DISK IO

[stuartpollicott]

No one ever mentions DISK IO requirements, just size.

I have an Alteryx Server and want to add some more storage, can I do this via CIFS, or should it be direct attached or should it even be SSD?

What guidance is there around DISK IO and different workloads?  I can only find the Technical Overview as per;

http://downloads.alteryx.com/Documentation/Alteryx%20Technical%20Overview.pdf

Which in section " Performance and Scaling Considerations " mentions maybe needing SSD for CASS, Calgary, and geocoding functions.

Any help or experiences welcome.

[patrick_mcauliffe]

@stuartpollicott it probably isn't mentioned due to the wide variety of uses, all with varying requirements.

In my experience though, you will want to use SSD.

I'm working on some more recommendations to post at a later time.

[stuartpollicott]

Any further findings would be very useful.  Basically though as my engineering team are trying to see if an Isilon Share will suffice, I should assume NOT and as a minimum go for SAN attached SATA or more ideally use SAN Attached SSD.

[MarqueeCrew · Accepted solution]

Your working disk should be attached SSD.  I've seen issues with network storage with high volume I/O where Alteryx is writing too fast and timeout issues have happened.

[patrick_mcauliffe · Accepted solution]

I have yet to see a *great* server experience on anything other than SSD.  It might be possible, but I doubt it.

I would stay away from an Isilon Share.  SAN attached SATA would provide a moderately "okay" experience.

The Alteryx engine heavily utilizes I/O resources.  The faster hardware it has to work with (reading, writing, transferring data), the better it performs.