RAID 10 Strip Size

[werewolf07]

Hey guys,

This is for my Home Lab running ESXi 5.1.0, 1483097.

I am upgrading the VM datastore from RAID5 to RAID10 to improve performance; but have a question regarding Strip Size.

I am using LSI 9266-8i Controller.

I run about 50-60 VMs - mostly Windows Server 2008 R2 & 2012 R2, and about 8-10 Linux VMs.

My current RAID5 disk configuration is: 3 X 2TB WD RE4 Enterprise Disks

Strip Size = 1MB

My upgrade plan is: RAID10 @ 4 X 2TB WD RE4 Enterprise Disks.

What should be the Strip Size of the RAID10 array for the best performance? I have options from: 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, 128 KB, 256 KB, 512 KB, and 1024 KB

Any advise much appreciated!

Thanks,

Low

[tomtom901]

Stripe size and performance associated with it is dependent on the workload. If you have larger "chunks" of data, a higher stripe size would be better, and for smaller, more fragmented I/O (which is for you I guess), a smaller stripe size would fit. Therefor, I'd go with the 64K option.

[JarryG]

Two things might be worth to consider:

1. filesystem-spec: vmfs-5 has blocksize 1MB (sub-block 8kB)

2. hardware properties: common disks have sector-size 512B/4kB, and SSDs have "erase block size"