[PERFORM] SSD + RAID

2009-11-13 Thread Laszlo Nagy
Hello, I'm about to buy SSD drive(s) for a database. For decision making, I used this tech report: http://techreport.com/articles.x/16255/9 http://techreport.com/articles.x/16255/10 Here are my concerns: * I need at least 32GB disk space. So DRAM based SSD is not a real option. I

Re: [PERFORM] SSD + RAID

2009-11-13 Thread Laszlo Nagy
Note that some RAID controllers (3Ware in particular) refuse to recognize the MLC drives, in particular, they act as if the OCZ Vertex series do not exist when connected. I don't know what they're looking for (perhaps some indication that actual rotation is happening?) but this is a potential

Re: [PERFORM] SSD + RAID

2009-11-13 Thread Marcos Ortiz Valmaseda
This is very fast. On IT Toolbox there are many whitepapers about it. On the ERP and DataCenter sections specifically. We need that all tests that we do, we can share it on the Project Wiki. Regards On Nov 13, 2009, at 7:02 AM, Karl Denninger wrote: Laszlo Nagy wrote: Hello, I'm about to

Re: [PERFORM] SSD + RAID

2009-11-13 Thread Scott Marlowe
2009/11/13 Laszlo Nagy gand...@shopzeus.com: Hello, I'm about to buy SSD drive(s) for a database. For decision making, I used this tech report: http://techreport.com/articles.x/16255/9 http://techreport.com/articles.x/16255/10 Here are my concerns:   * I need at least 32GB disk space.

Re: [PERFORM] SSD + RAID

2009-11-13 Thread Merlin Moncure
On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 9:48 AM, Scott Marlowe scott.marl...@gmail.com wrote: I think RAID6 is gonna reduce the throughput due to overhead to something far less than what a software RAID-10 would achieve. I was wondering about this. I think raid 5/6 might be a better fit for SSD than

Re: [PERFORM] SSD + RAID

2009-11-13 Thread Heikki Linnakangas
Laszlo Nagy wrote: * I need at least 32GB disk space. So DRAM based SSD is not a real option. I would have to buy 8x4GB memory, costs a fortune. And then it would still not have redundancy. At 32GB database size, I'd seriously consider just buying a server with a regular hard

Re: [PERFORM] SSD + RAID

2009-11-13 Thread Merlin Moncure
2009/11/13 Heikki Linnakangas heikki.linnakan...@enterprisedb.com: Laszlo Nagy wrote:    * I need at least 32GB disk space. So DRAM based SSD is not a real      option. I would have to buy 8x4GB memory, costs a fortune. And      then it would still not have redundancy. At 32GB database size,

Re: [PERFORM] SSD + RAID

2009-11-13 Thread Scott Carey
On 11/13/09 7:29 AM, Merlin Moncure mmonc...@gmail.com wrote: On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 9:48 AM, Scott Marlowe scott.marl...@gmail.com wrote: I think RAID6 is gonna reduce the throughput due to overhead to something far less than what a software RAID-10 would achieve. I was wondering

Re: [PERFORM] SSD + RAID

2009-11-13 Thread Karl Denninger
Greg Smith wrote: In order for a drive to work reliably for database use such as for PostgreSQL, it cannot have a volatile write cache. You either need a write cache with a battery backup (and a UPS doesn't count), or to turn the cache off. The SSD performance figures you've been looking

Re: [PERFORM] SSD + RAID

2009-11-13 Thread Greg Smith
Karl Denninger wrote: If power is unexpectedly removed from the system, this is true. But the caches on the SSD controllers are BUFFERS. An operating system crash does not disrupt the data in them or cause corruption. An unexpected disconnection of the power source from the drive (due to

Re: [PERFORM] SSD + RAID

2009-11-13 Thread Karl Denninger
Greg Smith wrote: Karl Denninger wrote: If power is unexpectedly removed from the system, this is true. But the caches on the SSD controllers are BUFFERS. An operating system crash does not disrupt the data in them or cause corruption. An unexpected disconnection of the power source from

Re: [PERFORM] SSD + RAID

2009-11-13 Thread Merlin Moncure
On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 12:22 PM, Scott Carey sc...@richrelevance.com On 11/13/09 7:29 AM, Merlin Moncure mmonc...@gmail.com wrote: On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 9:48 AM, Scott Marlowe scott.marl...@gmail.com wrote: I think RAID6 is gonna reduce the throughput due to overhead to something far less

Re: [PERFORM] SSD + RAID

2009-11-13 Thread Merlin Moncure
2009/11/13 Greg Smith g...@2ndquadrant.com: In order for a drive to work reliably for database use such as for PostgreSQL, it cannot have a volatile write cache.  You either need a write cache with a battery backup (and a UPS doesn't count), or to turn the cache off.  The SSD performance

Re: [PERFORM] SSD + RAID

2009-11-13 Thread Brad Nicholson
Greg Smith wrote: Karl Denninger wrote: With the write cache off on these disks they still are huge wins for very-heavy-read applications, which many are. Very read-heavy applications would do better to buy a ton of RAM instead and just make sure they populate from permanent media (say by

Re: [PERFORM] SSD + RAID

2009-11-13 Thread Dave Crooke
Itching to jump in here :-) There are a lot of things to trade off when choosing storage for a database: performance for different parts of the workload, reliability, performance in degraded mode (when a disk dies), backup methodologies, etc. ... the mistake many people make is to overlook the

Re: [PERFORM] SSD + RAID

2009-11-13 Thread Fernando Hevia
-Mensaje original- Laszlo Nagy My question is about the last option. Are there any good RAID cards that are optimized (or can be optimized) for SSD drives? Do any of you have experience in using many cheaper SSD drives? Is it a bad idea? Thank you, Laszlo Never

Re: [PERFORM] Why age (datfrozenxid) in postgres becomes 1073742202 not zero after each vacuum of database.

2009-11-13 Thread Robert Haas
[ removing -jobs from cc list as it is not appropriate for this posting ] On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 3:18 AM, Brahma Prakash Tiwari brahma.tiw...@inventum.cc wrote: Hi all Why age (datfrozenxid) in postgres becomes 1073742202 not zero after vacuum of database. Thanks in advance I think you're

Re: [PERFORM] SSD + RAID

2009-11-13 Thread Greg Smith
Brad Nicholson wrote: Out of curiosity, what are those narrow use cases where you think SSD's are the correct technology? Dave Crooke did a good summary already, I see things like this: * You need to have a read-heavy app that's bigger than RAM, but not too big so it can still fit on SSD *

Re: [PERFORM] SSD + RAID

2009-11-13 Thread Merlin Moncure
2009/11/13 Greg Smith g...@2ndquadrant.com: As far as what real-world apps have that profile, I like SSDs for small to medium web applications that have to be responsive, where the user shows up and wants their randomly distributed and uncached data with minimal latency. SSDs can also be used

Re: [PERFORM] SSD + RAID

2009-11-13 Thread Greg Smith
Fernando Hevia wrote: Shouldn't their write performance be more than a trade-off for fsync? Not if you have sequential writes that are regularly fsync'd--which is exactly how the WAL writes things out in PostgreSQL. I think there's a potential for SSD to reach a point where they can give

Re: [PERFORM] SSD + RAID

2009-11-13 Thread Kenny Gorman
The FusionIO products are a little different. They are card based vs trying to emulate a traditional disk. In terms of volatility, they have an on-board capacitor that allows power to be supplied until all writes drain. They do not have a cache in front of them like a disk-type SSD might.

Re: [PERFORM] Manual vacs 5x faster than autovacs?

2009-11-13 Thread Craig Ringer
On 13/11/2009 2:29 PM, Dave Crooke wrote: Beware that VACUUM FULL locks an entire table at a time :-) ... and often bloats its indexes horribly. Use CLUSTER instead if you need to chop a table that's massively bloated down to size; it'll be much faster, and shouldn't leave the indexes in a

Re: [PERFORM] Manual vacs 5x faster than autovacs?

2009-11-13 Thread Scott Marlowe
On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 8:31 PM, Craig Ringer cr...@postnewspapers.com.au wrote: On 13/11/2009 2:29 PM, Dave Crooke wrote: Beware that VACUUM FULL locks an entire table at a time :-) ... and often bloats its indexes horribly. Use CLUSTER instead if you need to chop a table that's massively

Re: [PERFORM] Manual vacs 5x faster than autovacs?

2009-11-13 Thread Craig Ringer
On 14/11/2009 11:55 AM, Scott Marlowe wrote: On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 8:31 PM, Craig Ringer cr...@postnewspapers.com.au wrote: On 13/11/2009 2:29 PM, Dave Crooke wrote: Beware that VACUUM FULL locks an entire table at a time :-) ... and often bloats its indexes horribly. Use CLUSTER instead

Re: [PERFORM] Manual vacs 5x faster than autovacs?

2009-11-13 Thread Scott Marlowe
On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 9:45 PM, Craig Ringer cr...@postnewspapers.com.au wrote: On 14/11/2009 11:55 AM, Scott Marlowe wrote: On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 8:31 PM, Craig Ringer cr...@postnewspapers.com.au wrote: On 13/11/2009 2:29 PM, Dave Crooke wrote: Beware that VACUUM FULL locks an entire