Best stripe size for RAID 5 on Dell H700?

[jpboyce]

Hi all,

I'm currently setting up a new Dell R610 for ESXi 4.1  The server has a H700 controller with 6x600GB SAS drives.  The instruction I've been given is to use RAID 5, but I'm trying to find some clear information on what stripe size to use.  The controller is capable of doing 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512k & 1MB stripes.  One of the other system administrators here has suggested using 32k.  The virtual machines that will eventually run on the host will be things like Windows 2008 domain controllers and low level file services.  Thanks.

[mcowger]

If all you are running is low level file services and a DC, it honestly wont matter.  Things like stripe sizes only really start to matter with IO intensive things like heavy databases, exchange, etc.

Personally, I'd match the block sizeof the guest file systems, but 32 is reasonable as well.

[a_p_]

Unless there are special requirements, I usually use the default stripe size provided by the controller. I think this is 64k for most LSI based controllers. However as already mentioned by mcowger it may not really make a difference. You may be good with any stripe size of 32k and up.

André

[J1mbo]

The choice of RAID level is far more important than the stripe size, although I too would go with the default of 64KB.  If the applications will have any significant amount of scattered write characteristic then RAID-10 would probably be a better choice.