This video explores the Piron 5 Max, an NVMe-enabled case for the Raspberry Pi 5, focusing on its visual appeal, hardware integration, and performance with a RAID 1 setup. The presenter highlights the ability to install two 1TB Samsung Pro 99 NVMe drives, noting the limitation that the Raspberry Pi's bootloader does not support booting directly from a RAID 1 array.
The core of the video demonstrates setting up and testing a RAID 1 configuration, performing Fio benchmarks on individual NVMe drives and the mirrored array. Key findings include impressive write speeds (around 300 MB/s) for a Raspberry Pi and the critical impact of the max_raid_resync_speed kernel parameter on RAID rebuild times, which can be significantly accelerated by adjusting the default value. The system is shown to maintain good performance even when performing I/O operations concurrently with a RAID rebuild, offering enhanced data security and robust performance for various applications.
Summarizing the Piron 5 Max with NVMe RAID 1 for Raspberry Pi 5
0:00 Introduction to Piron 5 Max: The video introduces the Piron 5 Max, an aesthetically pleasing case for the Raspberry Pi 5, designed for NVMe integration.
0:41 Dual NVMe Setup: The Piron 5 Max supports two NVMe drives, demonstrated with two 1TB Samsung Pro 99 drives, enabling a RAID 1 configuration for data redundancy.
1:36 Visuals & Stress Test: The case features LED-lit fans that activate during high CPU load (simulated with a stress test), enhancing the visual appeal and indicating active cooling.
2:58 Bootloader Limitation: A key takeaway is that the Raspberry Pi 5's bootloader cannot directly boot the operating system from an NVMe RAID 1 array.
3:30 Booting Solutions: Workarounds are presented, suggesting booting from an SD card or a single NVMe drive, while keeping the rest of the operating system and user data on the RAID 1 array.
5:03 RAID 1 Creation & Speed: The video demonstrates setting up a RAID 1 array and highlights that the default Linux max_raid_resync_speed parameter often limits rebuild speeds (e.g., to 200 MB/s).
5:48 Optimizing Rebuild Speed: A crucial tip is shared to increase the max_raid_resync_speed (e.g., to 500 MB/s) via a specific kernel path, dramatically reducing RAID rebuild times.
8:35 Single NVMe Performance Test: Fio tests on a single NVMe drive show impressive write speeds of approximately 289-303 MB/s for large blocks and similar performance for smaller 64K IOPS, which is realistic for database applications.
11:27 RAID 1 Rebuild Demonstration: The presenter simulates an NVMe failure, removes it, overwrites it with junk data, and then re-adds it to the array, observing rebuild speeds of around 382 MB/s.
13:11 Concurrent I/O During Rebuild: The system maintains good performance (around 100-140 MB/s for mixed read/write) even while the RAID 1 array is actively rebuilding, demonstrating robustness.
15:40 Impact of Slow max_raid_resync_speed: The video visually confirms that reducing the max_raid_resync_speed to a lower value (e.g., 100 MB/s) drastically slows down the rebuild process, changing a 43-minute estimate to a much longer duration.
17:08 Conclusion & Future Use: The presenter expresses satisfaction with the Piron 5 Max, emphasizing its performance and data security benefits for the Raspberry Pi 5, with plans for future container-based projects.