disk performance

[Marek Podmaka <marki@marki-online.net>]

Hello,

I'm preparing webserver for downloading large files (10-100 MB each).
How can I estimate the disk performance? Is for example 250 sequential
reads combined regarded still as sequential or is disk IOPS more
useful here?

Also I don't know yet how to configure the disks. Data aren't much
important so no disk redundancy is required. I' thinking about these
possibilities (with 2 SATA disks):

1) LVM vg00 with PV md0=swraid1 for system (sda1+sdb1)
   LVM vg01 with PV md1=swraid0 for data (sda2+sdb2)

2) LVM vg00 with PV md0=swraid1 for system (sda1+sdb1)
   LVM vg01 with PVs sda2+sdb2 and create striped LVOL over those

3) LVM vg00 with PVs whole sda+sdb
   for system create LVM-mirrored lvols (how is this with lilo/grub?)
   for data create LVM-stripped lvols

Which solution has better performance? And which is better in case of
disk replacement?

What performance can I expect from this server with 2x 750G SATA2
disks? I expect the limiting factor will be disks. I will have lot of
RAM, but don't know if it will help much. Desired outgoing traffic is
50-200 Mbit/s.
I will do some testing, but don't have the disks yet.
  

-- 
  bYE, Marki