Storage servers for scalable data management

Are you looking for the perfect storage solution for your business? Then our storage servers are exactly what you need. We’ve thoroughly tested every component and conducted our own benchmarks so we can offer you the best servers for storage.

What are the requirements for the storage configuration?

The right storage choice depends largely on your budget and existing IT infrastructure. If you already have a SAN (Storage Area Network), this is the best solution in terms of performance and scalability. In this case, other virtualized servers can access and share the entire available storage space.

If this is not an option for cost reasons, we recommend internal hard drives in each individual server or external hard drives connected to the server. This solution is generally referred to as DAS (Directly Attached Storage).

For small to medium-sized businesses, NAS (Network Attached Storage) solutions are also suitable, as they can be easily connected to the existing infrastructure.

Selecting hardware for storage:

Which drives are suitable for the optimal storage server?

SATA hard drives

SATA hard drives remain an industry standard today and are used in many computers and NAS servers. SATA NAS hard drives from well-known manufacturers such as Seagate and Western Digital are particularly well-suited for storage configurations. These are characterized by reliability, stability, and large storage capacity; furthermore, they differ from standard SATA hard drives due to special features such as suitability for 24/7 operation and vibration tolerance. The WD Red and Seagate Ironwolf series are ideal for systems with eight hard drives; the Pro versions of both series are designed for storage arrays of up to 16 hard drives.

SAS Hard Drives

Enterprise SAS hard drives represent the most powerful and reliable variants of traditional mechanical hard drives. While the high rotational speeds of up to 15,000 RPM increase performance compared to conventional SATA hard drives, the storage capacity per drive drops to just a few terabytes.  

SATA and SAS SSDs

Flash storage technology has advanced significantly and is now nearly replacing traditional mechanical drives. A pure flash solution is vibration-resistant and offers predictable reliability as well as far better performance, but the price per gigabyte is also significantly higher. If you decide on a solid-state solution, you should purchase high-quality flash storage that is tailored to your write requirements. Enterprise SSDs from Intel and Samsung, which you can find in our configurator, are suitable for this purpose.

Hybrid Storage and Flash Cache

Another option is to use conventional mechanical hard drives and SSDs in a hybrid server. This provides the benefits of both technologies: The SSDs serve as a fast read and write cache, while the HDDs act as cost-effective mass storage to back up files long-term.

What other components are suitable for a storage server solution?

Processor

Intel Xeon and AMD EPYC processors are particularly well-suited for storage systems, as they support key server features such as ECC RAM and virtualization. When selecting a CPU, you should consider both the clock speed and the number of cores. Especially if you plan to virtualize the server, you’ll need multiple cores.

Memory

The amount of RAM required depends heavily on the intended use. While a small storage system with a 20 TB capacity performs well with just 16 GB of RAM, a virtualized solution with the same capacity may require at least 32 GB or more. After installing the eighth drive, you should plan for at least one additional RAM expansion. All additional planned plugins and services will consume extra RAM capacity.

To ensure system stability, we recommend using only ECC RAM. ECC RAM can detect and immediately correct 1-bit errors, preventing outages, security vulnerabilities, and file corruption.  

Redundancy and Hot-Swap Capabilities

In a storage solution, the ability to quickly replace components via hot-swap is important. This reduces downtime and increases flexibility. Redundancy of the storage controllers is also recommended, as in the event of a failure, the redundant storage controller remains accessible, thereby preventing an outage.