Intel RST and Raid 1

[wirelessenabled]

I have a Firebird database server on an Intel motherboard that runs on a Raid 1 (mirror) using Intel RST.

I recently swapped out the hard drives and installed a couple of Seagate FireCuda SSHD drives. The database response went to crap.

If I disable "write cache buffer flushing" and change cache mode to "read only" then performance returns.

I swapped out the SSHDs back for regular spinning only hard drives and performance went back up even without the dangerous changes to the cache modes..

Any ideas on why the SSHD drives are crap on a Raid 1 in this case?

 

[Alpha One Seven]

were they set to AHCI?

 

[wirelessenabled]

were they set to AHCI?

Bios is set to RAID to use the onboard Intel Raid controller.

 

[ch33zw1z]

google has provided this same answer over a few different sites:

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3139762/seagate-firecuda-drives-raid.html

I guess it could be a problem, but it's a RAID 1.

Is your IRST up to date?

 

[mxnerd]

Why do you need RAID 1?

RAID 1 is for system up time, not for backup or performance.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

The Firmware in FireCuda drives causes a large amount of variance in write committals to the drive (because the amount dedicated to writes and reads varies). Because of the variance, the RAID 1 array becomes the lowest common denominator of any one drive trying to commit writes. The firmware in the FireCuda drives is not designed to work with a predictable variance to other drives in RAID, so performance is perpetually poor on them unless you disable the buffer flushing.

Seagate makes drives that can handle RAID and have a NAND cache (referred to as TurboBoost), but they are of course far more expensive than what you paid for the FireCuda drives. The FireCuda drives you got won't work in the way you want them to.