RAID Controller and SSD Drives

That really depends on the server, software, raid controller, raid configuration, SSD generation, SSD manufacturer, etc. See where I am going with this?

Reliable? Yes! Unless you initially get a bad SSD or have software issues to start with. If you aren't familiar with RAID controllers and their configuration you may need to go wig shopping...'cause you'll be pulling your hair out!

It can be done...it can be done very efficiently but the outlay upon "startup" will be substantial. Will it return your investment? That would depend on your business.

There is a lot to consider...but, you would get major cool points with the geek chicks (or dudes, whatever).

What's missing is the type of RAID that you want to use, are you looking for speed or redundancy/data security? Remember that RAID was first designed when the disks themselves were much slower and had poorer reliability than today's HDs, and SSDs suffer from neither of these inherent faults. I'm not sure what speed gain you could get since SSDs operate at electronic speeds and adding the latency of the controller might actually impact the overall performance.

I use SSDs and love 'em when they're used properly. I would use a good sized SSD as my boot drive and put my most used applications on it for speedy access and execution; I would then use RAID or NAS for data security through mirroring of the SSD.

Redundancy and data security are my chief concerns, but I figure I can get some speed with the SSD drives.

My current setup is 3 hot swapable 10,000 rpm scuzzy drives. One has failed and I don't trust the system any more.

I hear that SSD will last about 1.2 million hours, almost double conventional drives.

I have a systems construction business, and my clients are very large and worldwide. I caannot afford to lose any files. I practice multiple on site backup and off site backup using SSDs. I am very comfortable with SSD.

My question is about using RAID/SSD together. I have heard that the technologies are not perfectly matched, that they work most, but not all of the time. I don't need a squirrel in my files.

I have zero experience with SSD's as servers, and I've never used RAID at all. In my limited experience with SSD's (all on Mac systems), the computer can see no difference between a properly formatted HD and a similarly formatted SSD.

I can definitely tell you that I love the speed (10-11 seconds from power off to fully booted, less than 2 seconds to launch Word, for example), and the power savings (not entirely due to the SSD, but triple the battery life of my previous MacBook Pro).

If one of your drives has failed in a hot-swapable setup, then the first response is to swap the failed drive, and then to swap the other drives at leisure. If you suspect the controller is at fault, though I do not see why, then you need to copy all your data forthwith to another system.
As for wishing to switch to SSDs, I have to point out that a quick scamper through the internet revealed a 512 GB SSD for over $400. The financial question is then how much enterprise data are you going to get on that by comparison with a 1TB hard drive at about $70 (with doubling or tripling or quadrupling the price for various levels of redundancy)?
I think the Wikipedia description of RAID is useful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

I don't know what kind of data the OP is dealing with, but most RAID configurations deal with large data which is why you need reliable storage.

A 512 GB drive would not touch any of my (various) 32TB RAID-5 setups. My data never stops streaming in...and there is a ton of it. JBOD's are a thing of the past.

Worrying about overhead when you are already using SSD's...

...if you are already saving that much time on the back-end then the overhead for the controller and parity shouldn't worry you at all.

Really great question, best I have seen for ages.

My thoughts are that the speed of the SSD disks is great on their own, but the extra security that a RAID controller can add might be the right way to go, I certainly would not use the RAID controller to try and get extra speed.......loss of security can be a possible result.

The type to use is "MIRROR" where two copies are made of all data, one on each drive, though "true" RAID 6 or 7 is, if available, is even better, speed and security!

I would suggest that you search for a RAID controller specifically designed for SSD usage if possible and you will need even numbers of SSDs, odd will not do it......so four might be a good idea in your case (or more!), RAID 6 or better will need even more disks than I have mentioned, sometimes even odd numbers! I was only talking about mirror RAID, quite simple in comparison.

Remember, RAID 10 is only an old marketting hype for RAID 1 and RAID 0 combined......be wary!!!

I am not fully up to date (retired), but I believe RAID 8 is about the top at this time, BUT WATCH THIS SPACE FOR FIRST INFOS!!!

There could be a case for actually doing some testing of various RAID types as it could be possible that the RAID controller may actually slow down SSD Drives......if true, a software RAID may in fact be a better choice rather than a hardware one.....just a few thoughts....

Let us know how you get on!