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Server with NVMe disks
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Server with NVMe disks

TommySRVTommySRV Member
edited February 2018 in Help

Some people said that in case of NVMe disks any raid is not necessary.

I plan to buy a server with such drives.
How does it look in practice?
Do You use RAID or not?
If so, is it a hardware or software raid?

This will be my first server with such disks. The most important for me is performance and data security. At the moment I plan to buy a server with 2 NVMe disks with soft raid 1. Is it a good choice?

Comments

  • MikeAMikeA Member, Patron Provider

    Good choice for what use?

  • LeeLee Veteran
    edited February 2018

    Raid is not a toy, it has a purpose, do you need it for the purpose it is designed or is it just all about the speed?

    If you want both performance and data security I suggest you want raid.

  • @MikeA said:
    Good choice for what use?

    KVM virtualization

  • AnthonySmithAnthonySmith Member, Patron Provider
    edited February 2018

    Well obviously you are not using it for anything production or commercial i.e. taking or making money from it directly so I guess it is up to you, can you live with restoring from backups rather than shutting down to swap a disk?

    If you get expensive enterprise class ones they usually remain readable on fail just not writable that is probably why you think raid is not required but that is not really the point of it.

    If data security is important stick a sata in there and do a twice daily backup.

  • TommySRVTommySRV Member
    edited February 2018

    @Lee said:
    Raid is not a toy, it has a purpose, do you need it for the purpose it is designed or is it just all about the speed?

    If you want both performance and data security I suggest you want raid.

    OFC I understand. Some people said that NVMe disks are almost indestructible and therefore RAID does not make sense (unless RAID 0). That's why I created this topic and asking about experiences.

  • AnthonySmithAnthonySmith Member, Patron Provider

    TommySRV said: Some people said that NVMe disks are almost indestructible

    You need to stop listening to those people immediately and remove any advice they have ever given you from your brain immediately.

  • TommySRVTommySRV Member
    edited February 2018

    @AnthonySmith said:

    TommySRV said: Some people said that NVMe disks are almost indestructible

    You need to stop listening to those people immediately and remove any advice they have ever given you from your brain immediately.

    So NVMe disks should be treated the same as SSDs in the context of data security?

  • LeeLee Veteran

    TommySRV said: NVMe disks are almost indestructible

    Everyone likes to think that until one fails.

    So, your options are.

    1. No raid, no backups.
    2. Raid only.
    3. Raid and off-site backups.

    Choose 1 and you don't care about your data.

    Choose 2 and you get continuity if one drive fails, however, I have seen 4 drives fail in a raid array that all came from the same batch so you could still lose all your data.

    Choose 3 if your data is really that important.

    Thanked by 1tarasis
  • deankdeank Member, Troll

    Everything will fail at one point. And that statement is true even to you as you will one day die.

    Thanked by 2hostdare TommySRV
  • AnthonySmithAnthonySmith Member, Patron Provider

    TommySRV said: So NVMe disks should be treated the same as SSDs in the context of data security?

    All disks regardless of make, model, underlying technology can and will fail at some point.

    I believe some recent tests had people pretty angry at a few NVMe manufacturers as when they were tested to destruction they did not achive close to what they were supposed to life span wise, the intels fell first at about 700TB of data written iirc.

    Thanked by 1TommySRV
  • @AnthonySmith @deank I made sure in my convictions. The topic can be closed. Thank You once again for Your help.

This discussion has been closed.