Re: Opinions on SSDs - Mailing list pgsql-admin

From Bruce Momjian
Subject Re: Opinions on SSDs
Date
Msg-id 20130812200504.GA12496@momjian.us
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: Opinions on SSDs  ("Joshua D. Drake" <jd@commandprompt.com>)
Responses Re: Opinions on SSDs  (Lonni J Friedman <netllama@gmail.com>)
Re: Opinions on SSDs  ("David F. Skoll" <dfs@roaringpenguin.com>)
List pgsql-admin
On Mon, Aug 12, 2013 at 08:33:04AM -0700, Joshua D. Drake wrote:
> >1) Has anyone had experience with Intel 520 SSDs?  Are they reliable?
> >When they fail, do they fail nicely (ie, failure detected and bad drive
> >removed from RAID array) or horribly (data silently corrupted...) ?
>
> I don't recall if the 520s have powerloss protection but you will
> want to check that.

I am pretty sure they don't.  The only options are the Intel 320 and
710, I think.  Here is a blog about it:

    http://blog.2ndquadrant.com/intel_ssds_lifetime_and_the_32/

Look for "Enhanced Power Loss Data Protection".  Intel does not make it
easy to find all drive that have it --- you have to look at each spec
sheet.

> >2) Is this RAID arrangement sensible?  I've seen reports where some
> >people keep the pg_xlog directory on a separate RAID array, but I
> >don't really see the advantage with SSDs.
>
> Put the pg_xlog on spindles, they are more than fast enough and
> won't eat up the write life of your SSDs.

Given its small size and need for fast fsync, I have WAL on SSDs, and
the data on magnetic disk.  You are right the WAL can generate a lot of
writes, but just use smartctl monitoring and replace the SSD when
needed.

--
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        http://momjian.us
  EnterpriseDB                             http://enterprisedb.com

  + It's impossible for everything to be true. +


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