Maybe I've forgotten something fundamental about the way
RAID 5 works, I dunno.

But I'm having a hard time understanding how stripe size is
going to determine the number of heads used in an IO.

RAID 5 distributes the data across all spindles, with 1 or more
of the spindles for any IO being used for the parity data.

Someone care to enlighten me?

Thanks,

Jared

On Thursday 21 November 2002 06:33, Thomas Day wrote:
> We had a discussion about a year ago here and if I remember correctly the
> "best" stripe size is a function of number of concurrent users.  With a
> small number of users you want a small stripe size so that each read i/o
> will utilize the maximum number of heads.  It will also tie up the RAID
> device for the duration of the read.  With a large number of users you want
> a very large stripe size so that a minimum of heads will be used for each
> read and the RAID device can handle multiple requests at a time.
>
> I don't recall any specific numbers and, as you say, the technology is
> changing so quickly that a discussion from a year ago may not be pertinent
> to today's environment.
>
>
>
>
>                     "Post, Ethan"
>                     <Ethan.Post          To:     Multiple recipients of
> list ORACLE-L <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> @ps.net>             cc:
>                     Sent by: root        Subject:     1M STRIPE SIZE BEST?
>
>
>                     11/20/2002
>                     05:53 PM
>                     Please
>                     respond to
>                     ORACLE-L
>
>
>
>
>
>
> A number of papers recommend a stripe size of 1 M (even for EMC) for
> volumes
> containing data files.  I also have the following email from Eyal Aronoff
> of
> Quest dated Nov 2000.  A number of the white papers are more recent.
>
> ============================================================
> The reasons for a larger stripe size on a non-RAID 5 device are:
> 1) Sequential reads are faster if you can take advantege of the read ahead
> built into the disk caching
> 2) If a 64K read does not start on the first block of the stripe, two
> "spindled" are locked for the duration of the read
>
> However, lately we have been testing some EMC gear and it looks like EMC
> have optimized both of those for smaller strip size too.
>
> The bottom line - I no longer have an opinion one way or another. The
> undelying technology just changes too rapidly.
>
> Eyal
> ============================================================
>
> Your opinions/comments as far as a "best" practice in setting stripe sizes
> would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Ethan
> --
> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
> --
> Author: Post, Ethan
>   INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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