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To BOSS or not to BOSS
We need a new server (Windows 2019) and I'm working with Dell on the configuration of a T350. I started with 2 drives in a RAID 1 configuration for both the OS and the data. This is a small company and will be used for a File server. This is how the current one was configured 10 years ago.
Anyway, the rep brought up the possibility of going with a BOSS card for the OS, 2 SSD's Raid1. Then put the data drives in and configure them for RAID1. I really don't need a ton of performance from this box, does using the BOSS make sense other then best practices being to not have the OS on the same drives as the data? What has peoples experience been?
Origin3k
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May 8th, 2023 11:00
Is your RAID1 based on flash or spinning disk?
We use BOSS in diskless Servers or when we need a phys. separation of OS and Data partition for performance reasons. We have a workload which easily can overload spinning disks from a performance perspective, but we need the large disk space only spinnind hard drives can provide. If the OS is located on the same disk group the performance is so worse that we unable to connect trough RDP for example when run the workload because the comand queue is full.
So if youre SSD based RAID1 gives you enough space and performance i would not choose the BOSS and for the money you can buy another SSD if needed.
What most ppl didnt know is that you can create to VDs on a single raid disk group to the OS see 2 LUNs and the first and smaller one is the one you use for your OS.
In this case a "format c:" wouldnt harm your DATA on the second LUN. The drawback is that you cant increase the disk group when 2 or more VDs are located on.
If you buy a 25k Server.... the 500,- for the BOSS is nothing. If its only a 5k server.... 500,.- is a lot.
Regards,
Joerg
jtpryan
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June 5th, 2023 07:00
Joerg,
Thank you. I'm now leaning toward the BOSS. The difference between having it or not is not enough to be a deal breaker and I do like having the OS on a separate SSD based RAID1. I'll be going with spinning disks (4tb) for the data that are hot swappable and somehow it just seems better to have the boot and OS area separate from the data. As I said, this is a very low usage box, just the DC,. file, print server.
If one of the drives on the BOSS card fails is it pretty simple to replace? Looks like it's just a matter of opening the box and putting a new one in and I assume they then rebuild on power up?
Origin3k
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June 5th, 2023 12:00
BOSS-S2 and the newer BOSS-N1 are both hot-swap and are located on th back of your server. So no need to open the server. It was BOSS-S1 which are based on a inside PCIe card where you need to open the case.
Regards,
Joerg