[AccessD] Interesting Laptop / Vista commentary

jwcolby jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Tue Dec 4 18:28:39 CST 2007


As you probably know I have some largish databases in SQL Server.  I went
out and bought hardware raid controller boards.  The key seems to be to get
a coprocessor built into the board to do the XOR and manipulating the
striping.  I use the Areca 1220 PCI Express card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816131004

I use 8 drives in a Raid 6 configuration.  I have two of these things in two
different servers.  One uses 8 320g hard drives, the other uses 8 500g hard
drives.  The streaming read speed is up around 400 meg bytes / second
SUSTAINED.  Writes are much lower, down around 60 IIRC. but for my purposes
the read is the important part.  Of course the controller by itself was
twice as expensive as my entire motherboard, but when you start doing a
calculation of the entire server with all the parts and pieces, a $500 card
is "only" 20% - 25% of the cost.  And given how much it impacts the system
speed it is definitely worth it.

But of course this is not your dev desktop machine.

I truly don't understand how the built-in raid can be so slow.

John W. Colby
Colby Consulting
www.ColbyConsulting.com 
-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Jim Lawrence
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 7:13 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Interesting Laptop / Vista commentary

That is a joke... why bother. 

I had a nice ASUS mother board bought a few years back and discovered that
it had a Promise Technology Raid (0 and 1) on the board after updating the
BIOS. As it was an older board it was relegated to a backup server but it
seems to work well for mirroring.

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 9:55 AM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Interesting Laptop / Vista commentary

The motherboard chipsets (at least NVidia) SUCK at handling raid.  I know
because I have tried, and the disk transfer rates were abysmal, as in as low
as 5 mbytes / sec.  It is barely OK as a C: drive but for real data access
needs you truly have to look elsewhere.

John W. Colby
Colby Consulting
www.ColbyConsulting.com
-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Jim Lawrence
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 12:37 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Interesting Laptop / Vista commentary

I think that with cheap mother boards coming with built in raid and sata
controllers having software now doing this process is just slow and
inefficient.   

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Drew Wutka
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 9:01 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Interesting Laptop / Vista commentary

Mirrored drives!!!!

One of the best features, IMHO, of Windows 2000, is that it brought along
dynamic disks.  However, with 2000 Pro, XP, (and, as far as I know Vista),
you can only stripe and create RAID5s.  To mirror a dynamic drive, you need
a server OS, Windows 2000 server, 2003 server.

You can, of course, do all of this with a RAID controller too.  In fact, in
the last year or two, motherboards have been coming out with RAID
controllers out there, but before that, they were pretty expensive.
  
A mirrored drive makes life a LOT easier, especially if you have a system
that you NEED to depend on.  What's the worst case scenario for a
development machine?  Losing the hard drive. Well, if you have two drives
mirrored, you can lose one, and you are completely unaffected.

Drew

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Charlotte Foust
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 10:21 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Interesting Laptop / Vista commentary

So what ARE the best reasons for running a server OS on a desktop?

Charlotte Foust
The information contained in this transmission is intended only for the
person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain II-VI Proprietary
and/or II-VI BusinessSensitve material. If you are not the intended
recipient, please contact the sender immediately and destroy the material in
its entirety, whether electronic or hard copy. You are notified that any
review, retransmission, copying, disclosure, dissemination, or other use of,
or taking of any action in reliance upon this information by persons or
entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited.


--
AccessD mailing list
AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com

--
AccessD mailing list
AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com

--
AccessD mailing list
AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com

--
AccessD mailing list
AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com




More information about the AccessD mailing list