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# 🧠 ggRock Basics: How It Works

This article introduces the core concepts of ggRock, designed to help beginners understand the fundamentals of diskless booting.

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## What is ggRock?

ggRock is a **diskless boot system**. It allows you to run all your client PCs in an ESports center **without hard drives**. Instead, all data is streamed from a central server over your Ethernet network.

🔁 With ggRock, updates are made once on a shared Image, then automatically applied across all machines. This is made possible through a feature called **Writebacks**, which we’ll cover later.

![](https://ggcircuit.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/15861453/Frame%25202525-1.png?version=2&modificationDate=1743798116386&cacheVersion=1&api=v2)

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## 💽 ggRock Array – Why Drives Matter

Since ggRock eliminates local storage on client machines, **all data is stored on the server’s Array**. That makes your server drives critical to performance and reliability.

### Storage Requirements:

* Use only **TLC SSDs** or better.
* ❌ **Do not use HDDs or QLC SSDs** (e.g., Samsung 860 QVO). They are too slow for gaming performance.
* The storage array must be **redundant**. If a drive fails, the center should continue running without downtime.

We recommend **RAID10 (Mirrored Stripe)** for redundancy. This setup allows one or more drives to fail without data loss, but requires doubling your storage capacity.

![](https://ggcircuit.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/15861453/undefined-Jan-17-2023-02-20-36-5919-PM.png?version=2&modificationDate=1743798176418&cacheVersion=1&api=v2)

### Example:

If each machine had a 1TB game SSD before, you’d need:

* **4x 1TB SSDs** in RAID10 = 2TB usable space.

### Sizing Rule of Thumb:

```
60GB + Total Game Size + (Number of Clients × 10GB) + 15% free space
```

💡 For 40 machines and 1TB of games:

```
60 + 1000 + (40 × 10) = 1460GB
1460 + 15% = ~1717GB (~1.8TB needed)
```

🔗 Learn more: ggRock Hardware Specs | Array Types | Array Guide

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## 🧠 RAM Caching – Why RAM is Important

ggRock uses RAM to **cache frequently accessed data**, reducing the load on SSDs and speeding up delivery to client PCs.

Without caching, a single SSD couldn’t handle 40+ PCs requesting files simultaneously. With caching, common data (e.g., Fortnite files) is stored in RAM for fast access.

* RAM works as a **FILO buffer** (First In, Last Out).
* Once data is requested, it’s stored in RAM for future requests (until all available server RAM is used, then the oldest is cycled out).

![](https://ggcircuit.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/15861453/undefined-Jan-17-2023-02-20-36-4383-PM.png?version=2&modificationDate=1743798213433&cacheVersion=1&api=v2)

### Key RAM Guidelines:

* The more machines, the more RAM is needed.
* Prioritize **RAM volume** over speed or latency.

#### Recommended RAM:

* 🖥️ 20 Machines → 32GB
* 🖥️ 40 Machines → 64GB
* 🖥️ 100 Machines → 128GB
* 🖥️ 200 Machines → 256GB
* Add **128GB per 100 machines** beyond that

🔗 More: ggRock Hardware Specs – RAM

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## 🗂️ Writebacks and Snapshots

The initial diagram doesn’t cover how ggRock handles OS and Game Images as mounted virtual drives on each client.

ggRock uses **Writebacks** and **Snapshots** to manage changes safely and efficiently. Writebacks capture temporary changes per client, while Snapshots allow you to roll back or clone system states as needed.

🔗 Learn more here: [**How Writebacks and Snapshots Work**](https://helpdesk.ggcircuit.com/en/article/how-writebacks-and-snapshots-work-in-ggrock-v6on7/)

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### Hold Up!
|| If you're inundated with all this information don't worry, we're here to assist!
|| Reach out to us at sales@ggcircuit.com
|| We'll be more than happy to discuss how we can help ease some of the burden from your shoulders through our server configuration and on-site services.