[OpenIndiana-discuss] [discuss] Re: [smartos-discuss] hardware specs for illumos storage/virtualization server

[Paul B. Henson]

On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 02:24:49PM +0100, Jim Klimov wrote:

> The zfs-discuss list recently brought up the new Intel DC S3700
> devices which are targeted at enterprise with high reliability
> (10 rewrites daily for the 5 years of warranty), not bad IOPS
> and capacitors. I think they should be on the market by early
> 2013, if not yet, starting around $250 for the smallest 100Gb
> model. (I may be wrong about the date/price numbers).

Hmm, the press release says MSRP is $235/100G, $470/200G, $940/400G, and
$1880/800G. Hmm, it also says that's "based on 1000 unit quantities",
which seems odd for a "MSRP".

> Given how big they start, you might stick the rpool and zil and
> l2arc (or at least some of those) onto the device and have moderate
> fear of wearing them out.

100G wouldn't really be big enough for rpool and l2arc, I wouldn't
think. One thought I had was to get a pair of decent 240-256G drives and
split them up 3 ways like that. Or just rpool/l2arc and a 3rd ssd for
slog if I want better durability/latency/power protection.

I've got a couple on the short list for rpool/l2arc based on suggestions
so far, but still nothing really definite for a 3-way with slog or a
standalone slog.

At this point I think I'm going to just get the
case/motherboard/cpu/ram, then build it and test it with drives I've got
laying around, and pick up the SSD's and real storage drives later.
Given the cost, I'm going to have to split it up anyway for budget and
psychological reasons (if you spread it out over 3-4 months it's not the
same as spending one big chunk, right ;)? ).