Re: [CentOS] CentOS Digest, Vol 60, Issue 13

2010-01-13 Thread Emanuel Machado
Another issue to consider with SSDs is that they are based on Flash technology. 
Each flash cell can only be written on about 10,000 to 100,000 times or so (*), 
so if you're using extensive read/write on your server you will be impacted. 
SSD manufacturers go around this issue by giving some intelligence to the drive 
controllers, so that they minimize the per-cell usage (which means moving 
things around a bit internally, transparently to you), so in many cases you 
will not see any impact. However, I would be careful on what I run on it, and 
what services are enabled, maybe having another disk around for write intensive 
apps.

Emanuel

(*) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive#Disadvantages


Emanuel Machado, PhD.
Senior Engineer, Project Leader

 

Cytonome/ST, LLC.
27 Drydock Ave
Boston, MA 02210
Voice:  (617) 330-5030 ext. 237
Fax:  (617) 330-5031
Website: www.cytonomest.com
Email: emach...@cytonomest.com 
 
 Please consider the environment before printing this email.
 

-Original Message-
From: centos-boun...@centos.org [mailto:centos-boun...@centos.org] On Behalf Of 
centos-requ...@centos.org
Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 12:00 PM
To: centos@centos.org
Subject: CentOS Digest, Vol 60, Issue 13

Send CentOS mailing list submissions to
centos@centos.org

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
centos-requ...@centos.org

You can reach the person managing the list at
centos-ow...@centos.org

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than Re: 
Contents of CentOS digest...

___
CentOS mailing list
CentOS@centos.org
http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos


Re: [CentOS] CentOS Digest, Vol 60, Issue 13

2010-01-13 Thread Bob McConnell
Emanuel Machado wrote:
 Another issue to consider with SSDs is that they are based on Flash
 technology. Each flash cell can only be written on about 10,000 to
 100,000 times or so (*), so if you're using extensive read/write on
 your server you will be impacted. SSD manufacturers go around this
 issue by giving some intelligence to the drive controllers, so that
 they minimize the per-cell usage (which means moving things around a
 bit internally, transparently to you), so in many cases you will not
 see any impact. However, I would be careful on what I run on it, and
 what services are enabled, maybe having another disk around for write
 intensive apps.

No, you can write (append) as often as you like. It is the erase cycles 
that are limited. So the chip life depends on how often those files get 
deleted.

Bob McConnell
N2SPP

___
CentOS mailing list
CentOS@centos.org
http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos


Re: [CentOS] CentOS Digest, Vol 60, Issue 13

2010-01-13 Thread Les Mikesell
On 1/13/2010 3:31 PM, Bob McConnell wrote:
 Emanuel Machado wrote:
 Another issue to consider with SSDs is that they are based on Flash
 technology. Each flash cell can only be written on about 10,000 to
 100,000 times or so (*), so if you're using extensive read/write on
 your server you will be impacted. SSD manufacturers go around this
 issue by giving some intelligence to the drive controllers, so that
 they minimize the per-cell usage (which means moving things around a
 bit internally, transparently to you), so in many cases you will not
 see any impact. However, I would be careful on what I run on it, and
 what services are enabled, maybe having another disk around for write
 intensive apps.

 No, you can write (append) as often as you like. It is the erase cycles
 that are limited. So the chip life depends on how often those files get
 deleted.

But every time you append to a file the inode info is updated and the 
free space list may need to be rewritten so it dies when erase/write 
count is exceeded on the filesystem metadata.  If you don't turn off 
atime updates, you'll rewrite even on file reads.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
lesmikes...@gmail.com
___
CentOS mailing list
CentOS@centos.org
http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos