storage options for mySQL

[gauvins]

I am working on a DB that consumes 700+GB, running on a 500GB Mac Pro. Some tables can be stored on a DAS without significantly compromising performance, but others are frequently modified/reindexed and there is a major performance drop if they are stored externally.

Can someone briefly summarize (external) storage options, considering cost and performance? (e.g. USB 3.0 RAID 0 SATA vs SSD)

I am aiming at 1TB external solution. I currently store 400GB externally and 200 internally. Works well but the internal tables are growing and will require additional storage within a few months.

 

[Draeconis]

I'm assuming you have a Late 2013 Mac Pro, but your post doesn't mention it.

Depends what your budget is really. Best thing if money is no object would either be to source a 1Tb Apple Mac Pro (Late 2013) SSD and/or look into TB2 PCIe expansion chassis with AHCI SM951s.

That, or you could investigate the possibility of connecting HBA cards via TB/PCIe expansion, though I don't know what OS X support for these is like (probably not great). Something like this.

USB3 is great and all, but you sound like you're doing something relatively intensive and mission-critical; I wouldn't rely on USB3 for that.

If you have an older Mac Pro, slap some more drives in.

 

[Flint Ironstag]

Are you on a cylinder or tower?

 

[gauvins]

Are you on a cylinder or tower?

Late 2013 (cylinder)

Options look like

1. upgrading the main drive to, say 1TB (OWC SSD)

2. purchasing a TB 4 Mini, say, 1TB (OWC enclosure)
. 4 HDD RAID0 @ $600 (2TB)
. 4 SSD JBOD @ $800 (1TB)

Enclosures offer more flexibility. Not entirely clear wrt performance. My current setup yields 600Mbps+ for the internal drive (BlackMagic benchmark while lots of stuff run in the background) and 100Mbps for a DAS.

 

[Draeconis]

I wouldn't bother with OWC, go with the official Apple drive.

 

[Flint Ironstag]

We also don't how much bandwidth you need and how much latency you can put up with over Thunderbolt. But option 2 filled with SSDs could work. I've installed a few of these over the past year or so - I did some AJA speed tests and was impressed (all SSDs in RAID5 (be aware this enclosure uses software RAID)). It wasn't that far off the nMP's internal drive - from unit to unit, large video transfers are consistently over 800MB/s on a nMP.