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Would the performance with an externally connected ReadyNAS device (gigabit ethernet) be satisfactory for running storing all the DB contents instead of trying to set up a single or dual drive RAID config inside the server?


If you go with the ReadyNAS for your dbf files, you will really want to consider jumbo frames as well as gigE. You'll also need to play with/tune/optimize your NFS mounting config, I've only been able to mount it as nfsv3 not nfs4 so far.

And consider the impact of all of this in regards to the rest of your network. What happens when a 100Mbps laptop is plugged into the network and how does it talk to all of the gigE+jumbo frame configured nics? How do you prepare for the once in a blue moon nfs freakout when your db can't talk to its files? How do you coordinate UPS info and auto-shutdown to the server and the NAS, since only one is connected to the UPS?

The ReadyNAS isn't as much as an appliance as it seems; there's a lot of room for tweaking that really makes a difference as far as performance. It =does= work out of the box as promised, but there's a =lot= of room for tuning.

You'll have two options for the config, X-RAID & Standard RAID. X-RAID is a single volume (multiple shares and mounts) that can automatically grow by adding drives one at a time, or replacing each drive with a larger disk -- when all disks have room to grow the volume is automatically expanded. Standard lets you manage logical volumes and carve up the disks however you'd like.

another difference is that the stripe size is significantly different, X-RAID is larger and is meant for single-user/streaming/sustained sequential reads. Standard is built for multi-user and more "random i/o" with a smaller stripe size.

I've had a handful of minor problems with my X6, but none that would cause me to disparage the kit or the support. There are just a handful of caveats, and configuring a ReadyNAS for max performace quickly has very broad impact on the rest of your network.

--Nathan