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#GRAID SOFTRAID WINDOWS#
PerformanceĪt the time we started this review, GRAID SupremeRAID only supported Linux, we’ve been recently told Windows is making its way out. The card also does not require a battery backup module. This is a standard off-the-shelf card that’s plug-and-play with no cabling required.
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GRAID is also ready for NVMe-oF and a variety of interconnects so that they’re ready for emerging architectures. SupremeRAID doesn’t have a hard limit when it comes to the number of drives supported. Incidentally, 24 drives isn’t a limitation for GRAID, that’s just what’s commonly found in a 2U server. In terms of performance, GRAID has driven around 6 million IOPS and 100GB/s out of a 24-drive system. Currently, GRAID supports RAID0, 1, 5, 6, and 10.
#GRAID SOFTRAID SOFTWARE#
GRAID also has an AI engine, which makes up its secret sauce, that runs on the card and makes the entire ecosystem operate efficiently.Įven though the card itself is fundamental to the GRAID solution, they still categorize themselves as a software RAID solution. The RAID protection itself is out-of-path, meaning data can flow from CPU to storage without having through the SupremeRAID card. And, because the card is a GPU, there’s tremendous computational power on the card, which simply doesn’t exist on standard RAID cards. The GPU has many advantages when it comes to addressing bottlenecks in NVMe RAID.įirst off, the SupremeRAID card directly processes the I/O, relieving the CPU of this duty. That little bit of detail isn’t terribly interesting to most GRAID customers who only care about results, but for our audience, this is an extremely interesting fact. Enter GRAID SupremeRAIDĪs noted, the big difference from the jump is that GRAID SupremeRAID is based on an NVIDIA T1000 GPU. Software RAID is easy to set up with no expense for a RAID card, but it chews through a lot of CPU resources which creates a performance penalty. That said, the alternatives like software RAID haven’t been great either. Getting 24 NVMe SSDs in a standard 2U server onto standard hardware RAID cards is complicated, expensive, and can compromise system performance. Not every workload will be easy sequential reads of course, but the point remains. Even accounting for spec sheet vs reality difference, in this workload, that means two SSDs will cap a traditional RAID card in this particular workload. A mainstream enterprise SSD like the Intel P5510 for instance can crank out 7000MB/s sequential read bandwidth. A server with a Gen4 PCIe slot can only hope to attain 16GB/s out of a x8 slot or 32GB/s out of a x16 slot.īut RAID cards are generally of the x8 variety, which means to leverage even moderate pools of NVMe flash in a single server, you’re looking at multiple RAID cards. It’s not that the RAID cards themselves don’t work, it’s simply an issue of math. Now that NVMe SSDs are so fast, hardware RAID is a limiting factor. Traditional hardware RAID cards have worked well, up to a point. What’s Wrong with Traditional NVMe RAID Cards? You see, GRAID SupremeRAID doesn’t use a legacy RAID card it uses a GPU to get the job done. GRAID is significantly different, thanks to an entirely novel architecture. GRAID SupremeRAID, so the claim goes, is “the world’s first NVMe RAID card to deliver 100% available SSD performance.” The little bit of marketing aside, GRAID does hit at a very real issue, traditional RAID cards can’t deliver all of the performance modern SSDs have to offer. To combat this, Acronis True Image OEM features AI-enhanced anti-ransomware technology, called Acronis Active Protection, which uses behavioral heuristics to be on the lookout for ransomware and cryptojacking attacks in real-time.GRAID Technology launched its first product over the summer, designed to handle modern throughput challenges that have been introduced by NVMe SSDs.
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You also want to make sure that your backup doesn't fall victim to ransomware and cryptojacking. This partnership will tremendously add to our customers feeling their data is safe and protected for years to come." "Adding Acronis True Image Technology to our OWC storage solutions is truly amazing. "OWC has partnered with Acronis to bring the number one personal backup software to your workflow along with industry-leading antimalware protection," said Larry O'Connor, CEO and Founder of OWC. The addition of Acronis True Image OEM will make sure that when users make a backup of their system onto an OWC external storage system, a reliable copy of data is made ready in case it is needed for a speedy recovery.īut making and maintaining a backup means making sure that malware doesn't make it onto the system.
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