a chatgtp style bot, as it has quite a few characteristics of being one)

 

[Tec_Info_Junior]

Thank you for answering. And no, I'm certainly not chatgpt. This is real human chat, but I understand the doubts.

I’m asked those questions based on the fact that (although they may seem “out of place”) I prefer to dispel any doubts.

Well, I understand all your arguments and agree with almost all of them, but keep in mind that I’m in the process of improving the network and server infrastructure of this small company, which doesn’t have a large budget, so I have to "play" with what I have right know.

But, to give you a better and more complete idea, what I’m upgrading with this setup is a single ProLiant ML150 Gen9 server with an Intel Xeon E5-2609 v4 CPU, with only 8GB of RAM, a 240GB HyperX SSD, and a 2TB HGST HDD, which it alone currently provides Domain, Active Directory, Shared Folders, and the client-server accounting system, all running Windows Server 2012. Therefore, for our very specific scenario, I humbly believe that what I’m planning to do (and am already doing) will result in a substantial change. Don’t you think?

I´ll forget about the noise issue cause I am now more convinced based on others forums replies and yours. So, in my scenario described at the beginning of the post, and adding that I’ll have a third server running (the ML150) making daily backups of data to internal hard drives, as well as an external USB drive, and all 3 servers covered by UPSs: Which do you recommend for me: RAID1 or AHCI?

Thanks again.

 

[sdifox]

I don't think how you setup the drives will impact the fans at all. They are server fans, they are not controlled by drive temperature, rather, CPU.


This thing reached eol in 2023.

 

[Tec_Info_Junior]

Hello and thank you. I've done a few researches, and yes, it's very likely that the mere fact that these are "non-HP" SSDs and whether they're in RAID or AHCI affects the fan´s speed, as the sensors on these servers have difficulty sensing correctly the temperature and status of third-party SSDs. Still, it's a little clearer now, based on what I've learned, and the noise isn't that much, which certainly doesn't bother me anymore. I'm now more focused on setting up a RAID (albeit with doubts), but I can run tests on it first. Thanks again.

 

[sdifox]

Fan noise is not a problem if you put it somewhere away from you. Like an actually climate controlled room other than yours.

Be glad you don't have 1u servers. They have tiny fans and they scream murder.

 

[Tec_Info_Junior]

Be glad you don't have 1u servers. They have tiny fans and they scream murder.

😅certainly, thanks

 

[Fallen Kell]

I will always advocate for a minimal RAID 1 with real backups. RAID 1 won't stop the person who deleted the entire share because they didn't know that when they dragged and dropped it into the recycle bin that it would delete the files and not simply remove the remote shared drive from their profile/config....

 

[sdifox]

Also, make all three servers DC. That way you have redundancy. It's a small domain so not a heavy load.

 

[Quintessa]

If you're mostly in the server room during off-hours or it's not constant high fan noise, go with RAID 1 + fan tweaks. But if fan whine drives you nuts, AHCI + Windows Storage Spaces (mirror) or Macrium Reflect for backup is a good alternative.

 

[Tec_Info_Junior]

Well, this is my scenario:

- 2 x 500 GB SSDs RAID 1 via B140i with Physical Drive Write Cache State = Enabled
- Powerful UPS
- Daily data backup to another server

I'll keep your advice about multi-domains in mind.

Thanks

 

[sdifox]

You mean multiple domain controller right?