DrivePool feeder disk question

[Henning]

Hi,

 

like the topic says, got a question about feeder disks...

 

I use a Samsung 120GB ssd for the system disk (C:) and have WHS2011 installed.The WHS2011 occupies arround 24-30 GB right now, 10 % of the space is used for over provisioning, I would give the system another 25gb, that would leave me with something like 50gb free. Can I use that as a new partition in the pool for a feeder disk? Just as a landing zone? Will I gain something at all? Will it be worth the trouble? What would be the disadvantage?

 

Thanks for feedback,

Henning.

 

 

 

 

[Christopher (Drashna)]

I'm not sure what you mean by "over provisioning" here. 

(Specifically because all SSD over provisioning is usually done on the firmware level, and invisible to end users or even the system).

 

And yes, you could resize the partitions, and create a dedicated partition for a feeder disk.

 

However, I'd recommend a dedicated drive for the feeder disks. Why? To prevent sharing the IO with the system. As well, as prevent the system disk from getting "thrashed". It will receive a LOT of writes (depending on what you're doing), and may adversely affect the drive's life (SSD's life is very write dependent, though newer drives definitely last much longer). 

And if you're going to be using duplication, then ideally, you will want two disks.

 

 

As for if this "will be worth the trouble", are you doing a lot of writes? Such as a database on the Pool (like the Client Computer Backup database), or copying/moving files to the pool often? If speed isn't an issue, then this isn't worth it.

 

As for the disadvantages, I covered that already, above: wear and tear on the drives. Also, you'll want to dedicate a drive or two to this role. Which may or may not be pratical depending on your system.

[Henning]

Thanks for clarifing this for me. I guess it will not be worth the trouble. Will mostly write larger files with freefilesync to the pool. I can do that over night, no real need for speed, was just thinking to put that free ssd space to a better use. (might even consider replacing the system hdd back to a conventional drive..)

 

With "over provisioning" I ment the function in the Samsung Magician software, where you can actually fiddele arround with the amount you wanna spare from the drive.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Yeah, the Archive Optimizer balancer is a very special case, and not needed by everyone.

 

Though, I'd recommend keeping the OS on a SSD. It does makes a difference, and makes the system more responsive overall.

 

 

Okay, so it was the over provisioning that I thought. I don't have a Samsung drive, and have never used their software. So I wasn't aware that you could use it to alter the "spare space" size.