I was wondering thoughts on best practices for using Server 2012 R2 Tiered Storage with a RAID Controller. I've done it successfully two ways:
1. Put each drive in their own container (Controller calls it RAID 0) and then create tiered storage pool in OS.
2. Keep controller in 'RAID' mode but leave disk as 'Non RAID disk' and then create tiered storage pool in OS.
(more info about why I did that here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/fede43d7-79cb-4390-babc-59d7ecf6a7e9/tiered-storage-with-ssd-15k-and-72k-drives-all-together?forum=winserverfiles
I have other options also such as disabling the RAID controller and setting it to ATA or AHCI. My main concern is performance and which configuration to use to take advantage of such things as cache/ram on the controller and certain off-loading features (write-back, etc.) while still using tiered storage.
Equipment:
Server 1 R520 - Perc 710 RAID with 2 x 400GB SAS SSD, 3 x 300 GB 15k SAS, 3 x 2TB 7.2k SAS
Server 2 R320 - Perc s310 1 x 120 GB SATA SSD, 1 x 500 SATA 7.2k, 2 x 1TB SATA 7.2k
I am a high school teacher and I plan to test/benchmark the configurations with students but I still would like to know what is the 'right' way and reasoning behind it.
Thanks,
Mr. Sid
- Mr. Sid