SSD partition on 2008 hosted on ESX4.0

[SolMiester]

Hi all, I would like to get either the sandforce controller SSD 100GB or perhaps the Intel G2 160 GB to use for SQL data file and another partition for random access of a document management store of about 30Gb of encrypted docs.

As you can imagine random access even on 4 x 10k SAS RAID 10 logical drive isnt great once you put decryption into the equation.

My idea is to use 2/3 of the SSD for the partitions and leave the remain 1/3rd for write amplification adjustment, as I wont have TRIM running.

Do you think I should just create the array and present the drive to the VM RAW or should I let VMWare format as VMFS 1st?, not sure what imapct this would have?

Idea's?

 

[Ipreferspam]

I'll soon be building a similar server using 2 100 GB SandForce SSDs (with ESXi as hypervisor).

I posted about this here: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2060516

I plan on doing tests using VMFS, both with the drives full and not full, in order to get an idea of the used performance of the drives. The thing I like about the SandForce SSDs is they have 28 GBs of reserved space already. As a result, I'm not sure you need to reserve any more.

I'll also then test a native Windows Server 2008 with SQL Server 2008 to get a decent comparison.

If you're just running one drive, why won't you have TRIM running? Also, OWC (the manufacturers of my SandForce 100 GB SSDs) mentioned that I won't need TRIM. They guarantee the performance level of their drives over their 5 year warranty, whether in RAID or not, without TRIM.

 

[SolMiester]

I'll soon be building a similar server using 2 100 GB SandForce SSDs (with ESXi as hypervisor).

I posted about this here: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2060516

I plan on doing tests using VMFS, both with the drives full and not full, in order to get an idea of the used performance of the drives. The thing I like about the SandForce SSDs is they have 28 GBs of reserved space already. As a result, I'm not sure you need to reserve any more.

I'll also then test a native Windows Server 2008 with SQL Server 2008 to get a decent comparison.

If you're just running one drive, why won't you have TRIM running? Also, OWC (the manufacturers of my SandForce 100 GB SSDs) mentioned that I won't need TRIM. They guarantee the performance level of their drives over their 5 year warranty, whether in RAID or not, without TRIM.

Hi mate, thanks for the reply, I didnt know 2008 had TRIM, only Windows 7..?

Your quite right though, sandforce already has its free space pre-allocated...I guess I meant if I didnt get sandforce drives and had to get the G2 from Intel....Anand's latest story re: Raid 0 was going on about leaving space available as Raid array wouldnt pass TRIM commands, thought I could use this method instead to keep the speed up...

I guess anyway I look at it, the performance improvement should be noticeable even if degraded...got to be worth couple hundred bucks!

 

[Ipreferspam]

Windows Server 2008 R2 has TRIM.

 

[SolMiester]

This is original x64 2008 not R2!

 

[SolMiester]

Just thought too, the SATA controller will not be MS, it will be VMware Tools controller...ie: LSI Adapter, SAS 3000 or something like that!

 

[SolMiester]

So I'm still confused whether to create an array volume of entire SSD disk space with smaller logical drive, or just dont use entire space for array and use entire array for logical drive...

 

[yinan]

If you really want to use the disk as a volume under a Server 2008 R2 VM, what you could do is use VMDirect path and present an array controller directly to the VM.

 

[donghui86]

Windows Server 2008 R2 has TRIM