pg.ddx.io  pgsql-performance@postgresql.org mailing list archive  
help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: John Lister <john.lister@kickstone.com>
To: Steve Crawford <scrawford@pinpointresearch.com>
Cc: pgsql-performance@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: New server setup
Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:05:52 +0000
Message-ID: <5140DC20.60306@kickstone.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <5140D226.4060609@pinpointresearch.com>
References: <4D6D1410-2208-4DAA-BD64-69BE1FD94E55@autouncle.com>
	<513CADB7.4030803@2ndQuadrant.com>
	<CAJY59_jNGwrPceXg8k04=1VWTTZTFTPTh+jGHopx92c+17Cj1w@mail.gmail.com>
	<51409C51.1070601@kickstone.com>
	<38D48FB0-92A8-433B-8D34-4C63738B45BA@gmail.com>
	<5140A623.20005@kickstone.com>
	<5140D226.4060609@pinpointresearch.com>
List-Unsubscribe:  <mailto:majordomo@postgresql.org?body=unsub%20pgsql-performance>

On 13/03/2013 19:23, Steve Crawford wrote:
> On 03/13/2013 09:15 AM, John Lister wrote:
>> On 13/03/2013 15:50, Greg Jaskiewicz wrote:
>>> SSDs have much shorter life then spinning drives, so what do you do 
>>> when one inevitably fails in your system ?
>> Define much shorter? I accept they have a limited no of writes, but 
>> that depends on load. You can actively monitor the drives "health" 
>> level...
>
> What concerns me more than wear is this:
>
> InfoWorld Article:
> http://www.infoworld.com/t/solid-state-drives/test-your-ssds-or-risk-massive-data-loss-researchers-w... 
>
When I read this they didn't name the drives that failed - or those that 
passed. But I'm assuming the failed ones are standard consumer SSDS, but 
2 good ones were either enterprise of had caps. The reason I say this, 
is that yes SSD drives by the nature of their operation cache/store 
information in ram while they write it to the flash and to handle the 
mappings, etc of real to virtual sectors and if they loose power it is 
this that is lost, causing at best corruption if not complete loss of 
the drive. Enterprise drives (and some consumer, such as the 320s) have 
either capacitors or battery backup to allows the drive to safely 
shutdown. There have been various reports both on this list and 
elsewhere showing that these drives successfully survive repeated power 
failures.

A bigger concern is the state of the firmware in these drives which 
until recently was more likely to trash your drive - fortunately things 
seems to becoming more stable with age now.

John


-- 
Sent via pgsql-performance mailing list (pgsql-performance@postgresql.org)
To make changes to your subscription:
http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-performance



view thread (38+ messages)  latest in thread

Message-ID: <5140DC20.60306@kickstone.com>
Permalink:  ../5140DC20.60306@kickstone.com/
Also on:    postgresql.org/message-id/5140DC20.60306@kickstone.com

 · 

reply

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Reply to all the recipients using the --to and --cc options:
  reply via email

  To: pgsql-performance@postgresql.org
  Cc: john.lister@kickstone.com, scrawford@pinpointresearch.com
  Subject: Re: New server setup
  In-Reply-To: <5140DC20.60306@kickstone.com>

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

This inbox is served by DDX for PostgreSQL; see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox