Message-ID: <513CADB7.4030803@2ndQuadrant.com>
Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2013 11:58:47 -0400
From: Greg Smith <greg@2ndQuadrant.com>
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To: pgsql-performance@postgresql.org, nielskristian@autouncle.com
Subject: Re: New server setup
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On 3/1/13 6:43 AM, Niels Kristian Schjødt wrote:
> Hi, I'm going to setup a new server for my postgresql database, and I am considering one of these: http://www.hetzner.de/hosting/produkte_rootserver/poweredge-r720 with four SAS drives in a RAID 10 array. Has any of you any particular comments/pitfalls/etc. to mention on the setup? My application is very write heavy.

The Dell PERC H710 (actually a LSI controller) works fine for 
write-heavy workloads on a RAID 10, as long as you order it with a 
battery backup unit module.  Someone must install the controller 
management utility and do three things however:

1) Make sure the battery-backup unit is working.

2) Configure the controller so that the *disk* write cache is off.

3) Set the controller cache to "write-back when battery is available". 
That will use the cache when it is safe to do so, and if not it will 
bypass it.  That will make the server slow down if the battery fails, 
but it won't ever become unsafe at writing.

See http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Reliable_Writes for more information 
about this topic.  If you'd like some consulting help with making sure 
the server is working safely and as fast as it should be, 2ndQuadrant 
does offer a hardware benchmarking service to do that sort of thing: 
http://www.2ndquadrant.com/en/hardware-benchmarking/  I think we're even 
generating those reports in German now.

-- 
Greg Smith   2ndQuadrant US    greg@2ndQuadrant.com   Baltimore, MD
PostgreSQL Training, Services, and 24x7 Support www.2ndQuadrant.com


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