RAID Block Size?

[David Roth weiss]

Smaller block sizes are the way to go if your RAID will be primarily devoted to reading and writing small files such as text and database files. If you deal with larger chunks of data—beefy video and audio files, for example—choosing a block size of 256K will move your data more efficiently.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

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[Dan Brockett]

Thanks for that David, I didn’t have a clue about it.

Dan

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[Walter Biscardi]

[Dan Brockett] “I know nothing about RAID block sizes. What does this control do? Any advice? “

I would call the RAID manufacturer and ask them. Based on what you’re doing they will instruct you to set up a particular block size.

For instance we run ATTO R-380 cards on our local storage and based on the fact that we primarily run in compressed HD, they had us set up the block size one way. If we were working primarily in uncompressed HD, we would have gone a different size.

Same with our new SAN array. It’s been optimized for ProRes with a particular block size.

One size does not fit all and there is no way to properly answer your question on a forum like this. You should contact the controller or drive manufacturer for advice.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Dan Brockett]

Hi Walter:

I appreciate the advice, but not sure if you read the details in my inquiry? This is for a friend who is setting up the smallest, lowest budget RAID possible, an internal SATA RAID on a new Mac Pro. No controller, no cards, no hardware other than the drives, just a couple of SATA drives and the drive utility, there is no hardware manufacturer to ask unless you think I should call Hitachi?

Thanks,

Dan

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[Walter Biscardi]

Hi Dan,

For that very simple setup you’re probably good to go with pretty much anything really. When you get into the larger RAIDs, you really want to contact the manufacturer of the controller as the Block Size really does affect performance depending on the resolutions you’re running.

I never realized that until two years ago when we were dropping frame for no reason running DVCPro HD and the folks at ATTO explained how the block size helps to “tune” the performance of the RAID. Really cool stuff, but if it’s set up wrong, it can cause a lot of frustration. I’ve learned more than I ever wanted to know about block size recently with our SAN installation.

Have fun!

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

Read my Blog!

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[Dan Brockett]

Hi Walter:

Thanks for your input, I appreciate it. I thought the same thing and I know when setting up a real hardware-based RAID that I would contact the manufacturers.

Dan

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[Kimberly Nicole]

Is there an advantage to using a block size larger than 256K? I am editing XDCam EX footage, which, in .mp4 format, is 16G for 57 minutes or 287MB per minute, 4.8MB per second, and 204K per frame at 24fps native.