Posted on 24 June 2010. Tags: agility, ASSD, capacity, compression algorithm, cpu intel, drive, extreme memory, files zip, host os, intel pro, paragraph summary, performance, performance penalty, raid 0, reason, sata, sequential, SSDs, storage technology, test
OCZ’s Agility 2 120GB is a new generation of drive based on the SandForce SF-1200 controller. Unlike the OCZ Vertex LE and OCZ Vertex 2 drives, the Agility 2′s SandForce controller has an IOP limit artificially limited in firmware. With that being said, it is also cheaper than the Vertex 2 120GB and is still a very fast SSD, especially with compressible loads.
The short story of the SandForce controller is that it uses an internal encryption/ compression algorithm to write data to NAND faster than other drives. The SandForce based Agility 2 120GB is therefore fairly fast with compressed workloads (i.e. pictures, music files, zip files, ISOs, and etc) and much faster with compressible workloads such as office documents. Another major storyline is that SandForce is a fairly new player and the controllers are of unknown reliability. Finally, originally SandForce reserved much more space on drives in this capacity range for use in wear leveling, cache and etc. OCZ Agility 2 and Vertex 2 SandForce drives were originally 100GB but after being criticized for mediocre cost per GB and with little performance penalty moving from 28GB reserved (old drives were 100GB usable 28GB reserved) to 8GB reserved (new drives are 120GB usable 8GB reserved), the choice to enable the extra capacity was clear.
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Posted in Disk Subsystem Performance
Posted on 24 May 2010. Tags: 8u, adaptec, Areca, Core i3, Core i7, cpu intel, DDR3, Enclosure, expanders, gigabit switch, home server, host os, intel pro, main switch, Norco, rackspace, Seagate 7200.11, Server, server v2, stock fans, storage capacity, Supermicro, Supermicro x8sil-f, The Big WHS (30+ Drives), virtual machine, virtual machines, virtualization, WHS, Windows Home Server, x25, x8sil-f
The Big WHS was originally supposed to house approximately 30TB of storage when the plans were first detailed on an Excel spreadsheet BOM in December 2009. This was a big upgrade to my first DIY Windows Home Server box that had well under 20TB. About five months later, the storage capacity has crested 60TB, with further room to expand. The Big WHS now spans two 4U Norco cases (using a total of 8U of rackspace and another 4U chassis is in the works) has over 60TB of storage, and requires well over a dozen ports on the gigabit switch.
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Posted in The Big WHS
Posted on 26 April 2010. Tags: 1tb, Areca, case 2, codename, codename vail, codenamed, cpu intel, expanders, guest os, home server, host os, hyper-v, integration tools, intel pro, keyboard shortcuts, mouse support, Norco, public preview, server v2, test configuration, vail, vhd, virtual machine, virtualization, virtualized, vm, WHS, whs v2, windows home server v2, windows home server vail
If one browses this site they will quickly see that I am a fan of Hyper-V virtualization and also Windows Home Server. On April 26, 2010, Microsoft released the public preview of the long awaited Windows Home Server V2 codenamed VAIL. Of course, I did have a test system lying around, but the WHS V2 code base is supposed to be Windows Server 2008 R2 which is why it requires a 64-bit CPU. Now, I could have installed the VAIL preview onto a physical machine, but there are probably editors at 30 sites doing that right now. So how about something interesting, and more appropriate for software labeled beta and preview, a Hyper-V installation!
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Posted in Hyper-V Virtualization, Operating Systems
Posted on 12 April 2010. Tags: Areca, caches, cpu intel, cpu utilization, expanders, freenas, host os, hyper-v, intel pro, livecd, microsoft windows server, Norco, os windows, rpc, select option, test configuration, vhd, virtual machine, vm, western digital
In previous articles we have shown how to set up a basic Hyper-V virtual machine that works with FreeBSD and FreeNAS as well as how to configure the Hyper-V VM and boot FreeNAS in it. The next step of course is to install FreeNAS to a vhd, so it no longer needs to run off of the LiveCD. This is primarily important so you can configure FreeNAS and save that configuration through reboots. Also, as FreeNAS seems to only work with drives attached to the IDE controllers, installing FreeNAS to a vhd allows one to free up one IDE channel for another drive (by removing the default DVD drive).
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Posted in Hyper-V Virtualization
Posted on 07 April 2010. Tags: Areca, base article, centos, dedupe, expanders, guest os, home server, host os, lan connection, linux distros, memory allocation, microsoft windows server, nas san, nas solutions, path name, r2, redundant storage, step 3, ubuntu, vhd, virtual machine, virtual machines, vm, wizard
As many have read, I have been trying different NAS solutions on the Big Windows Home Server. This guide will show the base procedures for installing open-source NAS/ SAN appliances such as FreeNAS, OpenFiler, Ubuntu (and other Linux distros), OpenSolaris (and variants such as CentOS) into a Hyper-V VM.
For this guide, I will be using screenshots from the Hyper-V manager in Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2. Microsoft offers a free Hyper-V Server R2 product for those that want to try and do not have access to a Server 2008 R2 testbed. Later I will detail installing the OS’es onto the Hyper-V platforms, but I wanted a base article that showed the basics so I can link rather than duplicate later (think of this as WordPress Dedupe). It should be noted up-front this guide is for a non-Windows Hyper-V installation. Also, everything below can be changed as necessary for your environment/ installation.
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Posted in Hyper-V Virtualization
