Personally, I would do the following assuming you are using 300GB drives:

loop1 - aggr1 - three 7+2 rg's loop2 - aggr2 - three 7+2 rg's 2 spares

=56 drives - 4 shelves

This gives you an even spread across both aggr's that you can easily expand on in the future. With the current aggr max size limitation I would steer away from building a single aggr close to the max size out of the gate. This build will make expansion very scalable, and go-live performance more than acceptable. With two aggr's you also have the flexibility to move exceptionally chatty vfilers to separate spindles.

Regards, Scott

Internet westlaguy@gmail.com

Sent by: owner-toasters@mathworks.com 07/10/2008 02:46 PM

To toasters cc

Subject multistore/vfiler and aggregate performance

hi, i have a customer who will be using multistore/vfilers of random workloads all over nfs.

my view for an overall performance perspective is two controllers and multiple raid groups per aggregate evenly spread. ie, if i had 5 FCAL shelves i could create 2 aggregates comprised of 2 16 disk raid groups spread across both controllers and all shelves

however their budget can at max allow 4 shelves which would leave one aggregate with 2 raid groups, the other with one and more spares since i would not want to add a half sized raidgroup.

the idea being that the vfilers would be split evenly across aggregates to better spread ops load across the drives

but realistically will that gain better performance versus a single aggregate with 3 raidgroups spread across both controllers and all drives?

This message and any attachments (the "message") is intended solely for the addressees and is confidential. If you receive this message in error, please delete it and immediately notify the sender. Any use not in accord with its purpose, any dissemination or disclosure, either whole or partial, is prohibited except formal approval. The internet can not guarantee the integrity of this message. BNP PARIBAS (and its subsidiaries) shall (will) not therefore be liable for the message if modified. Please note that certain functions and services for BNP Paribas may be performed by BNP Paribas RCC, Inc.