Hybrid RAID arrays of Solid State Drive (SSD) and Hard Disk Drive (HDD) offer tremendous performance gains over standard HDD RAID arrays by performing read operations from the faster SSD and write operations on both the SSD and HDD. The result is a higher number of read operations per second with no degradation of write I/O performance, and complete transparency to the operating system and all running applications.

1. ADAPTEC HYBRID RAID SOLUTIONS
Maximum Performance and Reliability

2. THE DATA CENTER CHALLENGE
As applications become more robust and user demand for speed
grows, data centers battle to increase infrastructure performance
 Growth in the number of end-users compounds the problem by
cause longer response times and increasing latency
 According to Equation Research1 :
– 78% of site visitors have gone to a competitor’s site due to poor performance during peak times
– 88% are less likely to return to a site after a poor user experience
– 47% left with a less positive perception of the company
1 “When more Website visitors hurt your business: Are you ready for peak traffic?,” Equation Research 2010
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3. POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
 Add very fast hard disk drives (HDDs)
— for example 15,000 RPM Serial
Attached SCSI (SAS) drives
 “Short stroke” the HDDs (use only the
outermost tracks on the disks where
the performance is best)
 Add new servers, even if the existing
servers have the storage capacity for
more users
These solutions, however, increase
power, cooling, and maintenance,
costs and physical space
requirements.
Solid State Drives (SSDs) alleviate
many of these problems.
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4. SOLID STATE DRIVES (SSDS):
PERFORMANCE IN A FLASH
SSD Advantages vs. HDD SSD Disadvantages vs. HDD
 Higher read bandwidth  Limited capacity
 Higher IOPS  Lower streaming write bandwidth
 Better mechanical reliability  Each destination data block must
be erased before new data can be
 Higher resistance to shock and written, causing uneven surface
vibrations wear and premature drive failure
 Much more expensive than HDDs,
especially when measured using
the traditional “cost per GB of
capacity” metric
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5. HYBRID RAID
Hybrid RAID is a redundant storage solution that combines high
capacity, low-cost SATA or higher-performance SAS HDDs with low
latency, high IOPS SSDs and an SSD-aware RAID adapter card.
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6. HYBRID RAID BENEFITS
 It is usually impractical to replace
every HDD with an SSD
 Hybrid RAID is extremely cost
efficient, especially when
measured in terms of the “cost
per I/O operation” or the more
Green-oriented “power
consumption per I/O operation”
 Hybrid RAID offers tremendous
performance gains over standard
HDD-only RAID arrays
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7. BUILDING A HYBRID SOLUTION
Hardware Applications
 Any capacity SSDs and HDDs  Pairing Hybrid RAID with
can be used in equal numbers applications is more difficult since
most software was not created to
 If different-sized drives are used, be aware of the possibility of
the drive segment size is the size having two types of storage with
of the smaller disk drive such different characteristics
 A RAID 1 created with one 128GB
SSD and one 2TB HDD will make a  In order to take full advantage of a
128GB logical device Hybrid RAID setup, an SSD-
aware RAID adapter with
 A RAID 10 created with two 128GB intelligent storage processing
SSDs and two 2TB HDDs will make
must be deployed
a 256GB logical device
 The remaining HDD capacity can
be used for storage
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8. REAL-WORLD HYBRID RAID SCENARIOS

9. LARGE-CAPACITY SERVERS, TRADITIONAL
HDD-ONLY METHOD
 Scenario:
 Customer wants to maximize the
use of space in an 8-bay server
while still gaining a fast-booting
server
 Customer wants to keep OS away
from data (OS in mirror and data in
RAID 5 for maximum capacity)
 Disadvantages:
 Two bays in the server are wasted
on the OS boot drives; capacity is
limited to six drives in RAID 5
 Server is booting from standard
HHD in mirror, which is not a
particularly fast form of RAID
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10. LARGE-CAPACITY SERVERS, HYBRID RAID
SOLUTION
 Advantages
 Total server capacity is six times the
usable capacity of each drive in a
RAID 5
 The server boots from the faster
SSD
 Unused disk space on each disk
can be utilized in another array if
required
 A 500GB RAID 5 disk could be
created across the six unused disk
segments
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11. WORKSTATION, HYBRID RAID SOLUTION
 Scenario:
 User wants a fast-booting, fast
application-loading system without
needing to rebuild the workstation if
a drive fails
 Hybrid solution advantages:
 All reads are directed from the SSD
 Write speed is the same as a
standard workstation but, due to the
cache on the adapter card, is faster
than a standard HDD Note: It is not recommended to use the
unused 200GB capacity on the 500GB
 When a failed drive is replaced, the HDD due to the fact that this data is not
array will rebuild onto the redundant, and failure of the HDD
replacement drive with no data loss would result in data loss.
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12. SMALL BUSINESS, HYBRID RAID SOLUTION
READ MORE!
For specific data on Small
Business solutions, go to:
www.adaptec.com/hybrid-raid
Download the Hybrid RAID
Solutions White Paper
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13. ADAPTEC HYBRID RAID SOLUTIONS

14. ADAPTEC HYBRID RAID
 Hybrid RAID can be leveraged
simply by installing updated
firmware onto any Adaptec Series
7, Series 6, or Series Q SAS/
SATA RAID adapter
ASR-72405 24-Port
 The adapter automatically creates ASR-71605 16-Port
a Hybrid RAID array whenever
one or more SSDs are combined
with the same number of HDDs in
a RAID 1 or RAID 10 array
 The Hybrid RAID is completely
transparent to the operating
system and all running Adaptec RAID 6805 – 8 internal ports
Adaptec RAID 6445 – 8 ports (4 int / 4 ext)
applications Adaptec RAID 6405 – 4 internal ports
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15. ADAPTEC HYBRID RAID VS. COMPETITION
 Adaptec RAID adapters deliver
maximum Hybrid array
performance by writing to both
HDD and SSD, and reading from
SSD 100% of the time (Top
Figure)
 By contrast, other adapters write
and read from HDD and SSD
(Bottom Figure). Since server I/O
of an SSD can be up to 100 times
faster than HDD, competitive
Hybrid RAID solutions typically
deliver lower I/O performance
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16. ADAPTEC HYBRID RAID PERFORMANCE
 Adaptec Hybrid RAID arrays
deliver a higher number of read
operations per second than
standard HDD arrays with no
degradation of write I/O
performance
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17. ADAPTEC HYBRID RAID PERFORMANCE
 Some applications even see a
slight performance benefit from
Adaptec Hybrid RAID and are
faster on a Hybrid RAID 1 than on
a single SSD.
 As such, Adaptec Hybrid RAID
offers better performance and
lower cost/GB, and lower cost and
power consumption per I/O than
competing Hybrid RAID solutions.
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18. INTEROPERABILITY AND COMPATIBILITY
WORKING WITH OUR PARTNERS
 Adaptec by PMC engages with over 25 ecosystem partners
 Tested with over 300 disk drives, systems, entry-level storage devices, and
other devices
 Ongoing effort – will test new devices when available
 Seamless integration into any server design
 Less hassle for system integrators
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19. CONCLUSION
 Hybrid RAID arrays of SSDs and
HDDs offer significantly better
performance than standard HDD
RAID arrays at a lower cost than
SSD-only arrays
 Adaptec Series 7, Series 6, and
Series Q RAID adapters can
create a seamless Hybrid RAID
array whenever one or more
SSDs are combined with the
same number of HDDs in a RAID
1 or RAID 10 array
 Adaptec Hybrid RAID delivers
maximum system performance by
reading only from the SSD
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