Vault Server machine - hard disk(s)

[M.Hawryluk]

Dear all,

I would like to hear your opinion on the HDD's/SSD's setup for Vault Server machine.

I want to start with Vault Basic (Windows Server 2019 Standard) with an option to switch in the future to Vault Professional. I'm thinking about two Toshiba MG Series enterprise grade HDD's (7200 rpm, SATA) in RAID 1.
So basically, everything (OS, ADMS, Filestore, Database) on one physical drive and one partition C:. The second drive would be RAID 1 "mirror". Backups created on C: and later moved to NAS.

Does it make sense to you?

I've been also thinking about putting OS and ADMS to SSD and Filestore and Database to HHD, but I'm not sure which option is better.
Btw. does anyone have experience with Vault performance running on RAID 1 disk?

With kind regards,
Michal

[swalton]

Its all driven by the number of concurrent users, size of the CAD models/files, and network speed.

Digging through the link below, it looks like Autodesk recommends RAID 10 setups.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/vault-products/learn-explore/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/D...

[DarrenP]

performance is just just going to be only on RAID configuration

if your looking to increase performance read this article: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/vault-products/learn-explore/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/H...

[christopher.brian]

@M.Hawryluk 

Have you test your setup for Sequential dan Random Read/Write throughput? 

I believe it's about balancing those throughput. 

This is my go to setup, each has it's own physical pool:

1) OS & ADMS, RAID 1 HDD.

    Allocation Unit Size : 64Kb

    It will only take 1-2 minute to boot, and I rarely restart the machine.

    I do not see much benefit going for SSD. Plus, I will get more rewrite on HDD.

2) Database & it's log, RAID 10 HDD.  

     Allocation Unit Size : 64Kb

3) tempDB & it's log, SSD

    Allocation Unit Size : 4Kb

4) Filestore, RAID 10 HDD.
    Allocation Unit Size : 64Kb

5) Backup, RAID 10 HDD

     Allocation Unit Size : 64Kb

    I always try to balance the sequential read speed of Filestore and the sequential write speed of the Backup. I will avoid backing up to a production pool.

    In my experience, memory capacity and storage read/write speed will always be the bottleneck. Only when you go full SSD, you will need faster CPU and networking.