Server SSD storage, what interface? SATA, PCI, or SAS

[Lil'John]

Title somewhat states it.

To clarify a bit, I am going to be building a dual E5-2695 v3 server for some development experiments and "giggles". Some of the development will be multiple VMs.

I am going to be using Microsoft technology for hosting the VMs(still learning)

My current bit of research involves what interface should I consider for the boot drive.

I'm not sure I've seen a SAS ssd but I'll leave the interface as something open.

Should I be looking at the PCI plug-in SSDs?

I won't say there is no budget on this build but I don't mind spending a few bucks here and there.

 

[frowertr]

SATA SSDs for production environments are just fine unless your IOPS needs are through the roof in which case you would a SSD with a PCI-E interface. Just make sure you are using production level SSDs and not consumer level ones no matter the interface you choose. SATA SSDs are fast enough to overcome most of the issues that the SATA command set has with mechanical drives. The downside is there is no multipathing with SATA, so you have no redundancy if a controller dies or a cable is accidently unplugged like you would on a SAS backplane if configured with multipathing.

If you do have a crazy amount of IOPS needs you would need to be looking at PCI-E SSDs. For development, a SATA SSD would probably work just fine for your needs.

 

[Lil'John]

Thank you VERY much for the description.

Some of the development tinkering is going to involve two servers using Win 2008 SP1 R2; one will have SQL server 2012 on it and the other will use web and "normal" services to access the db. Another will involve three "clusters" of the above to experiment with communication between them.

I will probably end up tying some of the PCI-e lanes with a Xeon-Phi and Telsa to get back into some CUDA and open CL coding and getting a bit more deep in it.

No gaming on it.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Any of the above interfaces will be faster than 1GbE can deal with.

If you are building a 10GbE system/network and need the IOPS, then a PCI-E SSD is useful. But for a learning box that will probably be on 1GbE? Nah, stick with SATA.

 

[sdifox]

Any of the above interfaces will be faster than 1GbE can deal with.

If you are building a 10GbE system/network and need the IOPS, then a PCI-E SSD is useful. But for a learning box that will probably be on 1GbE? Nah, stick with SATA.

Sata is fine for dev server. Besides it is intra server communication. If he can afford lots of ssd capacity, why not.

 

[sdifox]

Why 2008 instead of 2012?

 

[Lil'John]

Sata is fine for dev server. Besides it is intra server communication. If he can afford lots of ssd capacity, why not.

sdifox, you kind of nailed what is going to happen in my one experiment. The application and sql servers will be VMs on the same physical hardware. I'm still doing some research but my general logic says a VMs won't go to the ethernet unless it really has to.

Why 2008 instead of 2012?

I would say there really isn't a good reason for one over the other. BUT, my work environment has made me used to 2008 for one of the applications I am going to experiment with.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around Microsoft's version of VMs.

 

[sdifox]

sdifox, you kind of nailed what is going to happen in my one experiment. The application and sql servers will be VMs on the same physical hardware. I'm still doing some research but my general logic says a VMs won't go to the ethernet unless it really has to.



I would say there really isn't a good reason for one over the other. BUT, my work environment has made me used to 2008 for one of the applications I am going to experiment with.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around Microsoft's version of VMs.

You could run 2012 hyper-v and host the 2008 as a vm.

 

[yinan]

Hyper-V 2012 R2 is SIGNIFICANTLY better than anything previous. You can then run any OS you want on top of it.

 

[Lil'John]

Thank you for the input. I will look into using 2012 for the Hyper-v and doing 2008 as a vm.

One quick and dumb question about the PCI card. Does anyone know off the top of their head if there will be any issues using it for a boot drive using the C612 chipset? I haven't found anything consistent on it yet.

 

[Stuka87]

Be sure to use an enterprise class SSD, and not some consumer model. I would advise using Intels.

 

[Lil'John]

Be sure to use an enterprise class SSD, and not some consumer model. I would advise using Intels.

I was 90% set on Intels... I've got a couple of the 535s on the shelf(240GB and 480GB) thus I was curious if the pci interface was better.

I'm lightly on the fence with the enterprise class SSD for this application. This machine truly is a home development box that nothing "critical" is going to be on. From what I recall, the difference in price for a 400GB 750 drive and enterprise drives was 2 to 3x as much

 

[sdifox]

I was 90% set on Intels... I've got a couple of the 535s on the shelf(240GB and 480GB) thus I was curious if the pci interface was better.

I'm lightly on the fence with the enterprise class SSD for this application. This machine truly is a home development box that nothing "critical" is going to be on. From what I recall, the difference in price for a 400GB 750 drive and enterprise drives was 2 to 3x as much

It's a playpen, capacity trumps all.

 

[frowertr]

Yeah if this isn't mission critical then slap some 950 Pros in there and call it a day...