Re: hardware for a server

On Sat, Mar 13, 2010 at 3:34 AM, A B <gentosaker(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
> 3Ware SAS 9690SA-8i 512 MB BBU
> Adaptec SAS Raid 5805  256 MB BBU
> LSI MegaRaid SAS 8708 128 MB BBU
>

When faced with the choice of Adaptec vs. anything else, I choose
anything else. When faced with the choice of LSI vs anything else, I
look really hard for a reason not to choose LSI. I usually choose
LSI. See if the LSI has upgradable RAM. If so, then bump the RAM to
the max. I have heard good things of 3Ware too, but have never used
them. We just put a new LSI SAS controller into our main office
mail/file server and it is crazy fast running ZFS in FreeBSD. I don't
recall the exact model number, though.

As for your "2 disks for other data" you'd be better off putting xlog
on the dedicated pair, and using the OS pair for the "other data".
That way the xlog drive will never have to seek, and your writes will
be as fast as possible.

As for drive choice, just pick the fastest you can get that are big
enough for your data.