I'm looking at a Dell T360 with two SSDs mirrored on a BOSS card and no other storage. It would run Windows Server directly, with business apps and small SQL databases. About 1 TB of usable space should be enough.
I've mostly seen BOSS used for boot drives. Is it suitable for the whole server, or should the data be on a separate array?
For that bare metal setup, a mirrored BOSS pair can be a reasonable choice for both the OS and application data. There is nothing about the card's usual boot drive role that automatically rules out using the remaining space.
Check the usable mirrored capacity, expected database write load and SSD endurance before ordering. Also make sure the backups cover the applications and databases and that restores are tested. A mirror helps with a drive failure, but it isn't a backup.
Check which BOSS generation is actually in the quote. Older models use SATA M.2 drives, while newer BOSS N-1 models use NVMe. Don't assume every BOSS card has the same drive interface or performance.
For a small database workload, capacity alone doesn't tell you whether the drives are a good fit. Look at their write endurance and the workload's expected write rate as well.
If this were a hypervisor running several VMs, I'd prefer separate storage for the VM workloads and leave BOSS for the host OS. Since this is one Windows installation running directly on the hardware, that separation is less compelling.
Using BOSS now can also leave the server's other drive slots available if the workload grows and needs another array later.
b31+sockettrowel_608:
That future expansion is worth checking against the exact server configuration before relying on it.
A separate OS mirror and data array is still a valid design if you want to keep those storage roles apart. It adds hardware, though, and the small capacity requirement alone doesn't establish that this server needs it.
If you're considering software storage such as ZFS instead, check the controller requirements and whether a suitable JBOD-capable controller is available. That's a different design from relying on the BOSS mirror.
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u.709~bracketstamp:
Good point. I'll check the card and drive specifications rather than assuming they're all the same.