which ssd for hyper-v server

GrandPixel

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Nov 24, 2009
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I am using an HP EliteBook 8730w with Core 2 Duo T9400 2.53GHz and upgraded 8GB ram, running Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V role. There will be a handfull (about 5-8) virtual machines running. I know this a bit much for a C2D laptop, but I am trying to make the most of it, and I would like to replace the stock hard drive with an SSD.

I am looking at the C300 and SF-1200 drives, and would like to know if the use of Hyper-V makes one drive better suited than the other. I would like to wait for the SF-2500 drives, but may have to get one before then.

Just looking for input/opinions please.
 

Emulex

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Jan 28, 2001
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hyper-v does a lot of writing so if you don't mind reduced life cycle then go for it. that's a pretty fast laptop and other than the poor screen (if you didn't get the dreamcolor) its a tank. do you care about longevity? neither of those are really meant for the punishment vm's dish out. but i've seen it done with intel x25-m in a qnap
 

GrandPixel

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I don't mind the longevity as long as it should last a couple of years. Am I right to think that a C300 drive will be multitudes faster installing software into these virtual machines, and doing windows updates, rebooting, etc?
 

Emulex

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i doubt consumer mlc will last a couple of years. try a samsung slc on ebay
 

nanaki333

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Sep 14, 2002
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agree with the x25-e if you really must have an SSD. my main hyper-V server has the actual VMs on different arrays. things get really choppy if you keep everything on the same drive.
 

Emulex

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wait a month for eMLC. it uses reserve space SLC and core storage MLC - this allows for extremely long duration with heavy use since the reserve area gets pounded alot harder than the rest.

if you think about it tiered storage internally.

reserve space = wear leveling with SLC and journalling - super capacitor write back area. core storage = when it gets time to move it back out. A good analogy is using RAID-5 for SQL database and Raid-10 for SQL logs/tmp - the brute force work is done on the raid-10 so the raid-5 (slow writes) can be lazy and well thought out.

100,200,400,600,800gb. all oem's. give it a month or two. this will be cheaper (and larger) than the next gen x25-E since a majority of the flash will be MLC rather than 100% slc.

make sense?

Imagine this: RAID-3 with SSD. the storage drives are MLC - the parity drive is SLC. That would be another good analogy of hybrid mlc/slc in a situation with a good controller that would leverage cheap MLC with high durability SLC. not the best analogy but i think you can get the gist.
 

semo

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Dec 24, 2004
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hyper-v does a lot of writing so if you don't mind reduced life cycle then go for it. that's a pretty fast laptop and other than the poor screen (if you didn't get the dreamcolor) its a tank. do you care about longevity? neither of those are really meant for the punishment vm's dish out. but i've seen it done with intel x25-m in a qnap

i doubt consumer mlc will last a couple of years. try a samsung slc on ebay

These are unsubstantiated claims. What evidence do you have to say with any degree of certainty that a modern mainstream SSD won't last x years?
Thus Intel will guarantee that you can write 100GB of data to one of its MLC SSDs every day, for the next five years, and your data will remain intact
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2614/4
In this particular drive the user (who happened to be me) wrote 1900GB to the drive (roughly 7.7GB per day over 8 months)
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4159/ocz-vertex-3-pro-preview-the-first-sf2500-ssd/2

GrandPixel, I think you will be fine. I would get a SandForce SSD as OS data (and therefore hyper visor related writes) is quite compressible I believe. Avoid Vertex 2 drives as you can't be sure that you are getting the 34nm versions. I think Corsair F series are safe
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2143367
 

Emulex

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Jan 28, 2001
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7.7GB is nothing for several hyper-v vm's per day- the op didn't state average write duty cycle. (easy to log on a hyper-v box)