EBS Volumes on RAID0 to gain perfomance

Question

Hi,

I have to setup a Domino Server, that uses a "translog" path.  On the Domino Server documentation, it is suggested to dedicate a specific disk with his own controller to this path directory.

I am not sure what method to use,   either to use a normal GP3 disk,  and add more IOPs if  I see they are needed,   or using ESB (algo GP3) on Raid0.
Problem that I see with Raid0 is that I do not known how easy is to increase volumes on a RAID0 Configuration.     On a normal (single) ESB volume,  starting with a "small" size of the volume  (ie, 100Gb),  and then, increase it,  is easy, is a trivial thing, and I can add also more IOPs / trhoughput on a very easy way,  so I guess I can get the same (or very similar) perfomance that I will get with RAID0.

I am aware that will RAID0  I will be able to "double" the perfomance,  because I will get accumulatted IOPs values,  so the maximum of IOPs obtained on RAID0 will be always greater, but not sure if I will need to increase the IOPS to a ratio that can not be obtained also on a single GP3 Disk.    Moreover, my concern on RAID0 is about how easy will be to increase volume on it..   Can I increase a ESB volume that is being part of a RAID0 the same way that a normal EBS volume ?  Do I need to have both ESB volumes at the same size ?     Is the administrative additional task on a RAID0 woth the less (ie, complexity added for increasing volumes, for snapshoots, backups/recoverys, etc) ?

In summary...   When is bettert to have a single EBS volume with the number of IOPS you need,  or a RAID0 config ?

Accepted Answer

It is possible to configure EBS with RAID 0 in order to achieve a higher level of performance for a file system, as described here: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/raid-config.html

However, this does add complexity to your solution.

I would personally look at the I/O rates of the different EBS volume types.  For example, io2  provisioned IOPS storage can support up to 64,000 IOPS, and io2 Block Express up to 256,000 IOPS.

You are restricted to using EC2 instances that are built on the Nitro architecture, however, and  io2 Block Express only work on r5b instances.

Details are here: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ebs-volume-types.html

Answer

Hi Andres,

To echo what Dennis mentioned, I tend to avoid using any RAID in the disk setup. Main advantage when using single disk is the simplicity when dealing with backup using Snapshots. For performance concern, io2 Block Express should be covering the high performance requirement in most of the general use cases. 
Hope this helps.

Eric

EBS Volumes on RAID0 to gain perfomance

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