Hardware sizing rules and requirements
In a DS3 Swarm, each disk is managed by a dedicated Storage Agent. The number of Agents running on a node directly depends on how many disks it exposes for storage. To ensure optimal performance and system stability, the following resource requirements must be met per disk:
Per-Disk Resource Requirements:
- 1 CPU thread
- 1 GB of RAM
These requirements are additive. For example, a machine with 12 storage disks will require at least 12 CPU threads and 12 GB of RAM just to handle storage workloads and OS and system overhead.
General Hardware Guidelines
For predictable performance and manageability, DS3 recommends the following baseline specifications for storage nodes:
| Component | Recommended minimum (12x HDD per enclosure) |
|---|---|
| CPU | 12+ cores (singlethreaded) / 6+ (multithreaded) |
| RAM | 12+ GB |
| Disk Bays | 12+ hot-swap drive slots |
| Network | Dual 10 GbE (bonded/failover) |
| Boot disks | 2x M.2 in RAID1 (OS volume) |
These recommendations ensure adequate headroom for concurrent operations, system maintenance, and future scalability.
Recommended Hardware Profiles
Below are three server configurations well-suited for DS3 Swarm deployments. These systems offer ample compute, memory, and expandability for typical enterprise storage use cases.
1. Supermicro 1014S-ACR12N4H (Balanced Entry-Level Node)
- CPU: AMD EPYC™ 7313P, 16-core @ 3.00GHz
- RAM: 32GB DDR4 (expandable up to 4TB)
- Storage: 12x 3.5" SAS3/SATA3 Hot-Swap Bays
- Boot: 2x M.2 PCIe 4.0 (RAID1 recommended)
- Network: 2x 10GBase-T
- Expansion: 2 PCIe 4.0 x16 FHHL, 1 PCIe 4.0 x16 LP
- Power: 800W Redundant (Platinum Level)
2. Supermicro SSG-521E-E1CR24H (High-Density Intel Platform)
- CPU: 5th/4th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable (up to 300W TDP)
- RAM: 16 DDR5-5600 ECC DIMMs
- Storage: 24x 3.5" SAS3/SATA3 + optional NVMe and rear bays
- Boot: 2x M.2 (NVMe/SATA)
- Network: OCP 3.0 SFF with 10/25/100G options
- Power: 1600W Redundant (Titanium Level)
3. Supermicro SSG-640P-E1CR36H (High-Capacity Dual-Socket Node)
- CPU: Dual 3rd Gen Intel® Xeon® (up to 72 cores per node)
- RAM: 16 DDR4-3200 ECC + 2 Optane™ PMem slots
- Storage: 36x 3.5"/2.5" SAS3/SATA3 (4 Hybrid NVMe)
- Boot: M.2 SATA/NVMe
- Network: 2x 10 GbE
- Power: Redundant PSU
