Category: Data and Information Management

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Data Protection Gumbo = Protect Preserve and Serve Information

Storage I/O trends

Data Protection Gumbo = Protect Preserve and Serve Information

Recently I was invited to be a guest on the podcast Data Protection Gumbo hosted by Demetrius Malbrough (@dmalbrough).

Data Protection Gumbo Podcast Description
Data Protection Gumbo is set up with the aim of expanding the awareness of anyone responsible for protecting mission critical data, by providing them with a mix of the latest news, data protection technologies, and interesting facts on topics in the Data Backup and Recovery industry.

Data Protection Gumbo Also available on

Protect Preserve and Serve Applications, Information and Data

Keep in mind that a fundamental role of Information Technology (IT) is to protect, preserve and serve business or organizations information assets including applications, configuration settings and data for use when or where needed.

Our conversation covers various aspects of data protection which has a focus of protect preserve and serve information, applications and data across different environments and customer segments. While we discuss enterprise and small medium business (SMB) data protection, we also talk about trends from Mobile to the cloud among many others tools, technologies and techniques.

Where to learn more

Learn more about data protection and related trends, tools and technologies via the following links:

Data Protection Gumbo Also available on

What this all means and wrap-up

Data protection is a broad topic that spans from logical and physical security to high availability (HA), disaster recovery (DR), business continuance (BC), business resiliency (BR), archiving (including life beyond compliance) along with various tools, technologies, techniques. Keeping with the theme of protect preserve and serve, data protection to be modernized needs to become and be seen as a business asset or enabler vs. an after thought or cost over-head topic. Also, keep in mind that only you can prevent data loss, are your restores ready for when you need them?

Check out Demetrius Data Protection Gumbo podcast, also check out his Linkedin Backup & Recovery Professionals group. Speaking of data protection, check out the www.storageioblog.com/data-protection-diaries-main/ page for more coverage of backup/restore, HA, BC, DR, archiving and restated themes.

Ok, nuff said, for now..

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

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Cloud Conversations: AWS S3 Cross Region Replication storage enhancements

Storage I/O trends

Cloud Conversations: AWS S3 Cross Region Replication storage enhancements

Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently among other enhancements announced new Simple Storage Service (S3) cross-region replication of objects from a bucket (e.g. container) in one region to a bucket in another region. AWS also recently enhanced Elastic Block Storage (EBS) increasing maximum performance and size of Provisioned IOPS (SSD) and General Purpose (SSD) volumes. EBS enhancements included ability to store up to 16 TBytes of data in a single volume and do 20,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS). Read more about EBS and other recent AWS server, storage I/O and application enhancements here.

Amazon Web Services AWS

The Problem, Issue, Challenge, Opportunity and Need

The challenge is being able to move data (e.g. objects) stored in AWS buckets in one region to another in a safe, secure, timely, automated, cost-effective way.

Even though AWS has a global name-space, buckets and their objects (e.g. files, data, videos, images, bit and byte streams) are stored in a specific region designated by the customer or user (AWS S3, EBS, EC2, Glacier, Regions and Availability Zone primer can be found here).

aws regions architecture

Understanding the challenge and designing a strategy

The following diagram shows the challenge and how to copy or replicate objects in an S3 bucket in one region to a destination bucket in a different region. While objects can be copied or replicated without S3 cross-region replication, that involves essentially reading your objects pulling that data out via the internet and then writing to another place. The catch is that this can add extra costs, take time, consume network bandwidth and need extra tools (Cloudberry, Cyberduck, S3fuse, S3motion, S3browser, S3 tools (not AWS) and a long list of others).
aws cross region replication

What is AWS S3 Cross-region replication

Highlights of AWS S3 Cross-region replication include:

  • AWS S3 Cross region replication is as its name implies, replication of S3 objects from a bucket in one region to a destination bucket in another region.
  • S3 replication of new objects added to an existing or new bucket (note new objects get replicated)
  • Policy based replication tied into S3 versioning and life-cycle rules
  • Quick and easy to set up for use in a matter of minutes via S3 dashboard or other interfaces
  • Keeps region to region data replication and movement within AWS networks (potential cost advantage)

To activate, you simply enable versioning on a bucket, enable cross-region replication, indicate source bucket (or prefix of objects in bucket), specify destination region and target bucket name (or create one), then create or select an IAM (Identify Access Management) role and objects should be replicated.

  • Some AWS S3 cross-region replication things to keep in mind (e.g. considerations):
  • As with other forms of mirroring and replication if you add something on one side it gets replicated to other side
  • As with other forms of mirroring and replication if you deleted something from the other side it can be deleted on both (be careful and do some testing)
  • Keep costs in perspective as you still need to pay for your S3 storage at both locations as well as applicable internal data transfer and GET fees
  • Click here to see current AWS S3 fees for various regions

S3 Cross-region replication and alternative approaches

There are several regions around the world and up until today AWS customers could copy, sync or replicate S3 bucket contents between AWS regions manually (or via automation) using various tools such as Cloudberry, Cyberduck, S3browser and S3motion to name just a few as well as via various gateways and other technologies. Some of those tools and technologies are open-source or free, some are freemium and some are premium for a few that also vary by interface (some with GUI, others with CLI or APIs) including ability to mount an S3 bucket as a local network drive and use tools to sync or copy.

However a catch with the above mentioned tools (among others) and approaches is that to replicate your data (e.g. objects in a bucket) can involve other AWS S3 fees. For example reading data (e.g. a GET which has a fee) from one AWS region and then copying out to the internet has fees. Likewise when copying data into another AWS S3 region (e.g. a PUT which are free) there is also the cost of storage at the destination.

Storage I/O trends

AWS S3 cross-region hands on experience (first look)

For my first hands on (first look) experience with AWS cross-region replication today I enabled a bucket in the US Standard region (e.g. Northern Virginia) and created a new target destination bucket in the EU Ireland. Setup and configuration was very quick, literally just a few minutes with most of the time spent reading the text on the new AWS S3 dashboard properties configuration displays.

I selected an existing test bucket to replicate and noticed that nothing had replicated over to the other bucket until I realized that new objects would be replicated. Once some new objects were added to the source bucket within a matter of moments (e.g. few minutes) they appeared across the pond in my EU Ireland bucket. When I deleted those replicated objects from my EU Ireland bucket and switched back to my view of the source bucket in the US, those new objects were already deleted from the source. Yes, just like regular mirroring or replication, pay attention to how you have things configured (e.g. synchronized vs. contribute vs. echo of changes etc.).

While I was not able to do a solid quantifiable performance test, simply based on some quick copies and my network speed moving via S3 cross-region replication was faster than using something like s3motion with my server in the middle.

It also appears from some initial testing today that a benefit of AWS S3 cross-region replication (besides being bundled and part of AWS) is that some fees to pull data out of AWS and transfer out via the internet can be avoided.

Amazon Web Services AWS

Where to learn more

Here are some links to learn more about AWS S3 and related topics

What this all means and wrap-up

For those who are looking for a way to streamline replicating data (e.g. objects) from an AWS bucket in one region with a bucket in a different region you now have a new option. There are potential cost savings if that is your goal along with performance benefits in addition to using what ever might be working in your environment. Replicating objects provides a way of expanding your business continuance (BC), business resiliency (BR) and disaster recovery (DR) involving S3 across regions as well as a means for content cache or distribution among other possible uses.

Overall, I like this ability for moving S3 objects within AWS, however I will continue to use other tools such as S3motion and s3sfs for moving data in and out of AWS as well as among other public cloud serves and local resources.

Ok, nuff said, for now..

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

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How to test your HDD SSD or all flash array (AFA) storage fundamentals

How to test your HDD SSD AFA Hybrid or cloud storage

server storage data infrastructure i/o hdd ssd all flash array afa fundamentals

Updated 2/14/2018

Over at BizTech Magazine I have a new article 4 Ways to Performance Test Your New HDD or SSD that provides a quick guide to verifying or learning what the speed characteristic of your new storage device are capable of.

An out-take from the article used by BizTech as a "tease" is:

These four steps will help you evaluate new storage drives. And … psst … we included the metrics that matter.

Building off the basics, server storage I/O benchmark fundamentals

The four basic steps in the article are:

  • Plan what and how you are going to test (what’s applicable for you)
  • Decide on a benchmarking tool (learn about various tools here)
  • Test the test (find bugs, errors before a long running test)
  • Focus on metrics that matter (what’s important for your environment)

Server Storage I/O performance

Where To Learn More

View additional NAS, NVMe, SSD, NVM, SCM, Data Infrastructure and HDD related topics via the following links.

Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What This All Means

To some the above (read the full article here) may seem like common sense tips and things everybody should know otoh there are many people who are new to servers storage I/O networking hardware software cloud virtual along with various applications, not to mention different tools.

Thus the above is a refresher for some (e.g. Dejavu) while for others it might be new and revolutionary or simply helpful. Interested in HDD’s, SSD’s as well as other server storage I/O performance along with benchmarking tools, techniques and trends check out the collection of links here (Server and Storage I/O Benchmarking and Performance Resources).

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

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February 2015 Server StorageIO Update Newsletter

Volume 15, Issue II

Hello and welcome to this February 2015 Server and StorageIO update newsletter. The new year is off and running with many events already underway including the recent USENIX FAST conference and others on the docket over the next few months.

Speaking of FAST (File and Storage Technologies) event which I attended last week, here is a link to where you can download the conference proceedings.

In other events, VMware announced version 6 of their vSphere ESXi hypervisor and associated management tools including VSAN, VVOL among other items.

This months newsletter has a focus on server storage I/O performance topics with various articles, tips, commentary and blog posts.

Watch for more news, updates and industry trends perspectives coming soon.

Commentary In The News

StorageIO news

Following are some StorageIO industry trends perspectives comments that have appeared in various print and on-line venues. Over at Processor there are comments on resilient & highly available, underutilized or unused servers, what abandoned data Is costing your company, align application needs with your infrastructure (server, storage, networking) resources.

Also at processor explore flash based (SSD) storage, enterprise backup buying tips, re-evaluate server security, new tech advancements for server upgrades, and understand cost of acquiring storage.

Meanwhile over at CyberTrend there are some perspectives on enterprise backup and better servers mean better business.

View more trends comments here

Tips and Articles

So you have a new storage device or system.

How will you test or find its performance?

Check out this quick-read tip on storage benchmark and testing fundamentals over at BizTech. Also check out these resources and links on server storage I/O performance and benchmarking tools.

View recent as well as past tips and articles here

StorageIOblog posts

Recent StorageIOblog posts include:

View other recent as well as past blog posts here

In This Issue

  • Industry Trends Perspectives
  • Commentary in the news
  • Tips and Articles
  • StorageIOblog posts

    • Events & Activities

    EMCworld – May 4-6 2015

    Interop – April 29 2015

    NAB – April 14-15 2015

    Deltaware Event – March 3 2015

    Feb. 18 – FAST 2015 – Santa Clara CA

    View other recent and upcoming events here

    Webinars

    December 11, 2014 – BrightTalk
    Server & Storage I/O Performance

    December 10, 2014 – BrightTalk
    Server & Storage I/O Decision Making

    December 9, 2014 – BrightTalk
    Virtual Server and Storage Decision Making

    December 3, 2014 – BrightTalk
    Data Protection Modernization

    November 13 9AM PT – BrightTalk
    Software Defined Storage

    Videos and Podcasts

    StorageIO podcasts are also available via and at StorageIO.tv

    From StorageIO Labs

    Research, Reviews and Reports

    StarWind Virtual SAN
    starwind virtual san

    Using less hardware with software defined storage management. This looks at the needs of Microsoft Hyper-V ROBO and SMB environments with software defined storage less hardware. Read more here.

    View other StorageIO lab review reports here.

    Resources and Links

    Check out these useful links and pages:
    storageio.com/links
    objectstoragecenter.com
    storageioblog.com/data-protection-diaries-main/
    storageperformance.us
    thessdplace.com
    storageio.com/raid
    storageio.com/ssd

    Enjoy this edition of the Server and StorageIO update newsletter and watch for new tips, articles, StorageIO lab report reviews, blog posts, videos and podcasts along with in the news commentary appearing soon.

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

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    Server and Storage I/O Benchmarking 101 for Smarties

    Server Storage I/O Benchmarking 101 for Smarties or dummies ;)

    server storage I/O trends

    This is the first of a series of posts and links to resources on server storage I/O performance and benchmarking (view more and follow-up posts here).

    The best I/O is the I/O that you do not have to do, the second best is the one with the least impact as well as low overhead.

    server storage I/O performance

    Drew Robb (@robbdrew) has a Data Storage Benchmarking Guide article over at Enterprise Storage Forum that provides a good framework and summary quick guide to server storage I/O benchmarking.

    Via Drew:

    Data storage benchmarking can be quite esoteric in that vast complexity awaits anyone attempting to get to the heart of a particular benchmark.

    Case in point: The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) has developed the Emerald benchmark to measure power consumption. This invaluable benchmark has a vast amount of supporting literature. That so much could be written about one benchmark test tells you just how technical a subject this is. And in SNIA’s defense, it is creating a Quick Reference Guide for Emerald (coming soon).

    But rather than getting into the nitty-gritty nuances of the tests, the purpose of this article is to provide a high-level overview of a few basic storage benchmarks, what value they might have and where you can find out more. 

    Read more here including some of my comments, tips and recommendations.

    Drew’s provides a good summary and overview in his article which is a great opener for this first post in a series on server storage I/O benchmarking and related resources.

    You can think of this series (along with Drew’s article) as server storage I/O benchmarking fundamentals (e.g. 101) for smarties (e.g. non-dummies ;) ).

    Note that even if you are not a server, storage or I/O expert, you can still be considered a smarty vs. a dummy if you found the need or interest to read as well as learn more about benchmarking, metrics that matter, tools, technology and related topics.

    Server and Storage I/O benchmarking 101

    There are different reasons for benchmarking, such as, you might be asked or want to know how many IOPs per disk, Solid State Device (SSD), device or storage system such as for a 15K RPM (revolutions per minute) 146GB SAS Hard Disk Drive (HDD). Sure you can go to a manufactures website and look at the speeds and feeds (technical performance numbers) however are those metrics applicable to your environments applications or workload?

    You might get higher IOPs with smaller IO size on sequential reads vs. random writes which will also depend on what the HDD is attached to. For example are you going to attach the HDD to a storage system or appliance with RAID and caching? Are you going to attach the HDD to a PCIe RAID card or will it be part of a server or storage system. Or are you simply going to put the HDD into a server or workstation and use as a drive without any RAID or performance acceleration.

    What this all means is understanding what it is that you want to benchmark test to learn what the system, solution, service or specific device can do under different workload conditions.

    Some benchmark and related topics include

    • What are you trying to benchmark
    • Why do you need to benchmark something
    • What are some server storage I/O benchmark tools
    • What is the best benchmark tool
    • What to benchmark, how to use tools
    • What are the metrics that matter
    • What is benchmark context why does it matter
    • What are marketing hero benchmark results
    • What to do with your benchmark results

      • server storage I/O benchmark step test
      Example of a step test results with various workers and workload

    • What do the various metrics mean (can we get a side of context with them metrics?)
    • Why look at server CPU if doing storage and I/O networking tests
    • Where and how to profile your application workloads
    • What about physical vs. virtual vs. cloud and software defined benchmarking
    • How to benchmark block DAS or SAN, file NAS, object, cloud, databases and other things
    • Avoiding common benchmark mistakes
    • Tips, recommendations, things to watch out for
    • What to do next

    server storage I/O trends

    Where to learn more

    The following are related links to read more about server (cloud, virtual and physical) storage I/O benchmarking tools, technologies and techniques.

    Drew Robb’s benchmarking quick reference guide
    Server storage I/O benchmarking tools, technologies and techniques resource page
    Server and Storage I/O Benchmarking 101 for Smarties.
    Microsoft Diskspd download and Microsoft Diskspd overview (via Technet)
    I/O, I/O how well do you know about good or bad server and storage I/Os?
    Server and Storage I/O Benchmark Tools: Microsoft Diskspd (Part I and Part II)

    Wrap up and summary

    We have just scratched the surface when it comes to benchmarking cloud, virtual and physical server storage I/O and networking hardware, software along with associated tools, techniques and technologies. However hopefully this and the links for more reading mentioned above give a basis for connecting the dots of what you already know or enable learning more about workloads, synthetic generation and real-world workloads, benchmarks and associated topics. Needless to say there are many more things that we will cover in future posts (e.g. keep an eye on and bookmark the server storage I/O benchmark tools and resources page here).

    Ok, nuff said, for now…

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    Server Storage I/O Benchmark Tools: Microsoft Diskspd (Part I)

    Server Storage I/O Benchmark Tools: Microsoft Diskspd (Part I)

    server storage I/O trends

    This is part-one of a two-part post pertaining Microsoft Diskspd.that is also part of a broader series focused on server storage I/O benchmarking, performance, capacity planning, tools and related technologies. You can view part-two of this post here, along with companion links here.

    Background

    Many people use Iometer for creating synthetic (artificial) workloads to support benchmarking for testing, validation and other activities. While Iometer with its GUI is relatively easy to use and available across many operating system (OS) environments, the tool also has its limits. One of the bigger limits for Iometer is that it has become dated with little to no new development for a long time, while other tools including some new ones continue to evolve in functionality, along with extensibility. Some of these tools have optional GUI for easy of use or configuration, while others simple have extensive scripting and command parameter capabilities. Many tools are supported across different OS including physical, virtual and cloud, while others such as Microsoft Diskspd are OS specific.

    Instead of focusing on Iometer and other tools as well as benchmarking techniques (we cover those elsewhere), lets focus on Microsoft Diskspd.


    server storage I/O performance

    What is Microsoft Diskspd?

    Microsoft Diskspd is a synthetic workload generation (e.g. benchmark) tool that runs on various Windows systems as an alternative to Iometer, vdbench, iozone, iorate, fio, sqlio among other tools. Diskspd is a command line tool which means it can easily be scripted to do reads and writes of various I/O size including random as well as sequential activity. Server and storage I/O can be buffered file system as well non-buffered across different types of storage and interfaces. Various performance and CPU usage information is provided to gauge the impact on a system when doing a given number of IOP’s, amount of bandwidth along with response time latency.

    What can Diskspd do?

    Microsoft Diskspd creates synthetic benchmark workload activity with ability to define various options to simulate different application characteristics. This includes specifying read and writes, random, sequential, IO size along with number of threads to simulate concurrent activity. Diskspd can be used for testing or validating server and storage I/O systems along with associated software, tools and components. In addition to being able to specify different workloads, Diskspd can also be told which processors to use (e.g. CPU affinity), buffering or non-buffered IO among other things.

    What type of storage does Diskspd work with?

    Physical and virtual storage including hard disk drive (HDD), solid state devices (SSD), solid state hybrid drives (SSHD) in various systems or solutions. Storage can be physical as well as partitions or file systems. As with any workload tool when doing writes, exercise caution to prevent accidental deletion or destruction of your data.


    What information does Diskspd produce?

    Diskspd provides output in text as well as XML formats. See an example of Diskspd output further down in this post.

    Where to get Diskspd?

    You can download your free copy of Diskspd from the Microsoft site here.

    The download and installation are quick and easy, just remember to select the proper version for your Windows system and type of processor.

    Another tip is to remember to set path environment variables point to where you put the Diskspd image.

    Also stating what should be obvious, don’t forget that if you are going to be doing any benchmark or workload generation activity on a system where the potential for a data to be over-written or deleted, make sure you have a good backup and tested restore before you begin, if something goes wrong.


    New to server storage I/O benchmarking or tools?

    If you are not familiar with server storage I/O performance benchmarking or using various workload generation tools (e.g. benchmark tools), Drew Robb (@robbdrew) has a Data Storage Benchmarking Guide article over at Enterprise Storage Forum that provides a good framework and summary quick guide to server storage I/O benchmarking.




    Via Drew:

    Data storage benchmarking can be quite esoteric in that vast complexity awaits anyone attempting to get to the heart of a particular benchmark.

    Case in point: The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) has developed the Emerald benchmark to measure power consumption. This invaluable benchmark has a vast amount of supporting literature. That so much could be written about one benchmark test tells you just how technical a subject this is. And in SNIA’s defense, it is creating a Quick Reference Guide for Emerald (coming soon).


    But rather than getting into the nitty-gritty nuances of the tests, the purpose of this article is to provide a high-level overview of a few basic storage benchmarks, what value they might have and where you can find out more. 

    Read more here including some of my comments, tips and recommendations.


    In addition to Drew’s benchmarking quick reference guide, along with the server storage I/O benchmarking tools, technologies and techniques resource page (Server and Storage I/O Benchmarking 101 for Smarties.

    How do you use Diskspd?


    Tip: When you run Microsoft Diskspd it will create a file or data set on the device or volume being tested that it will do its I/O to, make sure that you have enough disk space for what will be tested (e.g. if you are going to test 1TB you need to have more than 1TB of disk space free for use). Another tip is to speed up the initializing (e.g. when Diskspd creates the file that I/Os will be done to) run as administrator.

    Tip: In case you forgot, a couple of other useful Microsoft tools (besides Perfmon) for working with and displaying server storage I/O devices including disks (HDD and SSDs) are the commands "wmic diskdrive list [brief]" and "diskpart". With diskpart exercise caution as it can get you in trouble just as fast as it can get you out of trouble.

    You can view the Diskspd commands after installing the tool and from a Windows command prompt type:

    C:\Users\Username> Diskspd


    The above command will display Diskspd help and information about the commands as follows.

    Usage: diskspd [options] target1 [ target2 [ target3 …] ]
    
version 2.0.12 (2014/09/17)
    

    Available targets:
    
       file_path
    
       #
       :
    

    Available options:











    -?display usage information
    -a#[,#[…]]advanced CPU affinity – affinitize threads to CPUs provided after -a in a round-robin manner within current KGroup (CPU count starts with 0); the same CPU can be listed more than once and the number of CPUs can be different than the number of files or threads (cannot be used with -n)

    -ag

    		group affinity – affinitize threads in a round-robin manner across KGroups
    -b[K|M|G]block size in bytes/KB/MB/GB [default=64K]

    -B[K|M|G|b]

    		base file offset in bytes/KB/MB/GB/blocks [default=0] (offset from the beginning of the file)
    -c[K|M|G|b]create files of the given size. Size can be stated in bytes/KB/MB/GB/blocks

    -Ccool down time – duration of the test after measurements finished [default=0s].

    -DPrint IOPS standard deviations. The deviations are calculated for samples of duration . is given in milliseconds and the default value is 1000.
    -dduration (in seconds) to run test [default=10s]
    -f[K|M|G|b]

    		file size – this parameter can be used to use only the part of the file/disk/partition for example to test only the first sectors of disk
    -fropen file with the FILE_FLAG_RANDOM_ACCESS hint
    -fsopen file with the FILE_FLAG_SEQUENTIAL_SCAN hint
    -Ftotal number of threads (cannot be used with -t)
    -gthroughput per thread is throttled to given bytes per millisecond note that this can not be specified when using completion routines
    -hdisable both software and hardware caching
    -inumber of IOs (burst size) before thinking. must be specified with -j
    -jtime to think in ms before issuing a burst of IOs (burst size). must be specified with -i
    -ISet IO priority to . Available values are: 1-very low, 2-low, 3-normal (default)
    -lUse large pages for IO buffers

    -Lmeasure latency statistics
    -ndisable affinity (cannot be used with -a)
    -onumber of overlapped I/O requests per file per thread (1=synchronous I/O, unless more than 1 thread is specified with -F) [default=2]
    -pstart async (overlapped) I/O operations with the same offset (makes sense only with -o2 or grater)
    -Penable printing a progress dot after each completed I/O operations (counted separately by each thread) [default count=65536]
    -r[K|M|G|b]random I/O aligned to bytes (doesn’t make sense with -s). can be stated in bytes/KB/MB/GB/blocks [default access=sequential, default alignment=block size]
    -R

    		output format. Default is text.
    -s[K|M|G|b]stride size (offset between starting positions of subsequent I/O operations)
    -Sdisable OS caching
    -tnumber of threads per file (cannot be used with -F)
    -T[K|M|G|b]stride between I/O operations performed on the same file by different threads [default=0] (starting offset = base file offset + (thread number * ) it makes sense only with -t or -F
    -vverbose mode
    -wpercentage of write requests (-w and -w0 are equivalent). absence of this switch indicates 100% reads IMPORTANT: Your data will be destroyed without a warning
    -W

    		warm up time – duration of the test before measurements start [default=5s].
    -xuse completion routines instead of I/O Completion Ports
    -Xuse an XML file for configuring the workload. Cannot be used with other parameters.
    -zset random seed [default=0 if parameter not provided, GetTickCount() if value not provided]




     
    		Write buffers command options. By default, the write buffers are filled with a repeating pattern (0, 1, 2, …, 255, 0, 1, …)
    -Z

    		zero buffers used for write tests
    -Z[K|M|G|b]use a global buffer filled with random data as a source for write operations.
    -Z[K|M|G|b],

    		use a global buffer filled with data from as a source for write operations. If is smaller than , its content will be repeated multiple times in the buffer. By default, the write buffers are filled with a repeating pattern (0, 1, 2, …, 255, 0, 1, …)







     Synchronization command options
    -ys
    		signals event
    before starting the actual run (no warmup) (creates a notification event if does not exist)
    -yfsignals event after the actual run finishes (no cooldown) (creates a notification event if does not exist)
    -yrwaits on event before starting the run (including warmup) (creates a notification event if does not exist)
    -ypallows to stop the run when event is set; it also binds CTRL+C to this event (creates a notification event if does not exist)
    -yesets event and quits









    Event Tracing command options

    -epuse paged memory for NT Kernel Logger (by default it uses non-paged memory)
    -equse perf timer
    -esuse system timer (default)
    -ecuse cycle count
    -ePROCESSprocess start & end
    -eTHREADthread start & end
    -eIMAGE_LOADimage load
    -eDISK_IOphysical disk IO
    -eMEMORY_PAGE_FAULTSall page faults
    -eMEMORY_HARD_FAULTShard faults only
    -eNETWORK

    		TCP/IP, UDP/IP send & receive
    -eREGISTRYregistry calls



    
Examples:
    

    Create 8192KB file and run read test on it for 1 second:
    

      diskspd -c8192K -d1 testfile.dat
    

    Set block size to 4KB, create 2 threads per file, 32 overlapped (outstanding)
    
I/O operations per thread, disable all caching mechanisms and run block-aligned random
    
access read test lasting 10 seconds:
    

      diskspd -b4K -t2 -r -o32 -d10 -h testfile.dat
    

    Create two 1GB files, set block size to 4KB, create 2 threads per file, affinitize threads
    
to CPUs 0 and 1 (each file will have threads affinitized to both CPUs) and run read test
    
lasting 10 seconds:
    

      diskspd -c1G -b4K -t2 -d10 -a0,1 testfile1.dat testfile2.dat

    Where to learn more


    The following are related links to read more about servver (cloud, virtual and physical) storage I/O benchmarking tools, technologies and techniques.
    resource page

    Server and Storage I/O Benchmarking 101 for Smarties.

    Microsoft Diskspd download and Microsoft Diskspd overview (via Technet)

    I/O, I/O how well do you know about good or bad server and storage I/Os?

    Server and Storage I/O Benchmark Tools: Microsoft Diskspd (Part I and Part II)

    Wrap up and summary, for now…


    This wraps up part-one of this two-part post taking a look at Microsoft Diskspd benchmark and workload generation tool. In part-two (here) of this post series we take a closer look including a test drive using Microsoft Diskspd.

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)

    twitter @storageio


    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    Microsoft Diskspd (Part II): Server Storage I/O Benchmark Tools

    Microsoft Diskspd (Part II): Server Storage I/O Benchmark Tools

    server storage I/O trends

    This is part-two of a two-part post pertaining Microsoft Diskspd.that is also part of a broader series focused on server storage I/O benchmarking, performance, capacity planning, tools and related technologies. You can view part-one of this post here, along with companion links here.

    Microsoft Diskspd StorageIO lab test drive

    Server and StorageIO lab

    Talking about tools and technologies is one thing, installing as well as trying them is the next step for gaining experience so how about some quick hands-on time with Microsoft Diskspd (download your copy here).

    The following commands all specify an I/O size of 8Kbytes doing I/O to a 45GByte file called diskspd.dat located on the F: drive. Note that a 45GByte file is on the small size for general performance testing, however it was used for simplicity in this example. Ideally a larger target storage area (file, partition, device) would be used, otoh, if your application uses a small storage device or volume, then tune accordingly.

    In this test, the F: drive is an iSCSI RAID protected volume, however you could use other storage interfaces supported by Windows including other block DAS or SAN (e.g. SATA, SAS, USB, iSCSI, FC, FCoE, etc) as well as NAS. Also common to the following commands is using 16 threads and 32 outstanding I/Os to simulate concurrent activity of many users, or application processing threads.
    server storage I/O performance
    Another common parameter used in the following was -r for random, 7200 seconds (e.g. two hour) test duration time, display latency ( -L ) disable hardware and software cache ( -h), forcing cpu affinity (-a0,1,2,3). Since the test ran on a server with four cores I wanted to see if I could use those for helping to keep the threads and storage busy. What varies in the commands below is the percentage of reads vs. writes, as well as the results output file. Some of the workload below also had the -S option specified to disable OS I/O buffering (to view how buffering helps when enabled or disabled). Depending on the goal, or type of test, validation, or workload being run, I would choose to set some of these parameters differently.

    diskspd -c45g -b8K -t16 -o32 -r -d7200 -h -w0 -L -a0,1,2,3 F:\diskspd.dat >> SIOWS2012R203_Eiscsi_145_noh_write000.txt

    diskspd -c45g -b8K -t16 -o32 -r -d7200 -h -w50 -L -a0,1,2,3 F:\diskspd.dat >> SIOWS2012R203_Eiscsi_145_noh_write050.txt

    diskspd -c45g -b8K -t16 -o32 -r -d7200 -h -w100 -L -a0,1,2,3 F:\diskspd.dat >> SIOWS2012R203_Eiscsi_145_noh_write100.txt

    diskspd -c45g -b8K -t16 -o32 -r -d7200 -h -S -w0 -L -a0,1,2,3 F:\diskspd.dat >> SIOWS2012R203_Eiscsi_145_noSh_test_write000.txt

    diskspd -c45g -b8K -t16 -o32 -r -d7200 -h -S -w50 -L -a0,1,2,3 F:\diskspd.dat >> SIOWS2012R203_Eiscsi_145_noSh_write050.txt

    diskspd -c45g -b8K -t16 -o32 -r -d7200 -h -S -w100 -L -a0,1,2,3 F:\diskspd.dat >> SIOWS2012R203_Eiscsi_145_noSh_write100.txt

    The following is the output from the above workload command.
    Microsoft Diskspd sample output
    Microsoft Diskspd sample output part 2
    Microsoft Diskspd sample output part 3

    Note that as with any benchmark, workload test or simulation your results will vary. In the above the server, storage and I/O system were not tuned as the focus was on working with the tool, determining its capabilities. Thus do not focus on the performance results per say, rather what you can do with Diskspd as a tool to try different things. Btw, fwiw, in the above example in addition to using an iSCSI target, the Windows 2012 R2 server was a guest on a VMware ESXi 5.5 system.

    Where to learn more

    The following are related links to read more about server (cloud, virtual and physical) storage I/O benchmarking tools, technologies and techniques.

    Drew Robb’s benchmarking quick reference guide
    Server storage I/O benchmarking tools, technologies and techniques resource page
    Server and Storage I/O Benchmarking 101 for Smarties.
    Microsoft Diskspd download and Microsoft Diskspd overview (via Technet)
    I/O, I/O how well do you know about good or bad server and storage I/Os?
    Server and Storage I/O Benchmark Tools: Microsoft Diskspd (Part I and Part II)

    Comments and wrap-up

    What I like about Diskspd (Pros)

    Reporting including CPU usage (you can’t do server and storage I/O without CPU) along with IOP’s (activity), bandwidth (throughout or amount of data being moved), per thread and total results along with optional reporting. While a GUI would be nice particular for beginners, I’m used to setting up scripts for different workloads so having an extensive options for setting up different workloads is welcome. Being associated with a specific OS (e.g. Windows) the CPU affinity and buffer management controls will be handy for some projects.

    Diskspd has the flexibility to use different storage interfaces and types of storage including files or partitions should be taken for granted, however with some tools don’t take things for granted. I like the flexibility to easily specify various IO sizes including large 1MByte, 10MByte, 20MByte, 100MByte and 500MByte to simulate application workloads that do large sequential (or random) activity. I tried some IO sizes (e.g. specified by -b parameter larger than 500MB however, I received various errors including "Could not allocate a buffer bytes for target" which means that Diskspd can do IO sizes smaller than that. While not able to do IO sizes larger than 500MB, this is actually impressive. Several other tools I have used or with have IO size limits down around 10MByte which makes it difficult for creating workloads that do large IOP’s (note this is the IOP size, not the number of IOP’s).

    Oh, something else that should be obvious however will state it, Diskspd is free unlike some industry de-facto standard tools or workload generators that need a fee to get and use.

    Where Diskspd could be improved (Cons)

    For some users a GUI or configuration wizard would make the tool easier to get started with, on the other hand (oth), I tend to use the command capabilities of tools. Would also be nice to specify ranges as part of a single command such as stepping through an IO size range (e.g. 4K, 8K, 16K, 1MB, 10MB) as well as read write percentages along with varying random sequential mixes. Granted this can easily be done by having a series of commands, however I have become spoiled by using other tools such as vdbench.

    Summary

    Server and storage I/O performance toolbox

    Overall I like Diskspd and have added it to my Server Storage I/O workload and benchmark tool-box

    Keep in mind that the best benchmark or workload generation technology tool will be your own application(s) configured to run as close as possible to production activity levels.

    However when that is not possible, the an alternative is to use tools that have the flexibility to be configured as close as possible to your application(s) workload characteristics. This means that the focus should not be as much on the tool, as opposed to how flexible is a tool to work for you, granted the tool needs to be robust.

    Having said that, Microsoft Diskspd is a good and extensible tool for benchmarking, simulation, validation and comparisons, however it will only be as good as the parameters and configuration you set it up to use.

    Check out Microsoft Diskspd and add it to your benchmark and server storage I/O tool-box like I have done.

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    Green and Virtual IT Data Center Primer

    Green and Virtual Data Center Primer

    Moving beyond Green Hype and Green washing

    Green IT is about enabling efficient, effective and productive information services delivery. There is a growing green gap between green hype messaging or green washing and IT pain point issues including limits on availability or rising costs of power, cooling, floor-space as well as e-waste and environmental health and safety (PCFE). To close the gap will involve addressing green messaging and rhetoric closer to where IT organizations pain points are and where budget dollars exists that can address PCFE and other green related issues as a by-product. The green gap will also be narrowed as awareness of broader green related topics coincide with IT data center pain points, in other words, alignment of messaging with IT issues that have or will have budget dollars allocated towards them to sustain business and economic growth via IT resource usage efficiency. Read more here.

    There are many aspects to "Green" Information Technology including servers, storage, networks and associated management tools and techniques. The reasons and focus of "Green IT" including "Green Data Storage ", "Green Computing" and related focus areas are varied to discuss diverse needs, issues and requirements including among others:

    • Power, Cooling, Floor-space, Environmental (PCFE) related issues or constraints
    • Reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and other green house gases (GHGs)
    • Business growth and economic sustain in an environmental friendly manner
    • Proper disposal or recycling of environmental harmful retired technology components
    • Reduction or better efficiency of electrical power consumption used for IT equipment
    • Cost avoidance or savings from lower energy fees and cooling costs
    • Support data center and application consolidation to cut cost and management
    • Enable growth and enhancements to application service level objectives
    • Maximize the usage of available power and cooling resources available in your region
    • Compliance with local or federal government mandates and regulations
    • Economic sustain and ability to support business growth and service improvements
    • General environmental awareness and stewardship to save and protect the earth

    While much of the IT industry focuses on CO2 emissions footprints, data management software and electrical power consumption, cooling and ventilation of IT data centers is an area of focus associated with "Green IT" as well as a means to discuss more effective use of electrical energy that can yield rapid results for many environments. Large tier-1 vendors including HP and IBM among others who have an IT and data center wide focus have services designed to do quick assessments as well as detailed analysis and re-organization of IT data center physical facilities to improve air flow and power consumption for more effective cooling of IT technologies including servers, storage, networks and other equipment.

    Similar to your own residence, basic steps to improve your cooling effectiveness can lead to use of less energy to cut your budget impact, or, enable you to do more with what you already have with your cooling capacity to support growth, acquisitions and or consolidation initiatives. Vendors are also looking at means and alternatives for cooling IT equipment ranging from computer assisted computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software analysis of data center cooling and ventilation to refrigerated cooling racks some leveraging water or inert liquid cooling.

    Various metrics exists and others are evolving for measuring, estimating, reporting, analyzing and discussing IT Data Center infrastructure resource topics including servers, storage, networks, facilities and associated software management tools from a power, cooling and green environmental standpoint. The importance of metrics is to focus on the larger impact of a piece of IT equipment that includes its cost and energy consumption that factors in cooling and other hosting or site environmental costs. Naturally energy costs and CO2 (carbon offsets) will vary by geography and region along with type of electrical power being used (Coal, Natural Gas, Nuclear, Wind, Thermo, Solar, etc) and other factors that should be kept in perspective as part of the big picture.

    Consequently your view and needs or interests around "Green" IT may be from an electrical power conservation perspective to maximize your power consumption or to adapt to a given power footprint or ceiling. Your focus around "Green" Data Centers and Green Storage may be from a carbon savings standpoint or proper disposition of old and retired IT equipment or from a data center cooling standpoint. Another area of focus may be that you are looking to cut your data footprint to align with your power, cooling and green footprint while enhancing application and data service delivery to your customers.

    Where to learn more

    The following are useful links to related efficient, effective, productive, flexible, scalable and resilient IT data center along with server storage I/O networking hardware and software that supports cloud and virtual green data centers.

    Various IT industry vendor and service provider links
    Green and Virtual Data Center: Productive Economical Efficient Effective Flexible
    Green and Virtual Data Center links
    Are large storage arrays dead at the hands of SSD?
    Closing the Green Gap
    Energy efficient technology sales depend on the pitch

    What this all means

    The result of a green and virtual data center is that of a flexible, agile, resilient, scalable information factory that is also economical, productive, efficient, productive as well as sustainable.

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    Green and Virtual Data Center: Productive Economical Efficient Effective Flexible

    Green and Virtual Data Center

    A Green and Virtual IT Data Center (e.g. an information factory) means an environment comprising:

    • Habitat for technology or physical infrastructure (e.g. physical data center, yours, co-lo, managed service or cloud)
    • Power, cooling, communication networks, HVAC, smoke and fire suppression, physical security
    • IT data information infrastructure (e.g. hardware, software, valueware, cloud, virtual, physical, servers, storage, network)
    • Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) along with IT Service Management (ITSM) software defined management tools
    • Tools for monitoring, resource tracking and usage, reporting, diagnostics, provisioning and resource orchestration
    • Portals and service catalogs for automated, user initiated and assisted operation or access to IT resources
    • Processes, procedures, best-practices, work-flows and templates (including data protection with HA, BC, BR, DR, backup/restore, logical and physical security)
    • Metrics that matter for management insight and awareness
      People and skill sets among other items

    Green and Virtual Data Center Resources

    Click here to learn about "The Green and Virtual Data Center" book (CRC Press) for enabling efficient, productive IT data centers. This book covers cloud, virtualization, servers, storage, networks, software, facilities and associated management topics, technologies and techniques including metrics that matter. This book by industry veteran IT advisor and author Greg Schulz is the definitive guide for enabling economic efficiency and productive next generation data center strategies.

    Intel recommended reading
    Publisher: CRC Press – Taylor & Francis Group
    By Greg P. Schulz of StorageIO www.storageio.com
     ISBN-10: 1439851739 and ISBN-13: 978-1439851739
     Hardcover * 370 pages * Over 100 illustrations figures and tables

    Read more here and order your copy here. Also check out Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press) a new book by Greg Schulz.

    Productive Efficient Effective Economical Flexible Agile and Sustainable

    Green hype and green washing may be on the endangered species list and going away, however, green IT for servers, storage, networks, facilities as well as related software and management techniques that address energy efficiency including power and cooling along with e-waste, environmental health and safety related issues are topics that wont be going away anytime soon. There is a growing green gap between green hype messaging or green washing and IT pain point issues including limits on availability or rising costs of power, cooling, floor-space as well as e-waste and environmental health and safety (PCFE). To close the gap will involve addressing green messaging and rhetoric closer to where IT organizations pain points are and where budget dollars exists that can address PCFE and other green related issues as a by-product.

    The green gap will also be narrowed as awareness of broader green related topics coincide with IT data center pain points, in other words, alignment of messaging with IT issues that have or will have budget dollars allocated towards them to sustain business and economic growth via IT resource usage efficiency. Read more here.

    Where to learn more

    The following are useful links to related efficient, effective, productive, flexible, scalable and resilient IT data center along with server storage I/O networking hardware and software that supports cloud and virtual green data centers.

    Various IT industry vendor and service provider links
    Green and Virtual Data Center Primer
    Green and Virtual Data Center links
    Are large storage arrays dead at the hands of SSD?
    Closing the Green Gap
    Energy efficient technology sales depend on the pitch
    EPA Energy Star for Data Center Storage Update
    EPA Energy Star for data center storage draft 3 specification
    Green IT Confusion Continues, Opportunities Missed! 
    Green IT deferral blamed on economic recession might be result of green gap
    How much SSD do you need vs. want?
    How to reduce your Data Footprint impact (Podcast) 
    Industry trend: People plus data are aging and living longer
    In the data center or information factory, not everything is the same
    More storage and IO metrics that matter
    Optimizing storage capacity and performance to reduce your data footprint 
    Performance metrics: Evaluating your data storage efficiency
    PUE, Are you Managing Power, Energy or Productivity?
    Saving Money with Green Data Storage Technology
    Saving Money with Green IT: Time To Invest In Information Factories 
    Shifting from energy avoidance to energy efficiency
    SNIA Green Storage Knowledge Center
    Speaking of speeding up business with SSD storage
    SSD and Green IT moving beyond green washing
    Storage Efficiency and Optimization: The Other Green
    Supporting IT growth demand during economic uncertain times
    The Green and Virtual Data Center Book (CRC Press, Intel Recommended Reading)
    The new Green IT: Efficient, Effective, Smart and Productive 
    The other Green Storage: Efficiency and Optimization 
    What is the best kind of IO? The one you do not have to do

    Watch for more links and resources to be added soon.

    What this all means

    The result of a green and virtual data center is that of a flexible, agile, resilient, scalable information factory that is also economical, productive, efficient, productive as well as sustainable.

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    Green and Virtual Data Center Links

    Updated 10/25/2017

    Green and Virtual IT Data Center Links

    Moving beyond Green Hype and Green washing

    Green hype and green washing may be on the endangered species list and going away, however, green IT for servers, storage, networks, facilities as well as related software and management techniques that address energy efficiency including power and cooling along with e-waste, environmental health and safety related issues are topics that wont be going away anytime soon.

    There is a growing green gap between green hype messaging or green washing and IT pain point issues including limits on availability or rising costs of power, cooling, floor-space as well as e-waste and environmental health and safety (PCFE).

    To close the gap will involve addressing green messaging and rhetoric closer to where IT organizations pain points are and where budget dollars exists that can address PCFE and other green related issues as a by-product. The green gap will also be narrowed as awareness of broader green related topics coincide with IT data center pain points, in other words, alignment of messaging with IT issues that have or will have budget dollars allocated towards them to sustain business and economic growth via IT resource usage efficiency. Read more here.

    Enabling Effective Produtive Efficient Economical Flexible Scalable Resilient Information Infrastrctures

    The following are useful links to related efficient, effective, productive, flexible, scalable and resilient IT data center along with server storage I/O networking hardware and software that supports cloud and virtual green data centers.

    Various IT industry vendors and other links

    Via StorageIOblog – Happy Earth Day 2016 Eliminating Digital and Data e-Waste

    Green and Virtual Data Center Primer
    Green and Virtual Data Center: Productive Economical Efficient Effective Flexible
    Are large storage arrays dead at the hands of SSD?
    Closing the Green Gap
    Energy efficient technology sales depend on the pitch
    EPA Energy Star for Data Center Storage Update
    EPA Energy Star for data center storage draft 3 specification
    Green IT Confusion Continues, Opportunities Missed! 
    Green IT deferral blamed on economic recession might be result of green gap
    How much SSD do you need vs. want?
    How to reduce your Data Footprint impact (Podcast) 
    Industry trend: People plus data are aging and living longer
    In the data center or information factory, not everything is the same
    More storage and IO metrics that matter
    Optimizing storage capacity and performance to reduce your data footprint 
    Performance metrics: Evaluating your data storage efficiency
    PUE, Are you Managing Power, Energy or Productivity?
    Saving Money with Green Data Storage Technology
    Saving Money with Green IT: Time To Invest In Information Factories 
    Shifting from energy avoidance to energy efficiency
    SNIA Green Storage Knowledge Center
    Speaking of speeding up business with SSD storage
    SSD and Green IT moving beyond green washing
    Storage Efficiency and Optimization: The Other Green
    Supporting IT growth demand during economic uncertain times
    The Green and Virtual Data Center Book (CRC Press, Intel Recommended Reading)
    The new Green IT: Efficient, Effective, Smart and Productive 
    The other Green Storage: Efficiency and Optimization 
    What is the best kind of IO? The one you do not have to do

    Intel recommended reading
    Click here to learn about "The Green and Virtual Data Center" book (CRC Press) for enabling efficient , productive IT data centers. This book covers cloud, virtualization, servers, storage, networks, software, facilities and associated management topics, technologies and techniques including metrics that matter. This book by industry veteran IT advisor and author Greg Schulz is the definitive guide for enabling economic efficiency and productive next generation data center strategies. Read more here and order your copyhere. Also check out Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press) a new book by Greg Schulz.

    White papers, analyst reports and perspectives

    Business benefits of data footprint reduction (archiving, compression, de-dupe)
    Data center I/O and performance issues – Server I/O and storage capacity gap
    Analysis of EPA Report to Congress (Law 109-431)
    The Many Faces of MAID Storage Technology
    Achieving Energy Efficiency with FLASH based SSD
    MAID 2.0: Energy Savings without Performance Compromises

    Articles, Tips, Blogs, Webcasts and Podcasts

    AP – SNIA Green Emerald Program and measurements
    AP – Southern California heat wave strains electrical system
    Ars Technica – EPA: Power usage in data centers could double by 2011
    Ars Technica – Meet the climate savers: Major tech firms launch war on energy-inefficient PCs – Article
    Askageek.com – Buying an environmental friendly laptop – November 2008
    Baseline – Examining Energy Consumption in the Data Center
    Baseline – Burts Bees: What IT Means When You Go Green
    Bizcovering – Green architecture for the masses
    Broadstuff – Are Green 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 Incompatible?
    Business Week – CEO Guide to Technology
    Business Week – Computers’ elusive eco factor
    Business Week – Clean Energy – Its Getting Affordable
    Byte & Switch – Keeping it Green This Summer – Don’t be "Green washed"
    Byte & Switch – IBM Sees Green in Energy Certificates
    Byte & Switch – Users Search for power solutions
    Byte & Switch – DoE issues Green Storage Warning
    CBR – The Green Light for Green IT
    CBR – Big boxes make greener data centers
    CFO – Power Scourge
    Channel Insider – A 12 Step Program to Dispose of IT Equipment
    China.org.cn – China publishes Energy paper
    CIO – Green Storage Means Money Saved on Power
    CIO – Data center designers share secrets for going green
    CIO – Best Place to Build a Data Center in North America
    CIO Insight – Clever Marketing or the Real Thing?
    Cleantechnica – Cooling Data Centers Could Prevent Massive Electrical Waste – June 2008
    Climatebiz – Carbon Calculators Yield Spectrum of Results: Study
    CNET News – Linux coders tackle power efficiency
    CNET News – Research: Old data centers can be nearly as ‘green’ as new ones
    CNET News – Congress, Greenpeace move on e-wast
    CNN Money – A Green Collar Recession
    CNN Money – IBM creates alliance with industry leaders supporting new data center standards
    Communication News – Utility bills key to greener IT
    Computerweekly – Business case for green storage
    Computerweekly – Optimising data centre operations
    Computerweekly – Green still good for IT, if it saves money
    Computerweekly – Meeting the Demands for storage
    Computerworld – Wells Fargo Free Data Center Cooling System
    Computerworld – Seven ways to get green and save money
    Computerworld – Build your data center here: The most energy-efficient locations
    Computerworld – EPA: U.S. needs more power plants to support data centers
    Computerworld – GreenIT: A marketing ploy or new technology?
    Computerworld – Gartner Criticizes Green Grid
    Computerworld – IT Skills no longer sufficient for data center execs.
    Computerworld – Meet MAID 2.0 and Intelligent Power Management
    Computerworld – Feds to offer energy ratings on servers and storage
    Computerworld – Greenpeace still hunting for truly green electronics
    Computerworld – How to benchmark data center energy costs
    ComputerworldUK – Datacenters at risk from poor governance
    ComputerworldUK – Top IT Leaders Back Green Survey
    ComputerworldMH – Lean and Green
    CTR – Strategies for enhancing energy efficiency
    CTR – Economies of Scale – Green Data Warehouse Appliances
    Datacenterknowledge – Microsoft to build Illinois datacenter
    Data Center Strategies – Storage The Next Hot Topic
    Earthtimes – Fujitsu installs hydrogen fuel cell power
    eChannelline – IBM Goes Green(er)
    Ecoearth.info – California Moves To Speed Solar, Wind Power Grid Connections
    Ecogeek – Solar power company figures they can power 90% of America
    Economist – Cool IT
    Electronic Design – How many watts in that Gigabyte
    eMazzanti – Desktop virtualization movement creeping into customer sites
    ens-Newswire – Western Governors Ask Obama for National Green Energy Plan
    Environmental Leader – Best Place to Build an Energy Efficient Data Center
    Environmental Leader – New Guide Helps Advertisers Avoid Greenwash Complaints
    Enterprise Storage Forum – Power Struggles Take Center Stage at SNW
    Enterprise Storage Forum – Pace Yourself for Storage Power & Cooling Needs
    Enterprise Storage Forum – Storage Power and Cooling Issues Heat Up – StorageIO Article
    Enterprise Storage Forum – Score Savings With A Storage Power Play
    Enterprise Storage Forum – I/O, I/O, Its off to Virtual Work I Go
    Enterprise Storage Forum – Not Just a Flash in the Pan – Various SSD options
    Enterprise Storage Forum – Closing the Green Gap – Article August 2008
    EPA Report to Congress and Public Law 109-431 – Reports & links
    eWeek – Saving Green by being Green
    eWeek – ‘No Cooling Necessary’ Data Centers Coming?
    eWeek – How the ‘Down’ Macroeconomy Will Impact the Data Storage Sector
    ExpressComputer – In defense of Green IT
    ExpressComputer – What data center crisis
    Forbes – How to Build a Quick Charging Battery
    GCN – Sun launches eco data center
    GreenerComputing – New Code of Conduct to Establish Best Practices in Green Data Centers
    GreenerComputing – Silicon valley’s green detente
    GreenerComputing – Majority of companies plan to green their data centers
    GreenerComputing – Citigroup to spend $232M on Green Data Center
    GreenerComputing – Chicago and Quincy, WA Top Green Data Center Locations
    GreenerComputing – Using airside economizers to chill data center cooling bills
    GreenerComputing – Making the most of asset disposal
    GreenerComputing – Greenpeace vendor rankings
    GreenerComputing – Four Steps to Improving Data Center Efficiency without Capital Expenditures
    GreenerComputing – Enabling a Green and Virtual Data Center
    Green-PC – Strategic Steps Down the Green Path
    Greeniewatch – BBC news chiefs attack plans for climate change campaign
    Greeniewatch – Warmest year predictions and data that has not yet been measured
    GoverenmentExecutive – Public Private Sectors Differ on "Green" Efforts
    HPC Wire – How hot is your code
    Industry Standard – Why green data centers mean partner opportunities
    InformationWeek – It could be 15 years before we know what is really green
    InformationWeek – Beyond Server Consolidaiton
    InformationWeek – Green IT Beyond Virtualization: The Case For Consolidation
    InfoWorld – Sun celebrates green datacenter innovations
    InfoWorld – Tech’s own datacenters are their green showrooms
    InfoWorld – 2007: The Year in Green
    InfoWorld – Green Grid Announces Tech Forum in Feb 2008
    InfoWorld – SPEC seeds future green-server benchmarks
    InfoWorld – Climate Savers green catalog proves un-ripe
    InfoWorld – Forester: Eco-minded activity up among IT pros
    InfoWorld – Green ventures in Silicon Valley, Mass reaped most VC cash in ’07
    InfoWorld – Congress misses chance to see green-energy growth
    InfoWorld – Unisys pushes green envelope with datacenter expansion
    InfoWorld – No easy green strategy for storage
    Internet News – Storage Technologies for a Slowing Economy
    Internet News – Economy will Force IT to Transform
    ITManagement – Green Computing, Green Revenue
    itnews – Data centre chiefs dismiss green hype
    itnews – Australian Green IT regulations could arrive this year
    IT Pro – SNIA Green storage metrics released
    ITtoolbox – MAID discussion
    Linux Power – Saving power with Linux on Intel platforms
    MSNBC – Microsoft to build data center in Ireland
    National Post – Green technology at the L.A. Auto Show
    Network World – Turning the datacenter green
    Network World – Color Interop Green
    Network World – Green not helpful word for setting environmental policies
    NewScientistEnvironment – Computer servers as bad for climate as SUVs
    Newser – Texas commission approves nation’s largest wind power project
    New Yorker – Big Foot: In measuring carbon emissions, it’s easy to confuse morality and science
    NY Times – What the Green Bubble Will Leave Behind
    PRNewswire – Al Gore and Cisco CEO John Chambers to debate climate change
    Processor – More than just monitoring
    Processor – The new data center: What’s hot in Data Center physical infrastructure:
    Processor – Liquid Cooling in the Data Center
    Processor – Curbing IT Power Usage
    Processor – Services To The Rescue – Services Available For Today’s Data Centers
    Processor – Green Initiatives: Hire A Consultant?
    Processor – Energy-Saving Initiatives
    Processor – The EPA’s Low Carbon Campaig
    Processor – Data Center Power Planning
    SAN Jose Mercury – Making Data Centers Green
    SDA-Asia – Green IT still a priority despite Credit Crunch
    SearchCIO – EPA report gives data centers little guidance
    SearchCIO – Green IT Strategies Could Lead to hefty ROIs
    SearchCIO – Green IT In the Data Center: Plenty of Talk, not much Walk
    SearchCIO – Green IT Overpitched by Vendors, CIOs beware
    SearchDataCenter – Study ranks cheapest places to build a data center
    SearchDataCenter – Green technology still ranks low for data center planners
    SearchDataCenter – Green Data Center: Energy Effiecnty Computing in the 21st Century
    SearchDataCenter – Green Data Center Advice: Is LEED Feasible
    SearchDataCenter – Green Data Centers Tackle LEED Certification
    SearchDataCenter – PG&E invests in data center effieicny
    SearchDataCenter – A solar powered datacenter
    SearchSMBStorage – Improve your storage energy efficiency
    SearchSMBStorage – SMB capacity planning: Focusing on energy conservation
    SearchSMBStorage – Data footprint reduction for SMBs
    SearchSMBStorage – MAID & other energy-saving storage technologies for SMBs
    SearchStorage – How to increase your storage energy efficiency
    SearchStorage – Is storage now top energy hog in the data center
    SearchStorage – Storage eZine: Turning Storage Green
    SearchStorage – The Green Storage Gap
    SearchStorageChannel – Green Data Storage Projects
    Silicon.com – The greening of IT: Cooling costs
    SNIA – SNIA Green Storage Overview
    SNIA – Green Storage
    SNW – Beyond Green-wash
    SNW Spring 2008 Beyond Green-wash
    State.org – Why Texas Has Its Own Power Grid
    StorageDecisions – Different Shades of Green
    Storage Magazine – Storage still lacks energy metrics
    StorageIOblog – Posts pertaining to Green, power, cooling, floor-space, EHS (PCFE)
    Storage Search – Various postings, news and topics pertaining to Green IT
    Technology Times – Revealed: the environmental impact of Google searches
    TechTarget – Data center power efficiency
    TechTarget – Tip for determining power consumption
    Techworld – Inside a green data center
    Techworld – Box reduction – Low hanging green datacenter fruit
    Techworld – Datacentere used to heat swimming pool
    Theinquirer – Spansion and Virident flash server farms
    Theinquirer – Storage firms worry about energy efficiency How green is the valley
    TheRegister – Data Centre Efficiency, the good, the bad and the way to hot
    TheRegister – Server makers snub whalesong for serious windmill abuse
    TheRegister – Green data center threat level: Not Green
    The Standard – Growing cynicism around going Green
    ThoughtPut – Energy Central
    Thoughtput – Power, Cooling, Green Storage and related industry trends
    Wallstreet Journal – Utilities Amp Up Push To Slash Energy Use
    Wallstreet Journal – The IT in Green Investing
    Wallstreet Journal – Tech’s Energy Consumption on the Rise
    Washingtonpost – Texas approves major new wind power project
    WhatPC – Green IT: It doesnt have to cost the earth
    WHIRnews – SingTel building green data center
    Wind-watch.org – Loss of wind causes Texas power grid emergency
    WyomingNews – Overcoming Greens Stereotype
    Yahoo – Washington Senate Unviel Green Job Plan
    ZDnet – Will supercomputer speeds hit a plateau?
    Are data centers causing climate change

    News and Press Releases

    Business Wire – The Green and Virtual Data Center
    Enterprise Storage Forum – Intel and HGST (Hitachi) partner on FLASH SSD
    PCworld – Intel and HP describe Green Strategy
    DoE – To Invest Approximately $1.3 Billion to Commercialize CCS Technology
    Yahoo – Shell Opens Los Angeles’ First Combined Hydrogen and Gasoline Station
    DuPont – DuPont Projects Save Enough Energy to Power 25,000 Homes
    Gartner – Users Are Becoming Increasingly Confused About the Issues and Solutions Surrounding Green IT

    Websites and Tools

    Various power, cooling, emmisions and device configuration tools and calculators
    Solar Action Alliance web site
    SNIA Emerald program
    Carbon Disclosure Project
    The Chicago Climate Exchange
    Climate Savers
    Data Center Decisions
    Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA)
    EMC – Digital Life Calculator
    Energy Star
    Energy Star Data Center Initiatives
    Greenpeace – Technology ranking website also here
    GlobalActionPlan
    KyotoPlanet
    LBNL High Tech Data centers
    Millicomputing
    RoHS & WEE News
    Storage Performance Council (SPC)
    SNIA Green Technical Working Group
    SPEC
    Transaction Processing Council (TPC)
    The Green Grid
    The Raised Floor
    Terra Pass Carbon Offset Credits – Website with CO2 calculators
    Energy Information Administration – EIA (US and International Electrical Information)
    U.S. Department of Energy and related information
    U.S. DOE Energy Efficient Industrial Programs
    U.S. EPA server and storage energy topics
    Zerofootprint – Various "Green" and environmental related links and calculators

    Vendor Centric and Marketing Website Links and tools

    Vendors and organizations have different types of calculators some with focus on power, cooling, floor space, carbon offsets or emissions,

    ROI, TCO and other IT data center infrastructure resource management. Following is an evolving list and by no means definitive even for a particular vendors as

    different manufactures may have multiple different calculators for different product lines or areas of focus.

    Brocade – Green website
    Cisco – Green and Environmental websites here, here and here
    Dell – Green website
    EMC – EMC Energy, Power and Cooling Related Website
    HDS – How to be green – HDS Positioning White Paper
    HP – HP Green Website
    IBM – Green Data Center – IBM Positioning White Paper
    IBM – Green Data Center for Education – IBM Positioning White Paper
    Intel – What is an Efficient Data Center and how do I measure it?
    LSI – Green site and white paper
    NetApp – Press Release and related information
    Sun – Various articles and links
    Symantec – Global 2000 Struggle to Adopt "Green" Data Centers – Announcement of Survey results
    ACTON
    Adinfa
    APC
    Australian Conservation Foundation
    Avocent
    BBC
    Brocade
    Carbon Credit Calculator UK
    Carbon Footprint Site
    Carbon Planet
    Carbonify
    CarbonZero
    Cassatt
    CO2 Stats Site
    Copan
    Dell
    DirectGov UK Acton
    Diesel Service & Supply Power Calculator & Converter
    Eaton Powerware
    Ecobusinesslinks
    Ecoscale
    EMC Power Calculator
    EMC Web Power Calculator
    EMC Digital Life Calculator
    EPA Power Profiler
    EPA Related Tools
    EPEAT
    Google UK Green Footprint
    Green Grid Calculator
    HP and more here
    HVAC Calculator
    IBM
    Logicalis
    Kohler Power (Business and Residential)
    Micron
    MSN Carbon Footprint Calculator
    National Wildlife Foundation
    NEF UK
    NetApp
    Rackwise
    Platespin
    Safecom
    Sterling Planet
    Sun and more here and here and here
    Tandberg
    TechRepublic
    TerraPass Carbon Offset Credits
    Thomas Kreen AG
    Toronto Hydro Calculator
    80 Plus Calculator
    VMware
    42u Green Grid PUE DCiE calculator
    42u energy calculator

    Green and Virtual Tools

    What’s your power, cooling, floor space, energy, environmental or green story?

    What’s your power, cooling, floor space, energy, environmental or green story? Do you have questions or want to learn more about

    energy issues pertaining to IT data center and data infrastructure topics? Do you have a solution or technology or a success story that you would like to share

    with us pertaining to data storage and server I/O energy optimization strategies?  Do you need assistance in developing, validating or reviewing your strategy

    or story? Contact us at: info@storageio.com or 651-275-1563 to learn more about green data storage and server I/O or to

    schedule a briefing to tell us about your energy efficiency and effectiveness story pertaining to IT data centers and data infrastructures.

    Disclaimer and note:  URL’s submitted for inclusion on this site will be reviewed for consideration and to be

    in generally accepted good taste in regards to the theme of this site.  Best effort has been made to validate and verify the URLs that appear on this page and

    website however they are subject to change. The author and/or maintainer’s) of this page and web site make no endorsement to and assume no responsibility for the

    URLs and their content that are listed on this page.

    Green and Virtual Metrics

    Chapter 5 "Measurement, Metrics, and Management of IT Resources" in the book "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC Press) takes a look at the importance of being able to measure and monitor to enable effective management and utilization of IT resources across servers, storage, I/O networks, software, hardware and facilities.

    There are many different points of interest for collecting metrics in an IT data center for servers, storage, networking and facilities along with various points of interest or perspectives. Data center personal have varied interest from a facilities to a resource (server, storage, networking) usage and effectiveness perspective for normal use as well as planning purposes or comparison when evaluating new technology. Vendors have different uses for metrics during R&D, Q/A testing and marketing or sales campaigns as well as on-going service and support. Industry trade groups including 80 Plus, SNIA and the green grid along with government groups including the EPA Energy Star are working to define and establish applicable metrics pertinent for Green and Virtual data centers.

    Acronym

    Description

    Comment

    DCiE

    Data center Efficiency = (IT equipment / Total facility power) * 100

    Shows a ratio of how well a data center is consuming power

    DCPE

    Data center Performance Efficiency = Effective IT workload / total facility power

    Shows how effective data center is consuming power to produce a given level of service or work such as energy per transaction or energy per business function performed

    PUE

    Power usage effectiveness = Total facility power / IT equipment power

    Inverse of DCE

    Kilowatts (kw)

    Watts / 1,000

    One thousand watts

    Annual kWh

    kWh x 24 x 365

    kWh used in on year

    Megawatts (mw)

    kW / 1,000

    One thousand kW

    BTU/hour

    watts x 3.413

    Heat generated in an hour from using energy in British Thermal Units. 12,000 BTU/hour can equate to 1 Ton of cooling.

    kWh

    1,000 watt hours

    The number of watts used in one hour

    Watts

    Amps x Volts (e.g. 12 amps * 12 volts = 144 watts)

    Unit of electrical energy power

    Watts

    BTU/hour x 0.293

    Convert BTU/hr to watts

    Volts

    Watts / Amps (e.g. 144 watts / 12 amps = 12 volts)

    The amount of force on electrons

    Amps

    Watts / Volts (e.g. 144 watts / 12 volts = 12 amps)

    The flow rate of electricity

    Volt-Amperes (VA)

    Volts x Amps

    Sometimes power expressed in Volt-Ampres

    kVA

    Volts x Amp / 1000

    Number of kilovolt-ampres

    kW

    kVA x power-factor

    Power factor is the efficiency of a piece of equipments use of power

    kVA

    kW / power-factor

    Killovolt-Ampres

    U

    1U = 1.75”

    EIA metric describing height of equipment in racks.

     

    Activity / Watt Amount of work accomplished per unit of energy consumed. This could be IOPS, Transactions or Bandwidth per watt. Indicator how much work and how efficient energy is being used to accomplish useful work. This metric applies to active workloads or actively used and frequently accessed storage and data. Examples would be IOPS per watt, Bandwidth per watt, Transactions per watt, Users or streams per watt. Activity per watt should also be used in conjunction with another metric such as how much capacity is supported per watt and total watts consumed for a representative picture.

    IOPS / Watt

    Number of I/O operations (or transactions) / energy (watts)

    Indicator of how effectively energy is being used to perform a given amount of work. The work could be I/Os, transactions, throughput or other indicator of application activity. For example SPC-1 / Watt, SPEC / Watt, TPC / Watt, transaction / watt,  IOP / Watt.

    Bandwidth / Watt GBPS or TBPS or PBPS / Watt Amount of data transferred or moved per second and energy used. Often confused with Capacity per watt This indicates how much data is moved or accessed per second or time interval per unit of energy consumed. This is often confused with capacity per watt given that both bandwidth and capacity reference GByte, TByte, PByte.

    Capacity / Watt

    GB or TB or PB (storage capacity space / watt

    Indicator of how much capacity (space) or bandwidth supported in a given configuration or footprint per watt of energy. For inactive data or off-line and archive data, capacity per watt can be an effective measurement gauge however for active workloads and applications activity per watt also needs to be looked at to get a representative indicator of how energy is being used

    Mhz / Watt

    Processor performance / energy (watts)

    Indicator of how effectively energy is being used by a CPU or processor.

    Carbon Credit

    Carbon offset credit

    Offset credits that can be bought and sold to offset your CO2 emissions

    CO2 Emission

    Average 1.341 lbs per kWh of electricity generated

    The amount of average carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from generating an average kWh of electricity

    Various power, cooling, floor space and green storage or IT  related metrics

    Metrics include Data center Efficiency (DCiE) via the greengrid which is the indicator ratio of a IT data center energy efficiency defined as IT equipment (servers, disk and tape storage, networking switches, routers, printers, etc) / Total facility power x 100 (for percentage). For example, if the sum of all IT equipment energy usage resulted in 1,500 kilowatt hours (kWh) per month yet the total facility power including UPS, energy switching, power conversation and filtering, cooling and associated infrastructure costs as well as IT equipment resulting in 3,500 kWh, the DCiE would be (1,500 / 3,500) x 100 = 43%. DCiE can be used as a ratio for example to show in the above scenario that IT equipment accounts for about 43% of energy consumed by the data center with in this scenario 57% of electrical energy being consumed by cooling, conversion and conditioning or lighting.

    Power usage effectiveness (PUE) is the indicator ratio of total energy being consumed by the data center to energy being used to operate IT equipment. PUE is defined as total facility power / IT equipment energy consumption. Using the above scenario PUE = 2.333 (3,500 / 1,500) which means that a server requiring 100 watts of power would actually require (2.333 * 100) 233.3 watts of energy that includes both direct power and cooling costs. Similarly a storage system that required 1,500 kWh of energy to power would require (1,500*2.333) 3,499.5 kWh of electrical power including cooling.

    Another metric that has the potential to have meaning is Data center Performance Efficiency (DCPE) that takes into consideration how much useful and effective work is performed by the IT equipment and data center per energy consumed. DCPE is defined as useful work / total facility power with an example being some number of transactions processed using servers, networks and storage divided by energy for the data center to power and cool the equipment. An relatively easy and straightforward implementation of DCPE is an IOPs per watt measurement that looks at how many IOPs can be performed (regardless of size or type such as reads or writes) per unit of energy in this case watts.

    DCPE = Useful work / Total facility power, for example IOPS per watt of energy used

    DCiE = IT equipment energy / Total facility power = 1 / PUE

    PUE = Total facility energy / IT equipment energy

    IOPS per Watt = Number of IOPs (or bandwidth) / energy used by the storage system

    The importance of these numbers and metrics is to focus on the larger impact of a piece of IT equipment that includes its cost and energy consumption that factors in cooling and other hosting or site environmental costs. Naturally energy costs and CO2 (carbon offsets) will vary by geography and region along with type of electrical power being used (Coal, Natural Gas, Nuclear, Wind, Thermo, Solar, etc) and other factors that should be kept in perspective as part of the big picture. Learn more in Chapter 5 "Measurement, Metrics, and Management of IT Resources" in the book "The Green and Virtual Data Center" (CRC) and in the book Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC).

    Disclaimer and notes

    Disclaimer and note:  URL’s submitted for inclusion on this site will be reviewed for consideration and to be in generally accepted good taste in regards to the theme of this site.  Best effort has been made to validate and verify the URLs that appear on this page and web site however they are subject to change. The author and/or maintainer’s) of this page and web site make no endorsement to and assume no responsibility for the URLs and their content that are listed on this page.

    What this all means

    The result of a green and virtual data center is that of a flexible, agile, resilient, scalable information factory that is also economical, productive, efficient, productive as well as sustainable.

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    December 2014 Server StorageIO Newsletter

    December 2014

    Hello and welcome to this December Server and StorageIO update newsletter.

    Seasons Greetings

    Seasons greetings

    Commentary In The News

    StorageIO news

    Following are some StorageIO industry trends perspectives comments that have appeared in various venues. Cloud conversations continue to be popular including concerns about privacy, security and availability. Over at BizTech Magazine there are some comments about cloud and ROI. Some comments on AWS and Google SSD services can be viewed at SearchAWS. View other trends comments here

    Tips and Articles

    View recent as well as past tips and articles here

    StorageIOblog posts

    Recent StorageIOblog posts include:

    View other recent as well as past blog posts here

    In This Issue

  • Industry Trends Perspectives
  • Commentary in the news
  • Tips and Articles
  • StorageIOblog posts

    • Events & Activities

    View other recent and upcoming events here

    Webinars

    December 11, 2014 – BrightTalk
    Server & Storage I/O Performance

    December 10, 2014 – BrightTalk
    Server & Storage I/O Decision Making

    December 9, 2014 – BrightTalk
    Virtual Server and Storage Decision Making

    December 3, 2014 – BrightTalk
    Data Protection Modernization

    Videos and Podcasts

    StorageIO podcasts are also available via and at StorageIO.tv

    From StorageIO Labs

    Research, Reviews and Reports

    StarWind Virtual SAN for Microsoft SOFS

    May require registration
    This looks at the shared storage needs of SMB’s and ROBO’s leveraging Microsoft Scale-Out File Server (SOFS). Focus is on Microsoft Windows Server 2012, Server Message Block version (SMB) 3.0, SOFS and StarWind Virtual SAN management software

    View additional reports and lab reviews here.

    Resources and Links

    Check out these useful links and pages:
    storageio.com/links
    objectstoragecenter.com
    storageioblog.com/data-protection-diaries-main/
    storageio.com/ssd
    storageio.com/ssd

    Enjoy this edition of the Server and StorageIO update newsletter and watch for new tips, articles, StorageIO lab report reviews, blog posts, videos and podcasts along with in the news commentary appearing soon.

    Seasons greetings 2014

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    September October 2014 Server and StorageIO Update Newsletter

    September and October 2014

    Hello and welcome to this joint September and October Server and StorageIO update newsletter. Since the August newsletter, things have been busy with a mix of behind the scenes projects, as well as other activities including several webinars, on-line along with in-person events in the US as well as Europe.

    Enjoy this edition of the Server and StorageIO update newsletter and watch for new tips, articles, StorageIO lab report reviews, blog posts, videos and podcasts along with in the news commentary appearing soon.

    Cheers gs

    Industry Trends and Perspectives

    Storage trends

    In September I was invited to do a key-note opening presentation at the MSP area CMG event. Theme for the September CMG event was "Flash – A Real Life Experience" with a focus of what people are doing, how testing and evaluating including use of hybrid solutions as opposed to vendor marketing sessions. My session was titled "Flash back to reality – Myths and Realities, Flash and SSD Industry trends perspectives plus benchmarking tips and can be found here. Thanks to Tom Becchetti an the MSP CMG (@mspcmg) folks for a great event.

    There are many facets to hybrid storage including different types of media (SSD and HDD’s) along with unified or multi-protocol access. Then there are hybrid storage that spans local and public clouds. Here is a link to an on-line Internet Radio show via Information Week along with on-line chat about Hybrid Storage for Government.

    Some things I’m working with or keeping an eye on include Cloud, Converged solutions, Data Protection, Business Resiliency, DCIM, Docker, InfiniBand, Microsoft (Hyper-V, SOFS, SMB 3.0), Object Storage, SSD, SDS, VMware and VVOL among others items.

    Commentary In The News

    StorageIO news

    A lot has been going on in the IT industry since the last StorageIO Update newsletter. The following are some StorageIO industry trends perspectives comments that have appeared in various venues. Cloud conversations continue to be popular including concerns about privacy, security and availability. Here are some comments at SearchCloudComputing: about moving on from cloud deployment heartbreak.

    Nand flash Solid State Devices (SSD) continue to increase in customer deployments, over at Processor, here are some here are some comments on Incorporating SSD’s Into Your Storage Plan. Also on SSD, here are some perspectives making the Argument For Flash-Based Storage. Some other comments over at Processer.com include looking At Disaster Recovery As A Service, tips to Avoid In Data Center Planning, making the most of Enterprise Virtualization, as well as New Tech, Advancements To Justify Servers. Part of controlling and managing storage costs is having timely insight, metrics that matter, here are some more perspectives and also here.

    Over at SearchVirtualStorage I have some comments on how to configure and manage storage for a virtual desktop environment (VDI) while over at TechPageOne there are perspectives on top reasons to switch to Windows 8. 

    Some other comments and perspectives are over at EnterpriseStorageForum including Top 10 Ways to Improve Data Center Energy Efficiency. At InfoStor there are comments and tips about Object Storage, while at SearchDataBackup I have some perspectives about Symantec being broken up.

    View other industry trends comments at the here

    Tips and Articles

    Recent Server and StorageIO tips and articles appearing in various venues include over at SearchCloudStorage a series of discussion often asked question pieces:

    Are you concerned with the security of the cloud?
    Is the cost of cloud storage really cheaper?
    What’s important to know about cloud privacy policy?
    Are more than five nines of availability really possible?
    What to look for enterprise file sync-and-share app?
    How primary storage clouds and cloud backup differ?
    What should I consider when using SSD cloud?
    What is difference between a snapshot and a clone?

    View other recent as well as past tips and articles here

    StorageIOblog posts

    Recent StorageIOblog posts include:

    View other recent as well as past blog posts here

    In This Issue

  • Industry Trends Perspectives
  • Commentary in the news
  • Tips and Articles
  • StorageIOblog posts

    • Events & Activities

    September 25, 2014
    MSP CMG – Flash and SSD performance

    October 8-10, 2014
    Nijkerk Netherlands Brouwer Seminar Series

    November 11-13, 2014
    AWS re:Invent Las Vegas

    View other recent and upcoming events here

    Webinars

    November 13 9AM PT
    BrightTalk – Software Defined Storage

    November 11 10AM PT
    Google+ Hangout Dell BackupU

    November 11 9AM PT
    BrightTak – Software Defined Data Centers

    October 16 9AM PT
    BrightTalk – Cloud Storage Decision Making

    October 15 1PM PT
    BrightTalk – Hybrid Cloud Trends

    October 7 11AM PT
    BackupU – Data Protection Management

    September 18 8AM CT
    Nexsan – Hybrid Storage

    September 18 9AM PT
    BrightTalk – Converged Storage

    September 17 1PM PT
    BrightTalk – DCIM

    September 16 1PM PT
    BrightTalk – Data Center Convergence

    September 16 Noon PT
    BrightTalk – BC, BR and DR

    September 16 1PM CT
    StarWind – SMB 3.0 & Microsoft SOFS

    September 16 9AM PT
    Google+ Hangout – BackupU – Replication

    September 2 11AM PT
    Dell BackupU – Replication

    Videos and Podcasts

    Docker for Smarties
    Video: Docker for Smarties

    StorageIO podcasts are also available via and at StorageIO.tv

    From StorageIO Labs

    Research, Reviews and Reports

    Enterprise 12Gbps SAS and SSD’s
    Better Together – Part of an Enterprise Tiered Storage Strategy
    In this StorageIO Industry Trends Perspective thought leadership white paper we look at how enterprise class SSD’s and 12Gbps SAS address current and next generation tiered storage for virtual, cloud, traditional Little and Big Data environments. This report includes proof points running various workloads including Database TPC-B, TPC-E, Microsoft Exchange in the StorageIO Labs along with cache software comparing SSD, SSHD and HDD’s. Read the  white paper  compliments of Seagate 1200 12Gbs SAS SSD’s.

    Seagate SSD White Paper

    Resources and Links

    Check out these useful links and pages:
    storageio.com/links
    objectstoragecenter.com
    storageioblog.com/data-protection-diaries-main/
    storageio.com/ssd
    storageio.com/ssd

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers
    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    August 2014 Server and StorageIO Update newsletter




    Welcome to the August 2014 edition of the StorageIO Update (newsletter) containing trends perspectives on cloud, virtualization, software defined and data infrastructure topics. This past week I along with around 22,000 others attended VMworld 2014 in San Francisco. For those of you in Europe, VMworld Barcelona is October 14-16 2014 with registration and more information found here. Watch for more post VMworld coverage in upcoming newsletters, articles, posts along with other industry trend topics. Enjoy this edition of the StorageIO Update newsletter and look forward to catching up with you live or online while out and about this fall.

    Greg Schulz Storage I/OGreg Schulz @StorageIO

    August 2014 Industry trend and perspectives

    StorageIO Industry Trends and Perspectives

    The following is a synopsis of some StorageIOblog posts, articles and comments in different venues on various industry trends, perspectives and related themes about clouds, virtualization, data and storage infrastructure topics among related themes.

    StorageIO comments and perspectives in the news

    StorageIO in the news

    Virtual Desktop Infrastructures (VDI) remains a popular industry and IT customer topic, not to mention being one of the favorite themes of Solid State Device (SSD) vendors. SSD component and system solution vendors along with their supporters love VDI as the by-product of aggregation (e.g. consolidation) which applies to VDI is aggravation. Aggravation is the result of increased storage I/O performance (IOP’s, bandwidth, response time) from consolidating the various desktops. It should not be a surprise that some of the biggest fans encouraging organizations to adopt VDI are the SSD vendors. Read some of my comments and perspectives on VDI here at FedTech Magazine.

    Speaking of virtualizing the data center, software defined data centers (SDDC) along with software defined networking (SDN) and software defined storage (SDS) remain popular including some software defined marketing (SDM). Here are some of my comments and perspectives moving beyond the hype of SDDC.

    FCIA Fibre Channel Industry Association

    Recently the Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) who works with the T11 standards body of both legacy or classic Fibre Channel (FC) as well as newer FC over Ethernet (FCoE) made some announcements. These announcements including enhancements such as Fibre Channel Back Bone version 6 (FC-BB-6) among others. Both FC and FCoE are alive and doing well, granted one has been around longer (FC) and can be seen at its plateau while the other (FCoE) continues to evolve and grow in adoption. In some ways, FCoE is in a similar role today to where FC was in the late 90s and early 2000s ironically facing some common fud. You can read my comments here as part of a quote in support of the announcement , along with my more industry trend perspectives in this blog post here.

    Buyers guides are popular with both vendors, VAR’s as well as IT organizations (e.g. customers) following are some of my comments and industry trend perspectives appearing in Enterprise Storage Forum. Here are perspectives on buyers guides for Enterprise File Sync and Share (EFSS), Unified Data Storage and Object Storage. EMC has come under pressure as mentioned in earlier StorageIO update newsletters to increase its shareholder benefit including spin-off of VMware. Here are some of my comments and perspectives that appeared in CruxialCIO. Read more industry trends perspectives comments on the StorageIO news page.

    StorageIO video and audio pod casts

    StorageIOblog postStorageIOblog post
    StorageIO audio podcasts are also available via
    and at StorageIO.tv

    StorageIOblog posts and perspectives

    StorageIOblog post

    Despite being declared dead, traditional or classic Fibre Channel (FC) along with FC over Ethernet (FCoE) continues to evolve with FC-BB-6, read more here.

    VMworld 2014 took place this past week and included announcements about EVO:Rack and Rail (more on this in a future edition). You can get started learning about EVO:Rack and RAIL at Duncan Epping (aka @DuncanYB) Yellow Bricks site. VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) is at the heart of EVO which you can read an overview here in this earlier StorageIO update newsletter (March 2014).

    VMware VSAN
    VMware VSAN example

    Also watch for some extra content that I’m working on including some video podcasts articles and blog posts from my trip to VMworld 2014. However one of the themes in the background of VMworld 2014 is the current beta of VMware vSphere V6 along with Virtual Volumes aka VVOL’s. The following are a couple of my recent posts including primer overview of VVOL’s along with a poll you can cast your vote. Check out Are VMware VVOL’s in your virtual server and storage I/O future? and VMware VVOL’s and storage I/O fundamentals (Part 1) along with (Part 2).

    StorageIO events and activities

    Server and StorageIO seminars, conferences, web cats, events, activities

    The StorageIO calendar continues to evolve including several new events being added for September and well into the fall with more in the works including upcoming Dutch European sessions the week of October 6th in Nijkerk Holland (learn more here). The following are some upcoming September events. These include live in-person seminars, conferences, keynote and speaking activities as well as on-line webinars, twitter chats, Google+ hangouts among others.

    Sep 25 2014MSP CMGServer and StorageIO SSD industry trends perspectives and tipsTBA
    9:30AM CT
    Sep 18 2014InfoWorldHybrid Storage In GovernmentWebinar
    2:30PM ET
    Sep 18 2014Converged Storage and Storage ConvergenceWebinar
    9AM PT
    Sep 17 2014Data Center ConvergenceWebinar
    1PM PT
    Sep 16 2014Critical Infrastructure and Disaster RecoveryWebinar
    Noon PT
    Sep 16 2014Starwind SoftwareSoftware Defined Storage and Virtual SAN for Microsoft environmentsWebinar
    1PM CT
    Sep 16 2014Dell BackupUExploring the Data Protection Toolbox – Data and Application ReplicationGoogle+
    9AM PT
    Sep 2 2014Dell BackupUExploring the Data Protection Toolbox – Data and Application ReplicationOnline Webinar
    11AM PT

    Note: Dates, times, venues and subject contents subject to change, refer to events page for current status

    Click here to view other upcoming along with earlier event activities. Watch for more 2014 events to be added soon to the StorageIO events calendar page. Topics include data protection modernization (backup/restore, HA, BC, DR, archive), data footprint reduction (archive, compression, dedupe), storage optimization, SSD, object storage, server and storage virtualization, software defined, big data, little data, cloud and object storage, performance and management trends among others.

    Vendors, VAR’s and event organizers, give us a call or send an email to discuss having us involved in your upcoming pod cast, web cast, virtual seminar, conference or other events.

    Server and StorageIO Technology Tips and Tools

    Server and StorageIO seminars, conferences, web cats, events, activities

    In addition to the industry trends and perspectives comments in the news mentioned above, along with the StorageIO blog posts, the following are some of my recent articles and tips that have appeared in various industry venues.

    Storage Acceleration

    Over at the new Storage Acceleration site I have a couple of pieces, the first is What, When, Why & How to Accelerate Storage and the other is Tips for Measuring Your Storage Acceleration.
    Meanwhile over at Search Storage I have a piece covering What is the difference between a storage snapshot and a clone? and at Search Cloud Storage some tips about  What’s most important to know about my cloud privacy policy?. Also with Software Defined in the news and a popular industry topic, I have a piece over at Enterprise Storage Forum looking at  Has Software Defined Jumped the Shark? Check out these and others on the StorageIO tips and articles page.

    StorageIO Update Newsletter Archives

    Click here to view earlier StorageIO Update newsletters (HTML and PDF versions) at www.storageio.com/newsletter. Subscribe to this newsletter (and pass it along) by clicking here (Via Secure Campaigner site). View archives of past StorageIO update news letters as well as download PDF versions at: www.storageio.com/newsletter

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    VMware VVOLs and storage I/O fundementals (Part 2)

    VMware VVOL’s and storage I/O fundamentals (Part II)

    Note that this is a three part series with the first piece here (e.g. Are VMware VVOL’s in your virtual server and storage I/O future?), the second piece here (e.g.VMware VVOL’s and storage I/O fundamentals Part 1) and the third piece here (e.g. VMware VVOL’s and storage I/O fundamentals Part 2).

    Picking up from where we left off in the first part of the VMware VVOL’s and storage I/O fundamentals, lets take a closer look at VVOL’s.

    First however lets be clear that while VMware uses terms including object and object storage in the context of VVOL’s, its not the same as some other object storage solutions. Learn more about object storage here at www.objectstoragecenter.com

    Are VVOL’s accessed like other object storage (e.g. S3)?

    No, VVOL’s are accessed via the VMware software and associated API’s that are supported by various storage providers. VVOL’s are not LUN’s like regular block (e.g. DAS or SAN) storage that use SAS, iSCSI, FC, FCoE, IBA/SRP, nor are they NAS volumes like NFS mount points. Likewise VVOL’s are not accessed using any of the various object storage access methods mentioned above (e.g. AWS S3, Rest, CDMI, etc) instead they are an application specific implementation. For some of you this approach of an applications specific or unique storage access method may be new, perhaps revolutionary, otoh, some of you might be having a DejaVu moment right about now.

    VVOL is not a LUN in the context of what you may know and like (or hate, even if you have never worked with them), likewise it is not a NAS volume like you know (or have heard of), neither are they objects in the context of what you might have seen or heard such as S3 among others.

    Keep in mind that what makes up a VMware virtual machine are the VMK, VMDK and some other files (shown in the figure below), and if enough information is known about where those blocks of data are or can be found, they can be worked upon. Also keep in mind that at least near-term, block is the lowest common denominator that all file systems and object repositories get built-up.

    VMware ESXi basic storage I/O
    VMware ESXi storage I/O, IOPS and data store basics

    Here is the thing, while VVOL’s will be accessible via a block interface such as iSCSI, FC or FCoE or for that matter, over Ethernet based IP using NFS. Think of these storage interfaces and access mechanisms as the general transport for how vSphere ESXi will communicate with the storage system (e.g. their data path) under vCenter management.

    What is happening inside the storage system that will be presented back to ESXi will be different than a normal SCSI LUN contents and only understood by VMware hypervisor. ESXi will still tell the storage system what it wants to do including moving blocks of data. The storage system however will have more insight and awareness into the context of what those blocks of data mean. This is how the storage systems will be able to more closely integrate snapshots, replication, cloning and other functions by having awareness into which data to move, as opposed to moving or working with an entire LUN where a VMDK may live. Keep in mind that the storage system will still function as it normally would, just think of VVOL as another or new personality and access mechanism used for VMware to communicate and manage storage.

    VMware VVOL basics
    VMware VVOL concepts (in general) with VMDK being pushed down into the storage system

    Think in terms of the iSCSI (or FC or something else) for block or NFS for NAS as being the addressing mechanism to communicate between ESXi and the storage array, except instead of traditional SCSI LUN access and mapping, more work and insight is pushed down into the array. Also keep in mind that with a LUN, it is simply an address from what to use Logical Block Numbers or Logical Block Addresses. In the case of a storage array, it in turn manages placement of data on SSD or HDDs in turn using blocks aka LBA/LBN’s In other words, a host that does not speak VVOL would get an error if trying to use a LUN or target on a storage system that is a VVOL, that’s assuming it is not masked or hidden ;).

    What’s the Storage Provider (SP)

    The Storage Provider aka SP is created by the, well, the provider of the storage system or appliance leveraging a VMware API (hint, sign up for the beta and there is an SDK). Simply put, the SP is a two-way communication mechanism leveraging VASA for reporting information, configuration and other insight up to VMware ESXi hypervisor, vCenter and other management tools. In addition the storage provider receives VASA configuration information from VMware about how to configure the storage system (e.g. storage containers). Keep in mind that the SP is the out of band management interface between the storage system supporting and presenting VVOL’s and VMware hypervisors.

    What’s the Storage Container (SC)

    This is a storage pool created on the storage array or appliance (e.g. VMware vCenter works with array and storage provider (SP) to create) in place of using a normal LUN. With a SP and PE, the storage container becomes visible to ESXi hosts, VVOL’s can be created in the storage container until it runs out of space. Also note that the storage container takes on the storage profile assigned to it which are inherited by the VVOLs in it. This is in place of presenting LUN’s to ESXi that you can then create VMFS data stores (or use as raw) and then carve storage to VMs.

    Protocol endpoint (PE)

    The PE provides visibility for the VMware hypervisor to see and access VMDK’s and other objects (e.g. .vmx, swap, etc) stored in VVOL’s. The protocol endpoint (PE) manages or directs I/O received from the VM enabling scaling across many virtual volumes leveraging multipathing of the PE (inherited by the VVOL’s.). Note that for storage I/O operations, the PE is simply a pass thru mechanism and does not store the VMDK or other contents. If using iSCSI, FC, FCoE or other SAN interface, then the PE works on a LUN basis (again not actually storing data), and if using NAS NFS, then with a mount point. Key point is that the PE gets out-of-the-way.

    VVOL Poll

    What are you VVOL plans, view results and cast your vote here

    Wrap up (for now)

    There certainly are many more details to VVOL’s. that you can get a preview of in the beta, a well as via various demos, webinars, VMworld sessions as more becomes public. However for now, hope you found this quick overview on VVOL’s. of use, since VVOL’s. at the time of this writing are not yet released, you will need to wait for more detailed info, or join the beta or poke around the web (for now). Also if you have not seen the first part overview to this piece, check it out here as I give some more links to get you started to learn more about VVOL’s.

    Keep an eye on and learn more about VVOL’s. at VMworld 2014 as well as in various other venues.

    IMHO VVOL’s. are or will be in your future, however the question will be is there going to be a back to the future moment for some of you with VVOL’s.?

    What VVOL questions, comments and concerns are in your future and on your mind?

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved