Server Setup - Questions about RAID, Controllers, and SSDs

[McLovin]

So I am building a server right now and just wanted to get a few opinions on what I'm doing.

I am using a 3ware 9650SE - 4LPML coupled with 4 Corsair F60 SSDs. I am trying to decide which raid setup would be best.

I am going to be using Server 2008 Standard R2.

I am also using a 1 TB drive to store any potentially unrecoverable data, using acronis, in case of a severe hardware failure.

I currently have the server setup with a RAID 10 array and Crystal Disk Mark showed a Seq read of around 550MB/s and a Seq Write speed of around 230 MB/s (I will post a SS of the actual CrystalDiskMark score in the morning).The server is not going to be used for any one thing I wa sjust going for the best mix of performance and the best possibility of limiting any down time due to hardware failure involving the HDDs/Controller.

Thoughts?

*EDIT* Also, I know trim cannot be used in a raid setup so I would assume garbage collection would be the next best thing. But checking 3ware(LSI)'s website shows no firmware updates or drives have been released for more then a year now. Should I be concerned about this using SSDs or should I look at something else say Adaptec RAID 5405? (Not an unlimited budget here for a RAID controller, just seemed like the best option for the price i.e. $384 on Newegg.)

 

[theevilsharpie]

Your current setup achieves the best combination of performance (assuming that throughput is your key metric) and reliability that your RAID controller can offer in a general usage scenario.

 

[McLovin]

Your current setup achieves the best combination of performance (assuming that throughput is your key metric) and reliability that your RAID controller can offer in a general usage scenario.

That's what I like to hear!

My only concern at this point is, what happens if one of the drives in the array fails? I have very little time around a raid array other then RAID 1 because I could never bring myself to tell someone to use RAID 0 without using an additional disk for storage which at the time added more cost to builds people didn't want to pay. The only time I've experienced a failure in that setup, I just put the replacement drive in, told the array to use the replacement drive, and the data was obviously rebuilt while the machine was in use in windows. (realize of course, I am shortening the steps of that rebuild for the sake of TLDR lol)

Is this the same way a RAID 10 would work?

 

[theevilsharpie]

Yes. RAID 10 allows for at least a single disk failure without data loss.

 

[Emulex]

try it and let use know pull one out of the hot swap bay mang.

 

[RebateMonger]

Is this a home file server?