The type of controller would factor into whether the SAS drives would be worth it and what kind of load they can handle. A low-end SAS controller may be comparable to a SATA controller in performance and features. However, I have seen high end RAID controllers be literally 10 times faster (300+MB/s compared with 30MB/s) - with the same RAID setup and same set of SAS drives - vs a low end SAS card.
Regards, Kent McKinney From: Kramer, Jack [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2014 3:38 PM To: <[email protected]> Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: [NTSysADM] 7200RPM SAS vs. 7200RPM SATA 7200 rpm SAS disks are mechanically the same as 7200 SATA and will have the same performance. What you get are SAS controller capabilities like dual-path redundancy. That being said, SAS-capable controllers are usually faster than SATA controllers, just because they're typically better specced parts. Sent from my iPhone On Jan 30, 2014, at 2:46 PM, "David Lum" <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: Short version: Other than cost, is there any reason not to use a 7200RPM SAS drive in place of a 7200RPM SATA drive in a server with more than a couple concurrent users connected to it? Long version: Scenario: SMB Client, 50 users, three physical servers. All physicals running Hyper-V (two with 2012, one with 2008R2) Server1: 3 years old, two RAID1 volumes using 15K SAS drives (SBS 2011/Exchange/SQL/file print for 30 users) Server2: 1yr old, RAID 10 using four 15K SAS drives (file/print for 15 users, remote site from the other two) Server 3: 7 yrs old, RAID 1 with two 7200RPM SATA drives (file/print for 15 users) [And yes, I plan on swapping Server1 and Server2's roles so the faster disk subsystem is the one with SQL and Exchange on it.] Possibly relevant: I use DFSR between servers 1 and 2 and would like to have it with server3 as well. I am replacing Server3 with a three year old 1U and I'm torn between giving it four 7200RPM 1GB SAS drives or four SATA drives. Going with 10K or 15K SAS doubles the price of the drives. Reading various links, I read the 7200 SAS drives are either effectively SATA drives with SAS controller, or they're simply slower spinning, higher MTBF SAS drives. I get conflicting information. Either way, a 7200RPM SAS drive array should handily outperform 7200 SATA drives if 10+ users are connected to it, correct? <image001.jpg> David Lum Network System Admin, Information Services office 503-265-4728 | <http://www.modahealth.com/> modahealth.com I'm excited to announce that ODS Health is now Moda Health. Please make a note of my new email address, [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> , so we can stay connected. This message is intended for the sole use of the individual and entity to whom it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended addressee, nor authorized to receive for the intended addressee, you are hereby notified that you may not use, copy, disclose or distribute to anyone the message or any information contained in the message. If you have received this message in error, please immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete the message.
