DL385 G7 - IO Sub System

[Jakey1999]

Given budget constraints I have a choice of the following IO sub-system options that I wanted to get some opinions/advice on. Both price out about the same for the DL385 G7 running SQL 2005 64bit and within our budget, so at this point I’m more interested in the performance benefit of one option over the other, if any. Here they are:

Option 1:
2 - P410 (one integrated) Controllers with 512MB Flashback Cache;
12 72GB 6G Hot Plug 2.5 SAS Drives:
System Drive - RAID 1;
SQL Log – RAID 1;
SQL Temp DB – RAID 1 (2 disks);
SQL Database – RAID 1+0 (4 disks);
2 online spares – one for each controller.

Option 2:
1 - P410 (one integrated) Controller with 1GB Flashback Cache;
1 – SAS Expander Card;
13 72GB 6G Hot Plug 2.5 SAS Drives:
System Drive - RAID 1;
SQL Log – RAID 1;
SQL Temp DB – RAID 1 (2 disks);
SQL Database – RAID 1+0 (6 disks);
1 online spare.

Please let me know what you think. Thank you.

[Jan Soska]

Hello, I would prefer option 2. In my opinion 1GB cached p410 should easily stay with load from 13 disks and you get 2 more spindles for real SQL data.

some other thinks:
- what about to use SSD for data? I know there is no real offer from HP, but there are other options with SLC SSD...
- what about put system+ sql log on one hw lun with bigger disks and add another 2 spindles to sql data?

Jan

[Jakey1999]

Thank you Jan,

We ended up going with option 1 but found money for 2 additional drives. Interesting idea about sharing the system and log drive. I'm just starting to configure the server, so that may be an option. Do you have any recommendation about configuring the P410 controllers for SQL 2005? Thanks.