Servers And SSDs

[lmccrary]

I've got a doctor who is upgrading to a proper server. it will be used almost exculsively for medical apps (electronic charts, scheduling, billing). I was wondering if an SSD makes sense in this application. I have already adapted SSDs to all of my personal systems. So I feel comfortable using one. Of course the doctor is interested in performance ,and you guessed it, price. I think an appropriate size drive like a OCZ Vertex 2 or 3 would work well. Of course all this will be backed up correctly.

 

[Klavshc]

I have some experience working with medical and patient handling programs, but no experience with SSD's.

That being the case I'd still feel comfortable in saying a tentative "no".

It really depends too much on the software handling the patient lookup (SQL database, Pervasive database, others, etc), and the machine hosting the database application.

If the doctor has a dedicated server running the apps and databases, then that could potentially benefit hugely from the SSD, especially as the data normally is of a manageable size.

The client application (the software the doctor is using for handling patient data) has to go consult the server and then respond with the correct info for the specific patient, and the application will not be speeded in any meaningful way by the SSD.

That being said, there can be very specific applications or programs running locally (diagnostics machinery for lungs, cardio, etc) which would have a very low chance of being speeded by an SSD, normally they are more memory and CPU intensive and less I/O and throughput heavy.

That's my cents

 

[Emulex]

sql server LOVES ssd. period. and RAM

 

[baddog60]

I would not put a Vertex 3 in a server environment regardless of any backups that you have. It simply does not seem reliable enough from all of the horror stories I have read here. I have both Intel and Crucial drives running in a business environment. But, my SQL installs run off of dedicated RAID cards and enterprise drives.

 

[Voo]

Your average doctor's database should more than comfortably fit into 8gb RAM I'd assume in which case the difference would be negligible..

 

[lmccrary]

Thanks for the input.

 

[Emulex]

intel 710 for servers. 800gb about $10 grand

i do know folks that run ERP systems off intel 510's believe it or not. i believe they use standard drives for raid-1 hardware boot then software (windows) raid-1 for SSD's and it works - hella fast. just not for boot. you can move swap over if you dare.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

A couple RevoDrive X3's in RAID 1 would be more than fine for a small business server. If one dies, the server keeps on truckin' till you replace the bad one. You get PCIe speeds, full redundancy, TRIM even in RAID (X3 gen only). Hard to argue against it as a viable option.

 

[razel]

Do what our pros here do, let the upgrade to a correct server happen 1st. Use, learn and tweak the system as is, so they can actually experience any shortcomings. Since it's a system upgrade, I'm pretty sure everything will be improved to a point, that that's all they really needed.

It's a business where lives and histories are involved. I wouldn't toy around.

 

[Rubycon]

A couple RevoDrive X3's in RAID 1 would be more than fine for a small business server. If one dies, the server keeps on truckin' till you replace the bad one. You get PCIe speeds, full redundancy, TRIM even in RAID (X3 gen only). Hard to argue against it as a viable option.

You do NOT want to even think about putting anything OCZ in a server, period. :biggrin:

 

[nanaki333]

You do NOT want to even think about putting anything OCZ in a server, period. :biggrin:

yea. even their revodrives have quite a bit of complaints to get running properly.

 

[Cerb]

I'd just get a few WD or Hitachi RAID-approved drives. Unless it's a sizable place, with many tens of concurrent users, I/O is not likely to be a bottleneck.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

You do NOT want to even think about putting anything OCZ in a server, period. :biggrin:

Yep, that's why Dell sells OCZ Z-Drives...

The OCZ hate was semi-warranted back when they had their big CS fiasco, but it's just tiring now.

 

[Emulex]

do consumer ssd's support hot-swap?

 

[yinan]

do consumer ssd's support hot-swap?

That is not dependent on the drive, but the controller.

 

[Emulex]

well if you cut power to a drive that has caching enabled but no battery - that could damage the data?

 

[Cerb]

That is not dependent on the drive, but the controller.

No, both. Older drives may not support hot-swap. By older, I mean ~2006, though. Any new drive will support it.

well if you cut power to a drive that has caching enabled but no battery - that could damage the data?

If you are cutting power to remove the drive, that concern has already been removed, either by the drive being considered bad by the controller, or being told it's about to be removed, and flushing, prior to physical removal.

If the whole system loses power, then there has already been a sysadmin failure (this server does have redundant PSUs and a UPS with software set up to shut down after power's been out for a few minutes, right?), or TSHTF. If TSHTF, it's time to give an offering to the god of off-site backups.

If the drive losing power could corrupt data in a way unrecoverable by the drive, then that's a bug that needs fixing, and I'm not sure exactly how you would prove, as a user, that such a bug does not exist (you have to trust the mfr/vendor to test these things).