Optimal Array Configuration for P440 Smart Array Controller

B4Btec — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 15:31:22 GMT

I searched high and low for good performance benchmarks to compare the P420 and P440 with Raid 5 and 10 and how FBWC and SSD caching affect performance but couldn't find much. I'm looking for the best array config for the below scenario:

Server: DL380 G8, Server 2012 R2 running Veeam and VSphere Server. Basically I want this server to be able to handle fast backups and spin up VMs directly from the backup files stored on this server's D drive.

Current disk setup:

P420i (1GBFBWC) with only two mirrored 900GB 10k SAS drives for the c: drive

P420 (1GBFBWC) with 8 900GB 10k SAS drives in RAID 5. I am replacing this controller with a P440 with 4GB FBWC. I also have a 120GB ssd I planned on adding as a cache disk to the P440. I can only have a max of 8 drives for the controller because I don't have a SAS expander.

Considering the workload on this server, how should I configure the D: drive for backup storage and to occasionally use those backups directly to run a couple of VMs with Veeam? I know the P440 with additional 4GB cahce will give a speed improvement, but I'm not sure what route to go. I see 3 main options: 8 drive Raid 10, 6 drive Raid 10 with 120GB SSD cache drive, or 7-Drive Raid 5 with 120GB SSD cache drive. What would you do?

Re: Optimal Array Configuration for P440 Smart Array Controller

Jan Soska — Thu, 05 May 2016 17:52:20 GMT

Hello,

My recomendation is the latest option - 7 drives in R5 + 1 drive SSD cache. It shoud have fair performance in read and write.

Jan

topic Optimal Array Configuration for P440 Smart Array Controller in ProLiant Servers (ML,DL,SL)

Optimal Array Configuration for P440 Smart Array Controller

Re: Optimal Array Configuration for P440 Smart Array Controller