[Gluster-users] Performance question: Replicated with RAID0, or Distributed with RAID5?

[Ernie Dunbar]

Hi everyone. I have a question about performance, hoping that perhaps 
someone has already tested these scenarios so that I don't have to.

In order to maximize a Gluster array's performance, which is faster: 
Gluster servers with 6 SAS disks each set up in a RAID0 configuration, 
letting Gluster handle the data duplication, or letting the servers 
handle data integrity with some kind of striped RAID configuration, and 
setting Gluster up in a Distributed configuration?

My hypothesis is that the latter is actually faster because data 
integrity is handled in hardware, especially if the load is distributed 
over several Gluster servers. Half of our use involves large VM files, 
and the other half is in e-mail, with lots of random writes to small 
files. So far, we've got 4 servers to dedicate to this task, although 
under the right circumstances, that can be changed.