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Do you have to do something special to get a SSD to work in WHS? Or can you just install straight to the SSD on a new install? I thought they worked the same as any other drive out of the box.

Never used a SSD so don't know if I am missing something.

Curious because of Cavediver's install. If 80GB is the OS limit and you put a 128GB drive in as the system drive, leaving about 40GB formatted left on the drive, and then add larger drives as part of the storage pool are you just ensuring you don't ever use the leftover space on the SSD?

what SSD did you go with? Considering that before the new intel g2's came out, the small read/writes were slightly greater or even worse than desktop drives. Curious how its working for you.

Thanks

boasist wrote:

what SSD did you go with? Considering that before the new intel g2's came out, the small read/writes were slightly greater or even worse than desktop drives. Curious how its working for you.

Thanks

I used the Kingston SSDnow V-Series 128GB. Since I'm using it in a WHS media file server as the OS drive, there are very few small read/writes to the drive. My purpose for the drive was not for performance, but rather for small, cool & quiet. All new files written to the WHS machine are written to the storage pool. The D: partition of OS drive is empty and will stay that way.

How are you keeping the D: partition of the OS drive empty ? Are you using Drive Balancer ? Does it require constant maintenance or is it scheduled ?

hi there,

@sxr71 - it was my understanding that as well as being the location of the tombstones, the 'data' partition was the landing zone for all new files. am i wrong/has this changed ?

@IMGrant - using an ssd for the 'sys' partition is exactly what i want to do. in this scenario, where are the tombstones going then ?

are you stopping the install from creating the 'data' partition on the ssd ?

thephantom wrote:

hi there,

@sxr71 - it was my understanding that as well as being the location of the tombstones, the 'data' partition was the landing zone for all new files. am i wrong/has this changed ?

The D:\ partition on the system drive has not been used as a landing zone since PP1. Since PP2, all new files are written directly to the storage pool drive with MOST amount of free space.

thephantom wrote:

@IMGrant - using an ssd for the 'sys' partition is exactly what i want to do. in this scenario, where are the tombstones going then ?

I believe they live on the d:\ partition on the system drive, but what difference does it make? It's an integral part of WHS.

Author:	sxr71 [ Sun May 31, 2009 9:11 pm ]
Post subject:	SSD for OS drive.
Since the tombstone files in WHS are little 4KB files, I suppose a nice fast SSD that can scan through 4KB files in a hurry would be a good solution for OS drive. Also, I think the advantages of SSD reliability over a moving magnetic platter are nice to have in a home server. At this point I see no reason for the 80GB limitation of WHS OS drive installation. It is no longer used as a landing zone so, why not update the OS so that the a 32GB SSD + data drives is an option. I realize that by next year it won't even matter since 80GB SSDs will be dirt cheap, but I still don't understand that installation limitation anymore.

Author:	IMGrant [ Tue Jun 02, 2009 7:59 am ]
Post subject:	Re: SSD for OS drive.
I agree. I did some test installs in Virtual PC to work out how to get round the 80GB constraint when I finally get my home server parts ready: To install to a 30GB SSD, being the install with a normal HD (>80GB), at the first reboot point in the installation (when the 20GB OS partition is created), don't allow the server to reboot, but instead add the SSD, boot a rescue disk and clone the HD to the SSD (so it will be 20GB partition with files for WHS installation and, e.g. 10GB unpartitioned space). Remove the HD, reboot and the installation will continue to the SSD.

Author:	sxr71 [ Tue Jun 02, 2009 8:24 am ]
Post subject:	Re: SSD for OS drive.
^^^ That's very clever. I think I'm going to do that. We are seeing some reasonable prices on 30 or 32GB SSDs now. I personally will stick with SLC. I think I'll upgrade my laptop SSD and use this Samsung SLC as the OS drive for a new WHS build after I secure erase it. I think potentially the drive will maintain full performance for years as it will never even get full. So new writes will be fast as new and reads of course fast. Maybe the Intel X25-E will hit $200 by the time I start my build. It would be overkill, but nice to have. I guess the drive will get hit with 4KB writes for each new file you put on the server, but with 4KB tombstones I suspect it may have to do that erase block, rewrite entire block with new data thing because of no TRIM support. I think any SSD we buy this year is an interim solution until they figure out solutions for some of these problems. In any case, I think the OS will be safer on an SSD (at least in theory) and it will be faster and more power efficient than anything else I could use. Maybe 1.8" is the way to go and I could tuck it in somewhere in the case next to a fan and not even use a drive bay for it! The other thing I wish for is a fast clocking dual core or quad core that pretty much runs with one core active at low speed until I "wake up" the rest of the cores and run it at full speed for moments when I run MusicIP or transcoding. I'm not sure if it will be wise to put a 65w or 95w CPU in a server running 24/7.

Author:	sxr71 [ Sun Jun 07, 2009 2:38 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: SSD for OS drive.
Pricey, but this would be a great OS drive and not even take a drive bay. When it hits $200 or less I might bite. http://gizmodo.com/5281935/fatal1ty-tea ... xpress-ssd

Author:	walkabt [ Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:23 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: SSD for OS drive.
Do you have to do something special to get a SSD to work in WHS? Or can you just install straight to the SSD on a new install? I thought they worked the same as any other drive out of the box. Never used a SSD so don't know if I am missing something. Curious because of Cavediver's install. If 80GB is the OS limit and you put a 128GB drive in as the system drive, leaving about 40GB formatted left on the drive, and then add larger drives as part of the storage pool are you just ensuring you don't ever use the leftover space on the SSD?

MediaSmartServer.net http://www.mediasmartserver.net/forums/

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Author:	cavediver [ Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:15 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: SSD for OS drive.
walkabt wrote: Do you have to do something special to get a SSD to work in WHS? Or can you just install straight to the SSD on a new install? I thought they worked the same as any other drive out of the box. Never used a SSD so don't know if I am missing something. Curious because of Cavediver's install. If 80GB is the OS limit and you put a 128GB drive in as the system drive, leaving about 40GB formatted left on the drive, and then add larger drives as part of the storage pool are you just ensuring you don't ever use the leftover space on the SSD? SSD's do work the same as a regular drive out of the box. The only thing I did before I installed the SSD was to put it in my external sata docking bay attached to my PC and initialized the disk as a basic disk. I did not format or partition the drive because WHS formats and partitions the drive as part of the WHS installation. 20 GB is the system partition created by the new install. The remaining space is allocated to the D: partition. I've seen posts around that 80 GB is the minimum size for a system drive, but I've also seen posts that 60 GB is the minimum. I figured with 128 GB, I'd have plenty of room and I do not plan to let the D: partition on the system drive accumulate any data.

Author:	walkabt [ Tue Jul 14, 2009 8:25 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: SSD for OS drive.
Thanks that is what I was thinking.

Author:	boasist [ Sat Aug 01, 2009 11:11 am ]
Post subject:	Re: SSD for OS drive.
what SSD did you go with? Considering that before the new intel g2's came out, the small read/writes were slightly greater or even worse than desktop drives. Curious how its working for you. Thanks

Author:	cavediver [ Sat Aug 01, 2009 2:13 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: SSD for OS drive.
boasist wrote: what SSD did you go with? Considering that before the new intel g2's came out, the small read/writes were slightly greater or even worse than desktop drives. Curious how its working for you. Thanks I used the Kingston SSDnow V-Series 128GB. Since I'm using it in a WHS media file server as the OS drive, there are very few small read/writes to the drive. My purpose for the drive was not for performance, but rather for small, cool & quiet. All new files written to the WHS machine are written to the storage pool. The D: partition of OS drive is empty and will stay that way.

Author:	Diehard [ Sat Aug 01, 2009 6:23 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: SSD for OS drive.
cavediver wrote: boasist wrote: what SSD did you go with? Considering that before the new intel g2's came out, the small read/writes were slightly greater or even worse than desktop drives. Curious how its working for you. Thanks I used the Kingston SSDnow V-Series 128GB. Since I'm using it in a WHS media file server as the OS drive, there are very few small read/writes to the drive. My purpose for the drive was not for performance, but rather for small, cool & quiet. All new files written to the WHS machine are written to the storage pool. The D: partition of OS drive is empty and will stay that way. How are you keeping the D: partition of the OS drive empty ? Are you using Drive Balancer ? Does it require constant maintenance or is it scheduled ?

Author:	JohnBick [ Sat Aug 01, 2009 7:09 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: SSD for OS drive.
Drive Balancer does not need to be scheduled. If the System Drive "second - D:" partition has not been written to or, if it has, once Drive Balancer is used, the DE logic in WHS will not again use the System Drive for storage until the other drives are near capacity.

Author:	cavediver [ Sat Aug 01, 2009 8:23 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: SSD for OS drive.
Diehard wrote: How are you keeping the D: partition of the OS drive empty ? Are you using Drive Balancer ? Does it require constant maintenance or is it scheduled ? As John stated above, Drive Extender will not put files on the D: partition of the system drive until all other storage pool drives are full. Since my DIY (Andromeda) with the SSD is brand new and I immediately put 10TB of drives in the storage pool, the D: partition of the system drive is not being used.

Author:	thephantom [ Tue Aug 18, 2009 4:00 am ]
Post subject:	Re: SSD for OS drive.
hi there, @sxr71 - it was my understanding that as well as being the location of the tombstones, the 'data' partition was the landing zone for all new files. am i wrong/has this changed ? @IMGrant - using an ssd for the 'sys' partition is exactly what i want to do. in this scenario, where are the tombstones going then ? are you stopping the install from creating the 'data' partition on the ssd ? thanks

Author:	cavediver [ Tue Aug 18, 2009 6:30 am ]
Post subject:	Re: SSD for OS drive.
thephantom wrote: hi there, @sxr71 - it was my understanding that as well as being the location of the tombstones, the 'data' partition was the landing zone for all new files. am i wrong/has this changed ? The D:\ partition on the system drive has not been used as a landing zone since PP1. Since PP2, all new files are written directly to the storage pool drive with MOST amount of free space. Quote: @IMGrant - using an ssd for the 'sys' partition is exactly what i want to do. in this scenario, where are the tombstones going then ? I believe they live on the d:\ partition on the system drive, but what difference does it make? It's an integral part of WHS. Quote: are you stopping the install from creating the 'data' partition on the ssd ? No!

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Author:	thephantom [ Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:06 am ]
Post subject:	Re: SSD for OS drive.
cavediver wrote: thephantom wrote: hi there, @sxr71 - it was my understanding that as well as being the location of the tombstones, the 'data' partition was the landing zone for all new files. am i wrong/has this changed ? The D:\ partition on the system drive has not been used as a landing zone since PP1. Since PP2, all new files are written directly to the storage pool drive with MOST amount of free space. ah, how did i miss that ?! thanks for the info... cavediver wrote: thephantom wrote: @IMGrant - using an ssd for the 'sys' partition is exactly what i want to do. in this scenario, where are the tombstones going then ? I believe they live on the d:\ partition on the system drive, but what difference does it make? It's an integral part of WHS. my thought was: if the tombstones aren't held on the 'data' partition, then a smallish (and cheaper !) ssd would do nicely for the boot drive. however, there is an 80gb minimum size for that drive, so that pushes the ssd price up and i'll opt for a wd green drive instead. i appreciate the clarification, thanks !