Configuring the storage for performance
Now we need to evaluate two points: the writing speed and reading speed necessary to maintain the environment with adequate performance.
To understand and get to an estimate of the writing ability, we can use a very simple formula: vps * bytes (new values per second * 50). This is considering only the entry of new values of items at the base, and not other Zabbix functions (trends, events, and so on).
For readability, we need to consider the number of users, screens, maps, quantities of items (the generation of the trends depends on the selections in the history of the tables), and so on.
With estimates of reading and writing skills being necessary for our Zabbix environment, we can choose between existing technologies and models in the market drives. There is a report (2014) that contains a comparison with some disk model brands (SATA, SAS, SSD, and so on):