[Criot]

One of the disadvantages is that you can't use VMWare ESXi with software RAID. In the past i used Citrix XenServer on 2 drives with software RAID powering 6 virtual machines serving quite busy website and I haven't got any problems.

It also depends on what exactly is your usage requirement, because VPS nodes can do many things and for example use VPS nodes for database stuff, would rule out using mechanical drives completely for me.

There'd be no way for us to accurately measure what sort of usage we'll be having, as like you say a VPS could do many things, it could be anything from game servers, to web servers, database servers (though the likeliness is that anyone with an intensive database would probably have the knowledge to lean towards an SSD VPS anyway) - SSD VPS was something we were actually considering, the problem is the small amount of storage we'd be able to offer as a result, based on our pricing structure an 8GB RAM VPS would only be able to have 50GB of SSD Disk Space, where as with HDDs we're looking at least 150 Disk Space with 8GB RAM, huge amount of difference, but do service users really want SSD for performance, or do they want more storage capacity? It is in our plans to launch a separate SSD Range in the future though, depends how the basic range goes I guess.

I never used OpenVZ on OVH, but used Citrix XenServer and now using KVM under Ubuntu. The documentation on OVH was pretty messy in the past and it was really hard to figure out how to set it right, but once you did one VM correctly rest became pretty straightforward.

But indeed, setting up IPs on OVH is real pain. If I am right you still can't set Virtual MACs in bulk, so you have to wait till one finishes setting up before you can setup another, which takes a lot of time.

I was speaking to OVH Support a few days ago, we'd need to use bridge mode for Xen/KVM apparently, which would require a setup of Virtual MAC on a per VM basis, obviously that'd be very time consuming but also the fact that we want these VMs setup instantly (we already have the methods of doing this with the appropriate billing software and control panels) but setting up a Virtual MAC on a per VM basis wouldn't allow that. It all seems too much of a time consuming process, OpenVZ is looking to be the best choice at the minute.

[elcct]

We're leaning towards OpenVZ currently, we were planning on Xen/KVM but apparently they're a real pain to configure and setup on OVH network - Don't know whether anyone has any experience with using Xen/KVM Virtualization on an OVH server, but numerous people have said this.

I never used OpenVZ on OVH, but used Citrix XenServer and now using KVM under Ubuntu. The documentation on OVH was pretty messy in the past and it was really hard to figure out how to set it right, but once you did one VM correctly rest became pretty straightforward.

But indeed, setting up IPs on OVH is real pain. If I am right you still can't set Virtual MACs in bulk, so you have to wait till one finishes setting up before you can setup another, which takes a lot of time.

[elcct]

Thanks for your feedback, we had the thought about IOPS but was mainly looking for opinions on how well you all think Software based RAID would perform for our usage requirements.

One of the disadvantages is that you can't use VMWare ESXi with software RAID. In the past i used Citrix XenServer on 2 drives with software RAID powering 6 virtual machines serving quite busy website and I haven't got any problems.

It also depends on what exactly is your usage requirement, because VPS nodes can do many things and for example use VPS nodes for database stuff, would rule out using mechanical drives completely for me.

[Criot]

What environment will you be using? Proxmox doesn't officially support software RAID, and like I said in another thread I had serious performance issues with it.

We're leaning towards OpenVZ currently, we were planning on Xen/KVM but apparently they're a real pain to configure and setup on OVH network - Don't know whether anyone has any experience with using Xen/KVM Virtualization on an OVH server, but numerous people have said this.

[mike_]

What environment will you be using? Proxmox doesn't officially support software RAID, and like I said in another thread I had serious performance issues with it.

[Criot]

I'd go for BD-8T. Software RAID shouldn't be an issue and you get more IOPS from 4 drives which is essential if you want to run many virtual machines.

Thanks for your feedback, we had the thought about IOPS but was mainly looking for opinions on how well you all think Software based RAID would perform for our usage requirements.

We're certainly taking everything into consideration, including the fact that the BD-8T isn't that much more expensive, and it also has the additional CPU power.

Again, thanks for your feedback!

[elcct]

Nobody got any opinions on this - Our real concern could be that software RAID could cause performance issues in comparison to Hardware RAID - Would it be worth having 4 drives in Software RAID, or do you think 2 drives in Hardware RAID could perform just as good?

I'd go for BD-8T. Software RAID shouldn't be an issue and you get more IOPS from 4 drives which is essential if you want to run many virtual machines.

[Criot]

Nobody got any opinions on this - Our real concern could be that software RAID could cause performance issues in comparison to Hardware RAID - Would it be worth having 4 drives in Software RAID, or do you think 2 drives in Hardware RAID could perform just as good?

[Criot]

Hello all,

We're looking into setting up VPS Nodes using OVH Services and we're wondering about the sort of disk setup we should use, we're slightly stuck on what to do and just want your views/experiences on the setups you've used if any.

Now, we're stuck between the Big Data BD-8T which has 4 drives in software RAID, we'd probably use software RAID 1. Another option we was considering was the Enterprise SP-64 except two drives in Hardware RAID 1.

What are your guys opinions on this? Would software RAID cause too many performance issues for it to be worth going with that rather than Hardware RAID, or do you think the BD-8T would perform better due to it having more disks, despite it being software RAID?

Your thoughts, feedback and opinions are all appreciated.