Server 2019 - no more Intel RST - what to use instead?

Soldato
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So my server has been upgraded to 2019, I found that Intel are no longer supporting RST after 2016 so I can't install it, this means that without it I can't change writeback cache and my write speeds are poor.

It seems that the alternative is to use Storage Spaces, but I don't see this option in my control panel, I'm not sure if it's because it's only supported in the Data Centre version or because mines running as a DC.

Are there any alternatives?

I'm running 4 x 8TB drives in RAID 5. I could potentially move the data off temporarily to make changes if it will get my write speeds back.

Currently my read speeds are great, 600MB/s, but write speeds crawl along.

Is there alternative software that will replace RST?

Thanks
 
Soldato
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Ok so I got a little confused about storage spaces, storage spaces direct is only in data centre edition.

In Win 10 storage spaces is found in the control panel, in Server 2019 it's under Server Manager\File and Storage Services\Volumes\Storage Pools

So if there's no RST alternative software then I will have to move all my data off and then setup storage spaces. Otherwise I'm stuck with slow speeds and no way to monitor the array, I could have a drive failure and not know about it.
 
Soldato
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I still didn't find any software to replace RST and also admit that my RAID 5 setup is far from ideal.

So I'm copying all data to other drives, then will tear down the RAID and use Storage Spaces, adding in a 256Gb SSD for cache. I will test the performance and hopefully it's good enough.

If not then I'm going to look at Hardware RAID, possibly HPE P408i-p, then add 2 more 8TB drives and create a RAID 50 array. This is a lot of expense though, so I hope I don't need to do this.
 
Soldato
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Storage Spaces is looking good, using 2 x 250Gb SSDs for cache.

2020-03-05.png
 
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