Do more drives mean better performance?

[DaveFL]

Hey folks,

I'm looking to setup a mini file server in my office. I'm currently trying to decide how to configure things.

If I plan to do a simple mirror setup between either 2 large 6tb 7200 RPM drives or 6 2TB 5400 RPM laptop drives can I expect a large difference in read or write performance ?

I appreciate any input.

 

[DifferentStrokes]

Either setup should saturate a 1 Gb/s LAN with no problem. So, that being said, the 6 - 2 TB drives in a RAIDZ2 configuration would provide good fault tolerance and their slower speed will make them run cooler. A plus for a "mini" server. They usually have poor airflow.

 

[SweetAndLow]

Stick with non 7200rpm drives, they get really hot and are hard to keep cool. Get 2x6TB drives and configure them in a mirror. If you add more drives in the future this will give you the best performance.

 

[DaveFL]

Thanks for the input. Regarding 2 drives or multiple - does having more drives increase reads or writes at all or it has no impact?

 

[SweetAndLow]

More vdevs increases read and write speed.

 

[Scharbag]

Depending on how you want to grow your system, I would stay away from mirrors as they have a higher probability of failure in large arrays. Seems odd, but it is true... I like the Raid Z2 setup with multiple vDevs as you need the space.

5400RPM drives are nice for the lower temp. My arrays (Z2 production, Z1 backup) can easily saturate a 1GB link and I use the cheapest 4TB drives I can buy.

:)

 

[DaveY]

More vdevs increases read and write speed.

It's difficult to compare 7200 vs 5400; especially not knowing make/model/cache/etc. But in general, it's what SweetAndLow said. More vdevs = better performance.

So for your 6 -2TB drives, if you were to create 2 vdev of 3x2TB RAIDZ1, in general it should give you better performance than 1 vdev of 6x2TB RAIDZ1.

Same with 2 x 6TB drives. 2 vdevs of 1x6TB stripe will generally perform better than 1 vdev of 2x6TB mirror. the 2vdev of 1x6TB is purely for comparison, obviously you should NEVER run it that way if you care about your data. :)