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February 22, 2017November 26, 2023

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links P to T

IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

Updated 6/13/2018

Following are some useful Data Infrastructure IT Industry Resource Links P to T to cloud, virtual and traditional IT data infrastructure related web sites. The data infrastructure environment (servers, storage, IO and networking, hardware, software, services, virtual, container and cloud) is rapidly changing. You may encounter a missing URL, or a URL that has changed. This list is updated on a regular basis to reflect changes (additions, changes, and retirement).

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 data infrastructure 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.

Send an email note to info at storageio dot com that includes company name, URL, contact name, title and phone number along with a brief 40 character description to be considered for addition to the above data infrastructure list, or, to be removed. Note that Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC (e.g. StorageIO) does not sell, trade, barter, borrow or share your contact information per our Privacy and Disclosure policy. View related data infrastructure Server StorageIO content here, and signup for our free newsletter here.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

Packeteer.com WAFS and networking solutions (Bought Tacit)
packetlight.com CWDM and DWDM networking solutions
Panasas.com Clustered storage solution
pancetera.com Virtual machine backup software (Bought by Quantum)
Panduit.com Networking and cable management
panzura.com Cloud storage access software
paraccel.com Business and data analytics
paragon-software.com Storage management and backup tools
parallels.com VDI and desktop virtualization and cloud tools
parascale.com Clustered and cloud storage software
pcisig.com PCI trade group (PCI, PCI-X, PCI-Express/PCIe)
penguincomputing.com HPC servers, storage and hosting
pergamumsystems.com Archive solutions (Stealth)
Permabit.com Data archiving solutions
Pernixdata Server and storage I/O cache optimization for virtual servers
perotsystems.com Hosting and managed service provider (Bought by Dell)
pgp.com Security tools (Bought by Symantec)
PHDvirtual Data protection tools
Pillardata.com Data storage solutions – (Bought by Oracle)
pineapp.com Email, archive solutions, web and data protection
Piviot3.com IP Storage
Pivotal Labs Big Data, PaaS development tools, EMC/VMware spinout
plasmon.com (Now called Alliance Storage Technologies) Optical Storage Solutions
plextoramericas.com SSD and other storage solutions
plianttechnology.com Solid state storage devices (SSD) – (Bought by SANdisk)
Pluribus Networks Converged and software defined network management
pmc-serria.com Storage networking component supplier
pny.com Memory componets and technology
Pogoplug Cloud storage
PolyServe.com Clustered storage solutions (Sold to HP)
Polargy Data Center facilaties, HVAC and DCIM solutions
power.org Power Processor trade group
Mushkin SSD Solutions
Peak Cloud Cloud and storage services
PowerFile.com Data archiving solutions
powerware.com UPS and power conditioning systems
procedo.com Archiving and migration solutions
proceedtechnologies.com SAP consulting
profusionbackups.com Cloud and managed backup service solution
progeny.net VAR and specialized IT systems
prolexic.com Distributed denial of service tools
promise.com RAID storage systems
Prostorsystems.com Removable disk storage (See RDX Alliance)
Proxim.com Wireless networking
proximaldata.com SSD caching and tiering software
pt.com Communications hardware and software
puresi.com aka Puresilicon SSD storage solutions
purestorage.com SSD based storage
Puppet Labs IT Automation and DCIM tools for physical, Cloud and Virtual

qlogic.com Host bus adapters and switches
qsantechnology.com iSCSI IP storage
Qstart Technologies Data protection storage including LTFS based systems
Quadric Software Data protection software
qualstar.com Tape backup and archive solutions (Aka Qstar)
quantum.com Tape drives and libraries
quest.com IT and data management solution tools (Bought by Dell)
Qumulo Stealth storage startup
qwest.com (Century Link) Telephone and data networking, managed services provider
racemi.com Repurposing management tools
Rackable.com Now SGI
Rackspace.com Managed services and hosting
www.rackwise.com Data center management tools
raidinc.com Storage systems
raidundant.com Storage systems
Rainfinity.com File virtualization (Bought by EMC)
rainstor.com Big data management tools
rapidio.org RapidIO Trade Group
Raritan Data center and DCIM tools
rasilient.com Storage subsystem vendor
Ravello VMware optimization and management tools
Raxco Data, storage and systems management tools
rebit.com Backup and data protection solutions
RecordNation Digital Data Storage and Records Management
redbend.com Mobile device and application management
redbooks.ibm.com IBM Red books and Red pieces technical articles
Redhat.com Linux provider (Bought Gluster)
Reduxio Hybrid storage with data services
reflexphotonics.com Optical connectivity solutions
Reldata.com Storage systems (Renamed Starboard)
remote-backup.com Remote backup software
renewdata.com Data management and compliance tools
repliweb.com Web and content distribution
Retrospect Data Protection Software Tools
revivio.com Data Protection Software (Assets Bought by Symantec)
rightscale.com Amazon cloud computing management tools
rimage.com CD/DVD production technologies
risingtidesystems.com VAR
Ritek.com Storage solutions
rittal.com Enclosures and cabinets
riverbed.com Wide area file access acceleration solution
rjssoftware.com Document capture and management
rmsource.com Cloud backup solutions
rnanetworks.com Virtual memory management solutions (Bought by Dell)
rocketdivision.com iSCSI technologies
rorke.com VAR
rpath.com Data center automation
rsa.com Security division of EMC
safemediacorp.com Internet security and intrusion detection tools
safenet-inc.com Data protection focused VAR
Sagecloud Cloud storage, deep cold archive
samsung.com Various technologies including SSD memory
sanblaze.com Embedded storage and emulation solutions
SANbolic.com Storage, server and cloud management tools
sand-chip.com Chip design
SANDforce.com SSD storage solutions – (Bought by LSI)
sandial.com Defunct SAN startup
SANdisk.com SSD memory components
sandpiperdata.com Data migration services
sanmina-sci.com Contract manufacturer (Virtual Factory) for various OEM/VARs
sanovi.com Disaster recovery management tools
sanpulse.com SRA and automation tools
sanrad.com Storage networking routers (Bought by OCZ)
sans.org Security related web site
sansdigital.com VAR
sap.com Information management tools and applications
sas.com Statistical analysis software
sata-io.org Serial ATA trade organization
SavageIO High performance storage solutions
savvis.com Cloud, managed service provider and hosting (Bought by Centurylink)
sbbwg.org Storage Bridge Bay Working Group
scalable-systems.com Data warehouse consulting and tools
scalecomputing.com Clustered storage management software
scalemp.com Virtualization technology for scale out computing
scalent.com Virtual IT data center management tools
scality.com Email and sharepoint cloud storage
schoonerinfotech.com SSD based database management solutions
scsita.org SCSI and SAS trade group
seagate.com Disk drives
Sealpath Data and information protection tools
seanodes.com Distributed storage
sec.gov Site about compliance items including CFR 17a-4
securedatainnovations.com Data protection and security tools
sentilla.com Data center performance management tools
sepaton.com Disk based backup solutions
serialata.org Serial ATA trade association
servicemesh.com Cloud, datacenter transformation and devops tools
servicenow.com ITIL data center management tools
1servosity.com Cloud data protection
servoy.com Cloud development tools
ServPath.com Hosting services
seven10storage.com Disaster recovery and archiving software
sgi.com Storage, server and data management hardware, software, tools
sherpasoftware.com Email archiving
shop.bellmicro.com Distributor (Bought by Avnet)
siber.com Data protection and security tools
sidusdata.com Managed service and cloud provider
siemon.com Storage networking infrastructure items
sigmasol.com Value added reseller (VAR)
Signiant.com Data management tools
silexamerica.com Mobile device and server connectivity
SiliconImage.com Digital Video components
SiliconStor.com Storage networking silicon
siliconvalleypr.com IT technologies press/media and analyst relations firm
silveradotech.com VAR
silver-peak.com Wide area data and file services (WAFS, WADM, WADS)
SilverSky Cloud security
simpletech.com Storage solutions including USB portable devices
simplivity.com Convergence and virtualization solutions
simplycontinuous.net Data protection and cloud backup
siriuscom.com VAR
site-vault.com On-line backup server provider (BSP) managed service provider (MSP)
skyera.com SSD storage solutions
skytap.com Public and private cloud application development tools
Smart421 Smart421 AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
smartm.com PC card and other memory module components
smc.com Storage and networking components
smithmicro.com Mobile data management tools
smmdirect.com Memory devices
snapappliances.com NAS Storage solutions (Now Adaptec)
snia.org Storage Networking Industry Association
snseurope.com U.K. & European Storage Networking News
snwusa.com SNIA and Computerworld conference
softek.com Storage management solutions (formerly Fujitsu Softek, Sold to IBM)
softlayer.com Cloud infrastructure services (IaaS) (Bought by IBM)
softnas.com ZFS based opensource NAS solutions
softricity.com Virtualization management tools (Bought by Microsoft)
Sogeti.com Data management tools
solarflare.com 10Gb Ethernet networking
solarwinds.com IT management tools (Bought TekTools, Hyper9 and others)
solidaccess.com Solid state storage (SSD) solutions
soliddata.com Solid State Disk solutions
solidfire.com iSCSI SSD optimized for hosting and cloud providers
Solix.com Database archiving software
solutiontechnology.co.uk Storage networking training
sonasoft.com Email archiving, backup and data protection
sonnettech.com External storage solutions
sony.com Storage devices
sophos.com Data protection and security tools
sorrento.com Optical networking
sparebackup.com Backup data protection solutions
sparkweave.com Private cloud archive and file sharing
spec.org SPEC benchmarks
spectralogic.com Tape library and disk based backup solutions
spiceworks.com Online community and management software tools
spirent.com Storage networking test equipment
Spiron.com Data discovery, classification, lifecycle management (formerly Identity Finder)
Splice Communications Splice Communications AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
splunk.com DCIM and log management tools
spotcloud.com Cloud services clearing house
spraycool.com IT Data center and component cooling
springsoft.com Bought by Synopsys
spsoftglobal.com Software development
spyrus.com Security tools
ssswg.org IEEE Storage Systems Standards Work Group
starboardstorage.com Unified storage solutions (Formerly Reldata, now ceased operations)
startech.com IT/AV technolgie equipment from enclosures to KVM and more
starwindsoftware.com iSCSI storage management solutions
stcroixsolutions.com VAR
stec-inc.com SSD storage (Bought by WD)
Steeleye.com HA software
Stellar Data Protection tools
storagetek.com Disk, tape, data management software (Bought by Sun)
stonebranch.com File transfer tools
stonefly.com Storage networking routers (Aka DNF)
storability.com Storage management software (Bought by STK)
storactive.com Data protection solutions
storagecraft.com Data protection tools
storagefusion.com Storage resource analysis (SRA) tools
storageio.net Alternate URL for the StorageIO Group
storageiogroup.com Alternate URL for the StorageIO Group
storagemadeeasy.com Hybrid and personal cloud management tools and dashboards
Storagemonkeys.com Storage community site
storagenetworking.org Storage Networking Users Groups also known as SNUGs
storageperformance.org Storage Performance Council information
www.storagesearch.com Venue for information about various storage and related topics
storcase.com Data Archive solutions (Bought by Crudata)
store-age.com Storage management software (Bought by LSI)
storediq.com eDiscovery, search, indexing, classification (Bought by IBM)
Storewize.com Real time data compression (Bought by IBM)
Storix.com Data backup solutions
storlife.com CAS object archive storage
stormagic.com Storage virtualization and data movement software
storserver.com Backup and data protection solutions
storsimple.com Cloud storage access solutions (Bought by Microsoft)
storspeed.com NAS/NFS optimization solutions (Missing in action)
stratascale.com Cloud, hosting and management solutions
stratus.com High availability storage and servers
sugarsync.com Backup and data protection solutions
sun.com Storage networking hardware and software (Bought by Oracle)
sunbeltsoftware.com End point data protection security tools
sungard.com Data protection and cloud services
superlumin.com Application caching tools
supermicro.com Server and storage solutions
surdoc.com Cloud storage and backup
surgient.com Cloud computing solutions
svlg.net Silicon Valley Leadership Group
Swiftstack Private cloud solutions
swifttest.com NFS and CIFS storage testing solutions
sybase.com Database solutions
sycamorenetworks.com Networking solutions
Symantec.com Data and storage management software
symbolicio.com stealth startup
symform.com Cloud storage and backup
syncsort.com Information Management tools
synnex.com Distributor
Synnex IT Solutions
synology.com SMB storage solutions
synopsys.com Computer technology development and manufacturing
SysAid Data center, DCIM and ITSM tools
t10.orgscsi-3.htm ANSI T10 (SCSI information) site
t11.org ANSI T11 page for Fibre Channel information
t3media.com Cloud storage and video platform tools
tableausoftware.com Data analytics software tools
tacit.com WAN file system accelerator (Bought by Packeteer)
tacitnetworks.com Wide area file access acceleration solution (Bought by Packeteer)
tandberg.com Data management solutions (Bought by Cisco)
tapeandmedia.com Information about magnetic tape media
tapepower.com Site for tape topics
tarmin.com Archiving solutions
teamdrive.com Cloud storage
teamquest.com IRM management and capacity management tools
TeamViewer.com Remote support and Online meeting software
techdata.com Distributor
tegile.com Storage system solutions
tehutinetworks.net High speed iSCSI adapters
tek-tools.com SRM storage management software (Bought by Solarwinds)
TelecityGroup AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
tellabs.com Networking components
Telx AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
teneros.com Email archiving and management solutions
teracloud.com Capacity planning and resource management software
teradata.com Large scale database and data warehouse systems
teradici.com PC over IP technologies
teranetics.com Ethernet chips
Terascala Data analytics and management solutions
ter.de Optical storage libraries
terracloudinc.com Cloud services
TerraScale.com Scalable storage and server solutions
Verizon/Terremark Cloud, hosting and managed services
Tevron Application Response Time Monitoring
texmemsys.com Solid State Disk storage
thebci.org Business Continuity Institute
thecus.com Multi-protocol storage
thegreengrid.org Industry Trade Group
The Padcaster Apple iPad tools
thepluggllc.com Data center energy efficient floor tiles
theq3.com Data storage security solutions
thinkaheadit.com aka Ahead Value added reseller
thinkaheadit.com Value added reseller (VAR)
thirdbrigade.com Intrusion detection security tools (Bought by Trend Micro)
thirdio.com SSD solutions
tiaonline.org Telecommunications Industry Association
tidalsoftware.com IT Management software tools (Bought by Cisco)
timespring.com Continuous data protection solutions
tintri.com NFS and NAS storage optimized for VMware
tivoli.com Data management software
Softbank Telecom Corp. AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
Primary Data and Tonian Stealth data virtualization startup

topgun-tech.com Data Infrastructure Resource (Server, Storage, SANs)

top500.org Top 500 super compute sites
topio.com Data protection software (Bought by NetApp)
topspin.com InfiniBand Technology (Bought by Cisco)(
Toshiba.com Server and storage solutions
tpc.org Transaction processing performance council
translattice.com Distributed and elastic database and automation tools
Tredent.com WAN optimization solutions
TrendMicro.com Security and anti virus tools
trianz.com VAR
tributary.com Datra protection soultion tools including virtual, disk and tape-
trilogytechnologies.ie Managed services provider
tritondata.com IT services and VAR
trunkbow.com Cloud, mobile and networking services
trustedcomputinggroup.org Trusted computing industry trade group
trusteddatasolutions.com VAR
trustedid.com ID theft protection
trustware.com Internet and data protection security tools
turnkeylinux.org Turnkey Linux appliance –
tusc.com VAR
twinstrata.com BC/DR analysis and cloud access software
tw telecom tw telecom AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
TSO logic DCIM and data center power energy management tools
tzolkin.com DNS and High Availability solutions

Where To Learn More

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

Can we get a side of context with them IOPS and other storage metrics?
WHEN AND WHERE TO USE NAND FLASH SSD FOR VIRTUAL SERVERS
Revisiting RAID storage remains relevant and resources
NVMe overview and primer – Part I
Part 1 of HDD for content servers series Trends and Content Application Servers
Part 2 of HDD for content servers series Content application server decisions and testing plans
Part 3 of HDD for content servers series Test hardware and software configuration
Part 4 of HDD for content servers series Large file I/O processing
Part 5 of HDD for content servers series Small file I/O processing
Part 6 of HDD for content servers series General I/O processing
Part 7 of HDD for content servers series How HDD continue to evolve over different generations and wrap up
As the platters spin, HDD’s for cloud, virtual and traditional storage environments
How many IOPS can a HDD, HHDD or SSD do?
Hard Disk Drives (HDD) for Virtual Environments
Server and Storage I/O performance and benchmarking tools
Server storage I/O performance benchmark workload scripts Part I and Part II
How to test your HDD, SSD or all flash array (AFA) storage fundamentals
What is the best server storage I/O workload benchmark? It depends
I/O, I/O how well do you know about good or bad server and storage I/Os?
Big Files Lots of Little File Processing Benchmarking with Vdbench
Part II – NVMe overview and primer (Different Configurations)
Part III – NVMe overview and primer (Need for Performance Speed)
Part IV – NVMe overview and primer (Where and How to use NVMe)
Part V – NVMe overview and primer (Where to learn more, what this all means)
PCIe Server I/O Fundamentals
If NVMe is the answer, what are the questions?
NVMe Wont Replace Flash By Itself
Via Computerweekly – NVMe discussion: PCIe card vs U.2 and M.2
Intel and Micron unveil new 3D XPoint Non Volatie Memory (NVM) for servers and storage
Part II – Intel and Micron new 3D XPoint server and storage NVM
Part III – 3D XPoint new server storage memory from Intel and Micron
Server storage I/O benchmark tools, workload scripts and examples (Part I) and (Part II)
Data Infrastructure Overview, Its Whats Inside of Data Centers
All You Need To Know about Remote Office/Branch Office Data Protection Backup (free webinar with registration)
Software Defined, Converged Infrastructure (CI), Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) resources
The SSD Place (SSD, NVM, PM, SCM, Flash, NVMe, 3D XPoint, MRAM and related topics)
The NVMe Place (NVMe related topics, trends, tools, technologies, tip resources)
Data Protection Diaries (Archive, Backup/Restore, BC, BR, DR, HA, RAID/EC/LRC, Replication, Security)
Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press 2017) including SDDC, Cloud, Container and more
Various Data Infrastructure related events, webinars and other activities
www.objectstoragecenter.com and Software Defined, Cloud, Bulk and Object Storage Fundamentals
Server Storage I/O Network PCIe Fundamentals

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

What This All Means

Visit the following additional data infrastructure and IT data center related links.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

Ok, nuff said, for now.

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.

February 22, 2017November 26, 2023

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links to Others

IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

Updated 2/20/2018

Following are some useful Data Infrastructure IT Industry Resource Links to cloud, virtual and traditional IT data infrastructure related web sites. The data infrastructure environment (servers, storage, IO and networking, hardware, software, services, virtual, container and cloud) is rapidly changing. You may encounter a missing URL, or a URL that has changed. This list is updated on a regular basis to reflect changes (additions, changes, and retirement).

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.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

www.10gea.org 10Gb Ethernet industry trade organization
www.1394ta.org 1394 (Firewire) trade association
www.3com.com Networking equipment (Bought by HP)
www.3leafnetworks.com I/O virtualization
www.3par.com Clustered storage systems (Bought by HP)
www.3tera.com IT Cloud management tools (Bought by CA)
www.4blox.com Data center design services
www.4blox.com Linux iSCSI target optimization stack
www.4bridgeworks.com aka Bridgeworks SAN networking and connectivity solutions
www.80plus.org Energy efficient power supply trade group

Where To Learn More

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

Can we get a side of context with them IOPS and other storage metrics?
WHEN AND WHERE TO USE NAND FLASH SSD FOR VIRTUAL SERVERS
Revisiting RAID storage remains relevant and resources
NVMe overview and primer – Part I
Part 1 of HDD for content servers series Trends and Content Application Servers
Part 2 of HDD for content servers series Content application server decisions and testing plans
Part 3 of HDD for content servers series Test hardware and software configuration
Part 4 of HDD for content servers series Large file I/O processing
Part 5 of HDD for content servers series Small file I/O processing
Part 6 of HDD for content servers series General I/O processing
Part 7 of HDD for content servers series How HDD continue to evolve over different generations and wrap up
As the platters spin, HDD’s for cloud, virtual and traditional storage environments
How many IOPS can a HDD, HHDD or SSD do?
Hard Disk Drives (HDD) for Virtual Environments

Server and Storage I/O performance and benchmarking tools
Server storage I/O performance benchmark workload scripts Part I and Part II
How to test your HDD, SSD or all flash array (AFA) storage fundamentals
What is the best server storage I/O workload benchmark? It depends
I/O, I/O how well do you know about good or bad server and storage I/Os?
Big Files Lots of Little File Processing Benchmarking with Vdbench
Part II – NVMe overview and primer (Different Configurations)
Part III – NVMe overview and primer (Need for Performance Speed)
Part IV – NVMe overview and primer (Where and How to use NVMe)
Part V – NVMe overview and primer (Where to learn more, what this all means)
PCIe Server I/O Fundamentals
If NVMe is the answer, what are the questions?
NVMe Wont Replace Flash By Itself
Via Computerweekly – NVMe discussion: PCIe card vs U.2 and M.2
Intel and Micron unveil new 3D XPoint Non Volatie Memory (NVM) for servers and storage
Part II – Intel and Micron new 3D XPoint server and storage NVM
Part III – 3D XPoint new server storage memory from Intel and Micron
Server storage I/O benchmark tools, workload scripts and examples (Part I) and (Part II)
Data Infrastructure Overview, Its Whats Inside of Data Centers
All You Need To Know about Remote Office/Branch Office Data Protection Backup (free webinar with registration)
Software Defined, Converged Infrastructure (CI), Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) resources
The SSD Place (SSD, NVM, PM, SCM, Flash, NVMe, 3D XPoint, MRAM and related topics)
The NVMe Place (NVMe related topics, trends, tools, technologies, tip resources)
Data Protection Diaries (Archive, Backup/Restore, BC, BR, DR, HA, RAID/EC/LRC, Replication, Security)
Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press 2017) including SDDC, Cloud, Container and more
Various Data Infrastructure related events, webinars and other activities
www.objectstoragecenter.com and Software Defined, Cloud, Bulk and Object Storage Fundamentals
Server Storage I/O Network PCIe Fundamentals

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

What This All Means

Visit the following additional data infrastructure and IT data center related links.

Links A-E
Links F-J
Links K-O
Links P-T
Links U-Z
Other Links

Ok, nuff said, for now.

February 11, 2017November 26, 2023

Some popular 2016 storageioblog posts

server storage I/O trends

Big Files and Lots of Little File Processing and Benchmarking with Vdbench – Need to test, validate, compare, contrast or simply apply workload to file systems, NAS or other file-based access? Want the flexibility and simplicity to software define your benchmark workload to meet various needs? For example, millions of small files or thousands of large 5GB, 10GB, 15GB (or larger) files with various read, write size and access patterns spanning a single directory, or many with various depths? Do you want the flexibility for different platforms including Windows, *NIX, bare metal, container, virtual or cloud without a bulk tool using simple scripts that produce lots of insightful results? Then you will want to check this post out.

Breaking the VMware ESXi 5.5 ACPI boot loop on Lenovo TD350 – Ever have a VMware host server go into a boot loop and purple screen of death (PSD) then displaying a message about ACPI or similar? After spending time searching and applying many filters to sift through the noise of false positive matches, finally found the simple fix (e.g. a BIOS setting) to break the VMware ESXi vSphere boot loop, or at least on a Lenovo server.

Cloud and Object Storage

Cloud conversations: AWS EBS, Glacier and S3 overview (Part I) – This is one of the perennial favorites that while new features have been added with others extended, the post series still provides a good overview, primer or refresher of various Amazon Web Services (AWS) services including how they work. Interesting in learning more about Microsoft and Azure, then check out this, this, this and this.

Cloud Conversations: AWS EFS Elastic File System (Cloud NAS) – This is a companion to the above AWS as well as other cloud post series that looks at AWS Elastic File System. Note that other cloud service providers have also added NAS file access support, some are intra (e.g. inside AWS cloud), others are inter-cloud (e.g. inside and outside cloud) such as Azure (can work with external Windows Servers using SMB3). Even OpenStack has added NAS file with Manila folders and Ceph with CephFS among others. So when some people tell you that NAS and file access are dead particular for cloud, remind them of the increasing number of services and software stacks that are adding new services to allow their solution to be compatible with existing environments or applications.

Server Storage I/O performance

Collecting Transaction Per Minute from SQL Server and HammerDB – If you have used the free tool HammerDB (e.g. Hammora) for driving database workloads, simulations or benchmarks you should recall that the resulting statistics are rather lacking. Sure there is a nice GUI chart that shows current executing transactions per second (TPS) along with some very simple counters in the log. However compared to some other tools such as sysbench, Quest Benchmark Factory and YCSB among others, the Hammer metrics are rather lacking. In this post I show how you can collect some more metrics from SQL Server if you have to use HammerDB. View more server storage I/O performance benchmark and monitoring tools resources here.

Windows Server 2016

Gaining Server Storage I/O Insight into Microsoft Windows Server 2016 – Microsoft released into general availability Windows Server 2016 and this post looks at some of the new features along with functionality including Storage Spaces Direct (S2D), Storage Replica (SR) as well as other enhancements. With these new and enhanced features Windows Servers increase their interoperability with Azure, as well as supporting aggregated hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI), disaggregated converged (CI) as well as traditional workloads along with Hyper-V (and containers). One of the other new enhancements in Windows Server 2016 which now uses ReFS (Reliable File System) as its default file system that you can read more about here. RIP Windows SIS (Single Instance Storage), or at least in Server 2016 With Windows Server 2016 Microsoft removed single instance storage replacing with new capabilities that you can read more about in the this post.

Garbage data in garbage data out

Garbage data in, garbage information out, big data or big garbage? There is a classic IT expression of garbage data in results in garbage data (or information out) in that your algorithms and data structures (which equals programs e.g. Niklaus Wirth) are only as good as the data they work on. What this means then is that if there is a large amount of big data then there can also be a big garbage in and garbage out problem unless addressed.

Hard product vs. soft product – Hard product refers to something such as hardware, software or a service resource that is obtained and then joined with other resources in a particular way to create a soft product. Not to be confused with software, the soft product is the result or how resources get defined that give some ability or benefit. Think of a soft product as for how airlines can use the same airplane, serve the same coca cola, have same seats, yet their soft product is the service experience of how those are delivered, as well as how you find and buy or use them. Another way of thinking about it is hard products are the ingredients for a recipe, the recipe defines how those ingredients result in some food dish.

how many IOPs can an HDD or SSD do

Part II: How many IOPS can a HDD, HHDD or SSD do with VMware? – This is part of a multi-post series looking at how many IOPs (or bandwidth) various HDD and SSDs can do handling different workloads. Of course, your results will vary with configuration settings, tools among other considerations. However, some of the older rules of thumb (RUT) about RPM and other considerations for HDDs have changed and continue to do so. As an example of how HDDs continue to evolve check out this popular post from the 2016 list Which Enterprise HDDs to use for a Content Server Platform.

Part II: What I did with Lenovo TS140 in my Server and Storage I/O Review – This is a popular post series of some things I have done with a Lenovo TS140 including defining with various software as well as hardware. This is a great price performer value system that several years ago after testing one Lenovo sent me, I returned that to Lenovo and bought several of them to join my other systems.

Server and Storage I/O Benchmarking and Performance Resources – This is a collection of various server, storage I/O and networking hardware, software as well as services tools, techniques as well as tips for benchmarking, comparing, simulation, testing, gaining insight across cloud, virtual, container and legacy resources. Server and Storage I/O Benchmark Tools: Microsoft Diskspd (Part I) – This is one of the tools found on the server, storage I/O benchmarking and performance resources page. Diskspd is a tool developed by Microsoft as an alternative to using Iometer, vdbench, fio.exe, SQLIO among many others, plus, it is on github.

server storage I/O nvme and ssd

The NVM (Non Volatile Memory) and NVMe Place – Interesting and adoption in nand flash, nvram, 3D XPoint among other SSD and Non-volatile Memory (NVM) continues. Another popular post that you can find at thenvmeplace.com is this NVMe overview and primer – Part I. There is a growing interest, awareness and deployment adoption around NVM Express (NVMe) the new protocol for accessing NVMs and SSDs. Some of the common conversations and questions I encounter is confusion between NVM and NVMe, too which the answer is one (the former) are the media or devices, the other is the access method alternative to using AHCI/SATA or SCSI (e.g. SAS, iSCSI, FCP, SRP) among others.

VMware VVOLs and storage I/O fundamentals (Part 1) – VMware Virtual Volumes (VVOL) continue to gain adoption and this post is part of an overview and primer. If you want to go deeper into VVOL as well as see some adoption insights check out Eric Sieberts post here over at vsphere-land.com

Welcome to the Object Storage Center page – This is a micro site that has a primer and overview of cloud as well as object storage along with an expanding list of links to various resources, tips, technologies, tools, trends and industry activity.

Where To Learn More

www.storageio.com particular if you have not been there for awhile to check out the new streamlined look and navigation to various content including Server StorageIO update newsletters (free subscription) among other resources.

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

What this all means and wrapping up

Some of the popular posts for 2016 are perennial favorites and based on experience will probably appear on the 2017 list. However there are also several new posts that appeared in 2016 that I suspect will also appear on the 2017 version of the above list, along with new content from 2017.

Thank you to all of you who frequent StorageIOblog.com as well as StorageIO.com along with our various micro sites including server storage I/O performance and benchmarking resources, thenvmeplace.com, thessdplace.com, cloud and objectstoragecenter.com, data protection diaries among others.

Also thank you for viewing various partner venues and syndicates with extra ones appearing throughout 2017. Watch for more content in the coming weeks, months and throughout 2017 on software defined data infrastructures (SDDI) along with server, storage I/O, networking, hardware, software, cloud, container, data protection and related topics, trends, technologies, tools and tips.

Again, thank you

Ok, nuff said, for now.

February 11, 2017March 7, 2022

Congratulations and welcome to all new and returning fellow vExperts for 2017

Congratulations and welcome new and returning fellow 2017 vExperts

server storage I/O trends

The other day VMware announced the 2017 list of vExperts which you can view here.

Congratulations and welcome to all new and returning fellow vExperts for 2017.

In its ninth year, it is an honor to now have been named a vExpert for eight consecutive years.

Where To Learn More

Learn more about and view the list of 2017 VMware vExperts here.

What this all means and wrapping up

Thank you VMware and all of those involved with the vExpert process, as well as congratulations and best wishes to all new and returning vExperts. I’m Looking forward to being involved and participating in the VMware vExpert community for yet another year.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, vSAN and VMware vExpert. 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.

February 4, 2017March 7, 2022

What Does Converged Infrastructure CI Hyperconverged HCI Mean to Storage I/O?

What Does CI and HCI Mean to Storage I/O?

server storage I/O trends

Updated 1/17/2018

Converged Infrastructure (CI), Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) along with Cluster or Cloud In Box (CIB) are popular trend topics that have gained both industry and customer adoption as part of data infrastructures. Data Infrastructures exists to support business, cloud and information technology (IT) among other applications that transform data into information or services. The fundamental role of legacy and software defined data infrastructures (SDDI) is to provide a platform environment for applications and data that is resilient, flexible, scalable, agile, efficient as well as cost-effective.

Business, IT Information, Data and other Infrastructures

Put another way, data infrastructures exist to protect, preserve, process, move, secure and serve data as well as their applications for information services delivery. Technologies that make up data infrastructures include hardware, software, cloud or managed services, servers, storage, I/O and networking along with people, processes, policies along with various tools spanning legacy, software-defined virtual, containers and cloud.

As part of data infrastructures, CI, CIB and HCI enable simplified deployment of resources (servers, storage, I/O networking, hardware, software) across different environments. What do these various approaches (CI, HCI, CiB) mean for a hyperconverged (and converged) storage environment? What are the key concerns and considerations related specifically to storage? Most importantly, how do you know that you’re asking the right questions in order to get to the right answers?

Join me on March 15 at 10:00 AM PT for a live (free) webinar organized by the Storage Network Industry Association (SNIA) Ethernet Storage Forum (ESF). In this webinar (What Does Hyperconverged Mean to Storage) I will be joined by SNIA ESF chair John Kim of Mellanox to discuss moving beyond the hype to prepare, plan and make decisions for deploying CI, CiB and HCI.

Some of the server, storage I/O and related topics we will be discussing during the webcast include:

What are the storage considerations for CI, CIB and HCI

Fast applications and fast servers need fast server storage I/O

Fast NVM storage including NVMe, flash and SSD

Networking and server storage I/O considerations

How to avoid aggravation-causing aggregation (bottlenecks)

Aggregated vs. desegregated vs. hybrid converged

Planning, comparing, benchmarking and decision-making

Data protection, management and east-west I/O traffic

Application and server I/O north-south traffic

Where To Learn More

SNIA ESF organized webinar on BrightTalk March 15, 2017

StorageIO.com (events, news, tips, resources) and StorageIOblog.com

Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC)

Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC)

Data Infrastructure Primer and Overview (Its Whats Inside The Data Center)

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

What This All Means

For many environments some form of converged, desegregated, aggregated or hyper-converged solution or approach will part of their data infrastructures. Join the SNIA ESF folks and me on March 15, 2017 (bring your questions) to discuss CI and HCI storage I/O topics, trends, technologies and themes.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

February 4, 2017October 18, 2024

If NVMe is the answer, what are the questions?

If NVMe is the answer, then what are the various questions that should be asked?

Some common questions that NVMe is the answer to include what is the difference between NVM and NVMe?

Is NVMe only for servers, does NVMe require fabrics and what benefit is NVMe beyond more IOPs.

Lets take a look at some of these common NVMe conversations and other questions.

Main Features and Benefits of NVMe

Some of the main feature and benefits of NVMe among others include:

- Lower latency due to improve drivers and increased queues (and queue sizes)
- Lower CPU used to handle larger number of I/Os (more CPU available for useful work)
- Higher I/O activity rates (IOPS) to boost productivity unlock value of fast flash and NVM
- Bandwidth improvements leveraging various fast PCIe interface and available lanes
- Dual-pathing of devices like what is available with dual-path SAS devices
- Unlock the value of more cores per processor socket and software threads (productivity)
- Various packaging options, deployment scenarios and configuration options
- Appears as a standard storage device on most operating systems
- Plug-play with in-box drivers on many popular operating systems and hypervisors

NVM and Media memory matters

Whats the differences between NVM and NVMe? Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) which as its name implies is persistent electronic memory medium where data is stored. Today you commonly know about NVMs as NAND flash Solid State Devices (SSD), along with NVRAM among others emerging storage class memories (SCM).

Emerging SCM such as 3D XPoint among other mediums (or media if you prefer) have the premises of boosting both read and write performance beyond traditional NAND flash, closer to DRAM, while having durability also closer to DRAM. For now let’s set the media and mediums aside and get back to how they or will be accessed as well as used.

server storage I/O NVMe fundamentals

Server and Storage I/O Media access matters

NVM Express (e.g. NVMe) is a standard industry protocol for accessing NVM media (SSD and flash devices, storage system, appliances). If NVMe is the answer, then depending on your point of view, NVMe can be (or is) a replacement (today or in the future) for AHCI/SATA, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS). What this means is that NVMe can coexist or replace other block SCSI protocol implementations (e.g. Fibre Channel FCP aka FCP, iSCSI, SRP) as well as NBD (among others).

Similar to the SCSI command set that is implemented on different networks (e.g. iSCSI (IP), FCP (Fibre Channel), SRP (InfiniBand), SAS) NVMe as a protocol is now implemented using PCIe with form factors of add-in cards (AiC), M.2 (e.g. gum sticks aka next-gen form factor or NGFF) as well as U.2 aka 8639 drive form factors. There are also the emerging NVMe over Fabrics variants including FC-NVMe (e.g. NVMe protocol over Fibre Channel) which is an alternative to SCSI_FCP (e.g. SCSI on Fibre Channel). An example of a PCIe AiC that I have include the Intel 750 400GB NVMe (among others). You should be able to find the Intel among other NVMe devices from your prefered vendor as well as different venues including Amazon.com.

NVM, flash and NVMe SSD
Left PCIe AiC x4 NVMe SSD, lower center M.2 NGFF, right SAS and SATA SSD

The following image shows an NVMe U.2 (e.g. 8639) drive form factor device that from a distance looks like a SAS device and connector. However looking closer some extra pins or connectors that present a PCIe Gen 3 x4 (4 PCIe lanes) connection from the server or enclosure backplane to the devices. These U.2 devices plug into 8639 slots (right) that look like a SAS slot that can also accommodate SATA. Remember, SATA can plug into SAS, however not the other way around.

NVMe U.2 8639 drive NVMe 8639 slot
Left NVMe U.2 drive showing PCIe x4 connectors, right, NVMe U.2 8639 connector

What NVMe U.2 means is that the 8639 slots can be used for 12Gbps SAS, 6Gbps SATA or x4 PCIe-based NVMe. Those devices in turn attach to their respective controllers (or adapters) and device driver software protocol stack. Several servers have U.2 or 8639 drive slots either in 2.5” or 1.8” form factors, sometimes these are also called or known as “blue” drives (or slots). The color coding simply helps to keep track of what slots can be used for different things.

Navigating your various NVMe options

If NVMe is the answer, then some device and component options are as follows.

NVMe device components and options include:

- Enclosures and connector port slots
- Adapters and controllers
- U.2, PCIe AIC and M.2 devices
- Shared storage system or appliances
- PCIe and NVMe switches

If NVMe is the answer, what to use when, where and why?

Why use an U.2 or 8639 slot when you could use PCIe AiC? Simple, your server or storage system may be PCIe slot constrained, yet have more available U.2 slots. There are U.2 drives from various vendors including Intel and Micro, as well as servers from Dell, Intel and Lenovo among many others.

Why and when would you use an NVMe M.2 device? As a local read/write cache, or perhaps a boot and system device on servers or appliances that have M.2 slots. Many servers and smaller workstations including Intel NUC support M.2. Likewise, there are M.2 devices from many different vendors including Micron, Samsung among others.

Where and why would you use NVMe PCIe AiC? Whenever you can and if you have enough PCIe slots of the proper form factor, mechanical and electrical (e.g. x1, x4, x8, x16) to support a particular card.

Can you mix and match different types of NVMe devices on the same server or appliance? As long as the physical server and its software (BIOS/UEFI, operating system, hypervisors, drivers) support it yes. Most server and appliance vendors support PCIe NVMe AiCs, however, pay attention to if they are x4, x8 both mechanical as well as electrical. Also, verify operating system and hypervisor device driver support. PCIe NVMe AiCs are available from Dell, Intel, Micron and many other vendors.

Networking with your Server and NVMe Storage

Keep in mind that context is important when discussing NVMe as there are devices for attaching as the back-end to servers, storage systems or appliances, as well as for front-end attachment (e.g. for attaching storage systems to servers). NVMe devices can also be internal to a server or storage system and appliance, or, accessible over a network. Think of NVMe as an upper-level command set protocol like SCSI that gets implemented on different networks (e.g. iSCSI, FCP, SRP).

How can NVMe use PCIe as a transport to use devices that are outside of a server? Different vendors have PCIe adapter cards that support longer distances (few meters) to attach to devices. For example, Dell EMC DSSD has a special dual port (two x4 ports) that are PCIe x8 cards for attachment to the DSSD shared SSD devices.

Note that there are also PCIe switches similar to SAS and InfiniBand among other switches. However just because these are switches, does not mean they are your regular off the shelf network type switch that your networking folks will know what to do with (or want to manage).

The following example shows a shared storage system or appliance being accessed by servers using traditional block, NAS file or object protocols. In this example, the storage system or appliance has implemented NVMe devices (PCIe AiC, M.2, U.2) as part of their back-end storage. The back-end storage might be all NVMe, or a mix of NVMe, SAS or SATA SSD and perhaps some high-capacity HDD.

NVMe and server storage access
Servers accessing shared storage with NVMe back-end devices

NVMe and server storage access via PCIe
NVMe PCIe attached (via front-end) storage with various back-end devices

In addition to shared PCIe-attached storage such as Dell EMC DSSD similar to what is shown above, there are also other NVMe options. For example, there are industry initiatives to support the NVMe protocol to use shared storage over fabric networks. There are different fabric networks, they range from RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) based as well as Fibre Channel NVME (e.g. FC-NVME) among others.

An option that on the surface may not seem like a natural fit or leverage NVMe to its fullest is simply adding NVMe devices as back-end media to existing arrays and appliances. For example, adding NVMe devices as the back-end to iSCSI, SAS, FC, FCoE or other block-based, NAS file or object systems.

NVMe and server storage access via shared PCIe
NVMe over a fabric network (via front-end) with various back-end devices

A common argument against using legacy storage access of shared NVMe is along the lines of why would you want to put a slow network or controller in front of a fast NVM device? You might not want to do that, or your vendor may tell you many reasons why you don’t want to do it particularly if they do not support it. On the other hand, just like other fast NVM SSD storage on shared systems, it may not be all about 100% full performance. Rather, for some environments, it might be about maximizing connectivity over many interfaces to faster NVM devices for several servers.

NVMe and server storage I/O performance

Is NVMe all about boosting the number of IOPS? NVMe can increase the number of IOPS, as well as support more bandwidth. However, it also reduces response time latency as would be expected with an SSD or NVM type of solution. The following image shows an example of not surprisingly an NVMe PCIe AiC x4 SSD outperforming (more IOPs, lower response time) compared to a 6Gb SATA SSD (apples to oranges). Also keep in mind that best benchmark or workload tool is your own application as well as your performance mileage will vary.

NVMe using less CPU per IOP
SATA SSD vs. NVMe PCIe AiC SSD IOPS, Latency and CPU per IOP

The above image shows the lower amount of CPU per IOP given the newer, more streamlined driver and I/O software protocol of NVMe. With NVMe there is less overhead due to the new design, more queues and ability to unlock value not only in SSD also in servers with more sockets, cores and threads.

What this means is that NVMe and SSD can boost performance for activity (TPS, IOPs, gets, puts, reads, writes). NVMe can also lower response time latency while also enabling higher throughput bandwidth. In other words, you get more work out of your servers CPU (and memory). Granted SSDs have been used for decades to boost server performance and in many cases, delay an upgrade to a newer faster system by getting more work out of them (e.g. SSD marketing 202).

NVMe maximizing your software license investments

What may not be so obvious (e.g. SSD marketing 404) is that by getting more work activity done in a given amount of time, you can also stretch your software licenses further. What this means is that you can get more out of your IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, VMware and other software licenses by increasing their effective productivity. You might already be using virtualization to increase server hardware efficiency and utilization to cut costs. Why not go further and boost productivity to increase your software license (as well as servers) effectiveness by using NVMe and SSDs?

Note that fast applications need fast software, servers, drivers, I/O protocols and devices.

Also just because you have NVMe present or PCIe does not mean full performance, similar to how some vendors put SSDs behind their slow controllers and saw, well slow performance. On the other hand vendors who had or have fast controllers (software, firmware, hardware) that were HDD or are even SSD performance constrained can see a performance boost.

Additional NVMe and related tips

If you have a Windows server and have not overridden, check your power plan to make sure it is not improperly set to balanced instead of high performance. For example using PowerShell issue the following command:

PowerCfg -SetActive “381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e”

Another Windows related tip if you have not done so is enable task manager disk stats by issuing from a command line “diskperf –y”. Then display task manager and performance and see drive performance.

Need to benchmark, validate, compare or test an NVMe, SSD (or even HDD) device or system, there are various tools and workloads for different scenarios. Likewise those various tools can be configured for different activity to reflect your needs (and application workloads). For example, Microsoft Diskspd, fio.exe, iometer and vdbench sample scripts are shown here (along with results) as a starting point for comparison or validation testing.

Does M.2. mean you have NVMe? That depends as some systems implement M.2 with SATA, while others support NVMe, read the fine print or ask for clarification.

Do all NVMe using PCIe run at the same speed? Not necessarily as some might be PCIe x1 or x4 or x8. Likewise some NVMe PCIe cards might be x8 (mechanical and electrical) yet split out into a pair of x4 ports. Also keep in mind that similar to a dual port HDD, NVMe U.2 drives can have two paths to a server, storage system controller or adapter, however both might not be active at the same time. You might also have a fast NVMe device attached to a slow server or storage system or adapter.

Who to watch and keep an eye on in the NVMe ecosystem? Besides those mentioned above, others to keep an eye on include Broadcom, E8, Enmotus Fuzedrive (micro-tiering software), Excelero, Magnotics, Mellanox, Microsemi (e.g. PMC Sierra), Microsoft (Windows Server 2016 S2D + ReFS + Storage Tiering), NVM Express trade group, Seagate, VMware (Virtual NVMe driver part of vSphere ESXi in addition to previous driver support) and WD/Sandisk among many others.

Where To Learn More

Additional related content can be found at:

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

What This All Means

NVMe is in your future, that was the answer, however there are the when, where, how, with what among other questions to be addressed. One of the great things IMHO about NVMe is that you can have it your way, where and when you need it, as a replacement or companion to what you have. Granted that will vary based on your preferred vendors as well as what they support today or in the future.

If NVMe is the answer, Ask your vendor when they will support NVMe as a back-end for their storage systems, as well as a front-end. Also decide when will your servers (hardware, operating systems hypervisors) support NVMe and in what variation. Learn more why NVMe is the answer and related topics at www.thenvmeplace.com

Ok, nuff said, for now.

October 17, 2016November 26, 2023

Updated Software Defined Data Infrastructure Webinars and Fall 2016 events

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Webinars and Fall 2016 events

server storage I/O trends

Here is the updated Server StorageIO fall 2016 webinar and event activities covering software defined data center, data infrastructure, virtual, cloud, containers, converged, hyper-converged server, storage, I/O network, performance and data protection among other topics.

December 7, 2016 – Webinar 11AM PT – BrightTalk
Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Decision Making

Are Converged Infrastructures (CI), Hyper-Converged Infrastructures (HCI), Cluster in Box or Cloud in Box (CiB) solutions for you? The answer is it depends on what your needs, requirements, application among other criteria are. In addition are you focused on a particular technology solution or architecture approach, or, looking for something that adapts to your needs? Join us in this discussion exploring your options for different scenarios as we look beyond they hype including to next wave of hyper-scale converged along with applicable decision-making criteria. Topics include:

– Data Infrastructures exist to support applications and their underlying resource needs
– What are your application and environment needs along with other objectives
– Explore various approaches for hyper-small and hyper-large environments
– What are you converging, hardware, hypervisors, management or something else?
– Does HCI mean hyper-vendor-lock-in, if so, is that a bad thing?
– When, where, why and how to use different scenarios

November 29-30, 2016 (New) – Converged & Hyper-Converged Decision Making
Is Converged Infrastructure Right For You?
Workshop Seminar – Nijkerk The Netherlands

Agenda and topics to be covered include:

When should decide to evaluate CI/HCI vs. traditional approach
What are decision and evaluation criteria for apples to apples vs. Apples to pears
What are the costs, benefits, and caveats of the different approaches
How different applications such as VDI or VSI or database have different needs
What are the network, storage, software license and training cost implications
Different comparison criteria for smaller environments remote office vs. Larger enterprise
How will you protect and secure a CI, HCI environment (HA, BC, BR, DR, Backup)
What is the risk and benefit of startups, companies with limited portfolios vs. Big vendors
Do it yourself (DiY) vs. Turnkey software vs. Bundled tin wrapped software solution
We will also look at associated trends including software-defined, NVM/SSD, NVMe, VMware, Microsoft, KVM, Citrix/Xen, Docker, OpenStack among others.

Organized by:

November 28, 2016 (New) – Server Storage I/O Fundamental Trends V2.1116
Whats New, Whats the buzz, what you need to know about and whos doing what
Workshop Seminar – Nijkerk The Netherlands

Agenda and topics that will be covered include:

Who’s doing what, who are the new emerging vendors, solutions and technologies to watch
Non-Volatile Memory (NVM), flash solid state device (SSD), Storage Class Memory (SCM)
Networking with your servers and storage including NVMe, NVMeoF and RoCE
Cloud, Object and Bulk storage for data protection, archiving, near-line, scale-out
Data protection and software defined storage management (backup, BC, BR, DR, archive)
Microsoft Windows Server 2016, Nano, S2D and Hyper-V
VMware, OpenStack, Ceph, Docker and Containers, CI and HCI
EMC is gone, now there is Dell EMC and what that means
Various vendors and solutions from legacy to new and emerging
Recommendations, usage or deployment scenarios and tips
Some examples of who’s doing what includes AWS, Brocade, Cisco, Dell EMC, Enmotus, Futjistu, Google, HDS, HP and Huawei, IBM, Intel, Lenovo, Mellanox, Micron, Microsoft, NetApp, Nutanix, Oracle, Pure, Quantum, Qumulo, Reduxio, Rubrik, Samsung, SANdisk, Seagate, Simplivity and Tintri, Veeam, Veritas, VMware and WD among others.

Organized by:

November 23, 2016 – Webinar 10AM PT BrightTalk
BCDR and Cloud Backup Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI) and Data Protection

The answer is BCDR and Cloud Backup, however what was the question? Besides how to protect preserve and secure your data, applications along with data Infrastructures against various threat risk issues, what are some other common questions? For example how to modernize, rethink, re-architect, use new and old things in new ways, these and other topics, techniques, trends, tools have a common theme of BCDR and Cloud Backup. Join us in this discussion exploring your options for protecting data, applications and your data Infrastructures spanning legacy, software-defined virtual and cloud environments. Topics include:

– Data Infrastructures exist to support applications and their underlying resource needs
– Various cloud storage options to meet different application PACE needs
– Do clouds need to be backed-up or protected?
– How to leverage clouds for various data protection objectives
– When, where, why and how to use different scenarios

November 23, 2016 – Webinar 9AM PT – BrightTalk
Cloud Storage – Hybrid and Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI)

You have been told, or determined that you need (or want) to use cloud storage, ok, now what? What type of cloud storage do you need or want, or do you simply want cloud storage? However, what are your options as well as application requirements including Performance, Availability, Capacity and Economics (PACE) along with access or interfaces? Where are your applications and where will they be located? What are your objectives for using cloud storage or is it simply you have heard or told its cheaper. Join us in this discussion exploring your options, considerations for cloud storage decision-making. Topics include:

– Data Infrastructures exist to support applications and their underlying resource needs
– Various cloud storage options to meet different application PACE needs
– Storage for primary, secondary, performance, availability, capacity, backup, archiving
– Public, private and hybrid cloud storage options from block, file, object to application service
– When, where, why and how to use cloud storage for different scenarios

November 22, 2016 – Webinar 10AM PT – BrightTalk
Cloud Infrastructure Hybrid and Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI)

At the core of cloud (public, private, hybrid) next generation data centers are software defined data infrastructures that exist to protect, preserve and serve applications, data along with their resulting information services. Software defined data infrastructure core components include hardware, software servers and storage configured (defined) to provide various services enabling application Performance Availability Capacity and Economics (PACE). Just as there are different types of environments, applications along with workloads various options, technologies as well as techniques exist for cloud services (and underlying data infrastructures). Join us in this session to discuss trends, technologies, tools, techniques and services options for cloud infrastructures. Topics include:

– Data Infrastructures exist to support applications and their underlying resource needs
– Software Defined Infrastructures (SDDI) are what enable Software Defined Data Centers and clouds
– Various types of clouds along with cloud services that determine how resources get defined
– When, where, why and how to use cloud Infrastructures along with associated resources

November 15, 2016 (New) – 11AM PT Webinar – Redmond Magazine and Solarwinds
The O.A.R. of Virtualization Scaling
A journey of optimization, automation, and reporting

Your journey to a flexible, scalable and secure IT universe begins now. Join Microsoft MVP and VMware vSAN and vExpert Greg Schulz of Server StorageIO along with VMware vExpert, Cisco Champion and Head Geek of Virtualization and Cloud Practice Kong Yang of SolarWinds for an interactive discussion empowering you to become the master of your software defined and virtual data center. Topics will include:

Trust your instruments and automation, however, verify they are working properl
Insight into how your environment, as well as automation tools, are working
Leverage automation to handle recurring tasks so you can focus on more productive activities
Capture, retain and transfer knowledge and tradecraft experiences into automation policies
Automated system management is only as good as the policies and data they rely upon
Optimize via automation that relies on reporting for insight, awareness and analytics

November 3, 2016 (New) – Webinar 11AM PT – Redmond Magazine and
Dell Software
Tailor Your Backup Data Repositories to
Fit Your Security and Management Needs

Does data protection storage have you working overtime to take care of it? Do you have the flexibility to protect, preserve, secure and serve different workgroups or customers in a shared environment? Is your environment looking to expand with new applications and remote offices, yet your data protection is slowing you down?

In this webinar we will look at current and emerging trends along with issues including how different threat risk challenges impact your evolving environment, as well as opportunities to address them. It’s time to deploy technology that works for you and your environment instead of you working for the solution.

Attend and learn about:

Data protection trends, issues, regulatory compliance, challenges and opportunities
How to utilize purpose built appliances to protect and defend your systems, applications and data from various threat risks
Importance of timely insight and situational awareness into your data protection infrastructure
Protecting centralized and distributed remote office branch offices (ROBO) workgroups
What you can do today to optimize your environment

October 27, 2016 (New) – Webinar 10AM PT – Virtual Instruments
The Value of Infrastructure Insight

This webinar looks at the value of data center infrastructure insight both as a technology as well as a business productivity enabler. Besides productivity, having insight into how data infrastructure resources (servers, storage, networks, system software) are used, enables informed analysis, troubleshooting, planning, forecasting as well as cost-effective decision-making. In other words, data center infrastructure insight, based on infrastructure performance analytics, enables you to avoid flying blind, having situational awareness for proactive Information Technology (IT) management. Your return on innovation is increased, and leveraging insight awareness along with metrics that matter drives return on investment (ROI) along with enhanced service delivery.

October 20, 2016 – Webinar 9AM PT – BrightTalk
Next-Gen Data Centers Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI) including Servers, Storage and Virtualization

At the core of next generation data centers are software defined data infrastructures that enable, protect, preserve and serve applications, data along with their resulting information services. Software defined data infrastructure core components include hardware, software servers and storage configured (defined) to provide various services enabling application Performance Availability Capacity and Economics (PACE). Just as there are different types of environments, applications along with workloads various options, technologies as well as techniques exist for virtual servers and storage. Join us in this session to discuss trends, technologies, tools, techniques and services around storage and virtualization for today, tomorrow, and in the years to come. Topics include:

– Data Infrastructures exist to support applications and their underlying resource needs
– Software Defined Infrastructures (SDDI) are what enable Software Defined Data Centers
– Server and Storage Virtualization better together, with and without CI/HCI
– Many different facets (types) of Server virtualization and virtual storage
– When, where, why and how to use storage virtualization and virtual storage

September 20, 2016 – Webinar 8AM PT – BrightTalk
Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI) Enabling Software Defined Data Centers – Part of Software-Defined Storage summit

Data Infrastructures exist to support applications and their underlying resource needs. Software-Defined Infrastructures (SDI) are what enable Software-Defined Data Centers, and at the heart of a SDI is storage that is software-defined. This spans cloud, virtual and physical storage and is at the focal point of today. Join us in this session to discuss trends, technologies, tools, techniques and services around SDI and SDDC- today, tomorrow, and in the years to come.

September 13, 2016 – Webinar 11AM PT – Redmond Magazine and
Dell Software
Windows Server 2016 and Active Directory
Whats New and How to Plan for Migration

Windows Server 2016 is expected to GA this fall and is a modernized version of the Microsoft operating system that includes new capabilities such as Active Directory (AD) enhancements. AD is critical to organizational operations providing control and secure access to data, networks, servers, storage and more from physical, virtual and cloud (public and hybrid). But over time, organizations along with their associated IT infrastructures have evolved due to mergers, acquisitions, restructuring and general growth. As a result, yesterday’s AD deployments may look like they did in the past while using new technology (e.g. in old ways). Now is the time to start planning for how you will optimize your AD environment using new tools and technologies such as those in Windows Server 2016 and AD in new ways. Optimizing AD means having a new design, performing cleanup and restructuring prior to migration vs. simply moving what you have. Join us for this interactive webinar to begin planning your journey to Windows Server 2016 and a new optimized AD deployment that is flexible, scalable and elastic, and enables resilient infrastructures. You will learn:

What’s new in Windows Server 2016 and how it impacts your AD
Why an optimized AD is critical for IT environments moving forward
How to gain insight into your current AD environment
AD restructuring planning considerations

September 8, 2016 – Webinar 11AM PT (Watch on Demand) – Redmond Magazine, Acronis and Unitrends
Data Protection for Modern Microsoft Environments

Your organization’s business depends on modern Microsoft® environments — Microsoft Azure and new versions of Windows Server 2016, Microsoft Hyper-V with RCT, and business applications — and you need a data protection solution that keeps pace with Microsoft technologies. If you lose mission-critical data, it can cost you $100,000 or more for a single hour of downtime. Join our webinar and learn how different data protection solutions can protect your Microsoft environment, whether you store data on company premises, at remote locations, in private and public clouds, and on mobile devices.

Where To Learn More

View other upcoming and recent events at the Server StorageIO activities page here.

What This All Means

Its fall back to school and learning time, join me on these and other upcoming event activities.

Ok, nuff said, for now…

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, vSAN and VMware vExpert. Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio

October 13, 2016November 26, 2023

Gaining Server Storage I/O Insight into Microsoft Windows Server 2016

Server Storage I/O Insight into Microsoft Windows Server 2016

server storage I/O trends
Updated 12/8/16

In case you had not heard, Microsoft announced the general availability (GA, also known as Release To Manufacturing (RTM) ) of the newest version of its Windows server operating system aka Windows Server 2016 along with System Center 2016. Note that as well as being released to traditional manufacturing distribution mediums as well as MSDN, the Windows Server 2016 bits are also available on Azure.

Microsoft Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2016 Welcome Screen – Source Server StorageIOlab.com

For some this might be new news, or a refresh of what Microsoft announced a few weeks ago (e.g. the formal announcement). Likewise, some of you may not be aware that Microsoft is celebrating WIndows Server 20th Birthday (read more here).

Yet for others who have participated in the public beta aka public technical previews (TP) over the past year or two or simply after the information coming out of Microsoft and other venues, there should not be a lot of surprises.

Whats New With Windows Server 2016

Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Desktop
Windows Server 2016 Desktop and tools – Source Server StorageIOlab.com

Besides a new user interface including visual GUI and Powershell among others, there are many new feature functionalities summarized below:

Enhanced time-server with 1ms accuracy
Nano and Windows Containers (Linux via Hyper-V)
Hyper-V enhanced Linux services including shielded VMs
Simplified management (on-premisess and cloud)
Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) and Storage Replica (SR) – view more here and here

Storage Replica (SR) Scenarios including synchronous and asynchronous – Via Microsoft.com

Resilient File System aka ReFS (now default file system) storage tiering (cache)
Hot-swap virtual networking device support
Reliable Change Tracking (RCT) for faster Hyper-V backups
RCT improves resiliency vs. VSS change tracking
PowerShell and other management enhancements
Including subordinated / delegated management roles
Compliment Azure AD with on premise AD
Resilient/HA RDS using Azure SQL DB for connection broker
Encrypted VMs (at rest and during live migration)
AD Federation Services (FS) authenticate users in LDAP dir.
vTPM for securing and encrypting Hyper-V VMs
AD Certificate Services (CS) increase support for TPM
Enhanced TPM support for smart card access management
AD Domain Services (DS) security resiliency for hybrid and mobile devices

Here is a Microsoft TechNet post that goes into more detail of what is new in WIndows Server 2016.

Free ebook: Introducing Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview (Via Microsoft Press)

Check out the above free ebook, after looking through it, I recommend adding it to your bookshelf. There are lots of good intro and overview material for Windows Server 2016 to get you up to speed quickly, or as a refresh.

Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) CI and HCI

Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) builds on Storage Spaces that appeared in earlier Windows and Windows Server editions. Some of the major changes and enhancements include ability to leverage local direct attached storage (DAS) such as internal (or external) dedicated NVMe, SAS and SATA HDDs as well as flash SSDs that used for creating software defined storage for various scenarios.

Scenarios include converged infrastructure (CI) disaggregated as well as aggregated hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) for Hyper-V among other workloads. Windows Server 2016 S2D nodes communicate (from a storage perspective) via a software storage bus. Data Protection and availability is enabled between S2D nodes via Storage Replica (SR) that can do software based synchronous and asynchronous replication.

Aggregated – Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) – Source Microsoft.com

Desegregated – Converged Infrastructure (CI) – Source Microsoft.com

The following is a Microsoft produced YouTube video providing a nice overview and insight into Windows Server 2016 and Microsoft Software Defined Storage aka S2D.

YouTube Video Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) via Microsoft.com

Server storage I/O performance

What About Performance?

A common question that comes up with servers, storage, I/O and software defined data infrastructure is what about performance?

Following are some various links to different workloads showing performance for Hyper-V, S2D and Windows Server. Note as with any benchmark, workload or simulation take them for what they are, something to compare that may or might not be applicable to your own workload and environments.

Large scale VM performance with Hyper-V and in-memory transaction processing (Via Technet)
Benchmarking Microsoft Hyper-V server, VMware ESXi and Xen Hypervisors (Via cisjournal PDF)
Server 2016 Impact on VDI User Experience (Via LoginVSI)
Storage IOPS update with Storage Spaces Direct (Via TechNet)
SQL Server workload (benchmark) Order Processing Benchmark using In-Memory OLTP (Via Github)
Setting up testing Windows Server 2016 and S2D using virtual machines (Via MSDN blogs)
Storage throughput with Storage Spaces Direct (S2D TP5 (Via TechNet)
Server and Storage I/O Benchmark Tools: Microsoft Diskspd (Part I)

Where To Learn More

For those of you not as familiar with Microsoft Windows Server and related topics, or that simply need a refresh, here are several handy links as well as resources.

Introducing Windows Server 2016 (Free ebook from Microsoft Press)
What’s New in Windows Server 2016 (Via TechNet)
Microsoft S2D Software Storage Bus (Via TechNet)
Understanding Software Defined Storage with S2D in Windows Server 2016 (Via TechNet)
Microsoft Storage Replica (SR) (Via TechNet)
Server and Storage I/O Benchmark Tools: Microsoft Diskspd (Part I)
Microsoft Windows S2D Software Defined Storage (Via TechNet)
Windows Server 2016 and Active Directory (Redmond Magazine Webinar)
Data Protection for Modern Microsoft Environments (Redmond Magazine Webinar)
Resilient File System aka ReFS (Via TechNet)
DISKSPD now on GitHub, and the mysterious VMFLEET released (Via TechNet)
Hyper-converged solution using Storage Spaces Direct in Windows Server 2016 (Via TechNet)
NVMe, SSD and HDD storage configurations in Storage Spaces Direct TP5 (Via TechNet)
General information about SSD at www.thessdplace.com and NVMe at www.thenvmeplace.com
How to run nested Hyper-V and Windows Server 2016 (Via Altaro and via MSDN)
How to run Nested Windows Server and Hyper-V on VMware vSphere ESXi (Via Nokitel)
Get the Windows Server 2016 evaluation bits here
Microsoft Azure Stack overview and related material via Microsoft
Introducing Windows Server 2016 (Via MicrosoftPress)
Various WIndows Server and S2D lab scripts (Via Github)
Storage Spaces Direct – Lab Environment Setup (Via Argon Systems)
Setting up S2D with a 4 node configuration (Via StarWind blog)
SQL Server workload (benchmark) Order Processing Benchmark using In-Memory OLTP (Via Github)
Setting up testing Windows Server 2016 and S2D here using virtual machines (Via MSDN blogs)
Hyper-V large-scale VM performance for in-memory transaction processing (Via Technet)
BrightTalk Webinar – Software-Defined Data Centers (SDDC) are in your Future (if not already here)
Microsoft TechNet: Understand the cache in Storage Spaces Direct
BrightTalk Weibniar – Software-Defined Data Infrastructures Enabling Software-Defined Data Centers
Happy 20th Birthday Windows Server, ready for Server 2016?
Server StorageIO resources including added links, tools, reports, events and more.

What This All Means

While Microsoft Windows Server recently celebrated its 20th birthday (or anniversary), a lot has changed as well as evolved. This includes Windows Servers 2016 supporting new deployment and consumption models (e.g. lightweight Nano, full data center with desktop interface, on-premises, bare metal, virtualized (Hyper-V, VMware, etc) as well as cloud). Besides how consumed and configured, which can also be for CI and HCI modes, Windows Server 2016 along with Hyper-V extend the virtualization and container capabilities into non-Microsoft environments specifically around Linux and Docker. Not only are the support for those environments and platforms enhanced, so to are the management capabilities and interfaces from Powershell to Bash Linux shell being part of WIndows 10 and Server 2016.

What this all means is that if you have not looked at Windows Server in some time, its time you do, even if you are not a WIndows or Microsoft fan, you will want to know what it is that has been updated (perhaps even update your fud if that is the case) to stay current. Get your hands on the bits and try Windows Server 2016 on a bare metal server, or as a VM guest, or via cloud including Azure, or simply leverage the above resources to learn more and stay informed.

Ok, nuff said, for now…

Cheers
Gs

September 20, 2015November 26, 2023

Fall 2015 Server Storage I/O Cloud Virtual Seminars Going Dutch

Storage I/O trends

Fall 2015 Server Storage I/O Cloud Virtual Seminars Going Dutch

It’s that time of the year again where the fall 2015 events and activities are underway which also includes a week of sessions in Holland October 13-16. I will be participating in four days of workshop seminars being organized by Brouwer Storage Consultancy in Nijkerk covering server storage decision-making, converged and bulk storage options, software defined storage management, data center infrastructure management and data protection along with industry trends and update sessions.

October 13th: Symposium – Software Defined Storage Management
09:00 -17:00	DOWNLOAD FLYER (Dutch)	REGISTER HERE

FREE Session! Access for end-users only, through invitation or contacting BSC.

Event Location: Hotel & Gasterij De Roode Schuur, Oude Barneveldseweg 98, 3862PS Nijkerk – www.deroodeschuur.nl

Brouwer Storage Making Decision Seminar Workshops

October 14th: Server Storage I/O Fundamental Trends V2.015 – What’s New, What’s the buzz, what you need to know about.
09:00 -17:00	DOWNLOAD Abstract/Agenda	REGISTER HERE

Event Location: Golden Tulip Ampt van Nijkerk Hotel, Berencamperweg 4, 3861MC, Nijkerk – www.goldentulipamptvannijkerk.com/en

Brouwer Storage Making Decision Seminar Workshops

October 15th: Symposium – Data Center Infrastructure Management
09:00 -17:00	DOWNLOAD Abstract / Agenda	REGISTER Here
FREE Session! Access, through invitation or contacting BSC.
Event Location: Hotel & Gasterij De Roode Schuur, Oude Barneveldseweg 98, 3862PS Nijkerk – www.deroodeschuur.nl

Going Dutch Storage Seminars

October 16th: "Converged Day" Server and Storage Decision making – How do you want or need your storage packaged?
09:00 -17:00	DOWNLOAD Abstract / Agenda	REGISTER HERE
Event Location: Golden Tulip Ampt van Nijkerk Hotel, Berencamperweg 4, 3861MC, Nijkerk – www.goldentulipamptvannijkerk.com/en

Going Dutch Server Storage I/O

Learn more at the Brouwer Storage Consultancy site here, or getting in touch with them to reserve your seat at these events.

Office: Olevoortseweg 43
3861 MH Nijkerk
The Netherlands

T +31-33-246-6825
C +31-652-601-309
F +31-33-245-8956
E info@brouwerconsultancy.com

Where to read, watch and learn more

Brouwer Storage Consultancy home page
Selecting Storage: Start With Requirements (Via NetworkComputing)
EMCworld 2015 How Do You Want Your Storage Wrapped?
NVMe: The Golden Ticket for Faster Flash Storage? (Via EnterpriseStorageForum)
Is Future Storage Converging Around Hyper-Converged? (Via EnterpriseStorageForum)
Going dutch and other Spring 2012 StorageIO activities
StorageIO going Dutch and Deutsch fall 2012 and and Dutch StorageExpo Recap
NAND, DRAM, SAS/SCSI and SATA/AHCI: Not Dead, Yet (Via EnterpriseStorageForum)
Selecting Storage: It’s All About The Applications (Via NetworkComputing)
The Importance of a Data life-cycle Management Strategy (Via IronMoutain Blog)
Information Lifecycle Management Strategy: Which Data Types Have Value? (Via IronMountain Blog)
SSD, flash and DRAM, DejaVu or something new?
Is Computer Data Storage Complex? It Depends
StorageIO going Dutch: Seminar for Storage and I/O professionals
Cloud and travel fun
Cloud Conversation (AWS and other Updates)

Watch for more events, seminars, live video, webinars and virtual trade shows by visiting the StorageIO events page.

What this all means and wrap up

Smart server and storage for cloud, virtual and physical or legacy environments starts with being informed, knowing your requirements, options and having insight into industry trends that are applicable to your environment. These sessions are vendor and technology neutral held off-site at hotel venues in Nijkerk Netherlands so no need to worry about the sales teams coming in to sell you something during the breaks or lunch which are provided. There are also opportunities throughout the workshops for engagement, discussion and interaction with other attendees that includes your peers from various commercial, government and service providers among others. Hope to see in Nijkerk to discuss server stowage I/O cloud virtual and other industry trends, technologies, techniques in October.

Ok, nuff said

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

May 19, 2013November 26, 2023

How many I/O iops can flash SSD or HDD do?

How many i/o iops can flash ssd or hdd do with vmware?

Updated 2/10/2018

A common question I run across is how many I/O iopsS can flash SSD or HDD storage device or system do or give.

The answer is or should be it depends.

This is the first of a two-part series looking at storage performance, and in context specifically around drive or device (e.g. mediums) characteristics across HDD, HHDD and SSD that can be found in cloud, virtual, and legacy environments. In this first part the focus is around putting some context around drive or device performance with the second part looking at some workload characteristics (e.g. benchmarks).

What about cloud, tape summit resources, storage systems or appliance?

Lets leave those for a different discussion at another time.

Getting started

Part of my interest in tools, metrics that matter, measurements, analyst, forecasting ties back to having been a server, storage and IO performance and capacity planning analyst when I worked in IT. Another aspect ties back to also having been a sys admin as well as business applications developer when on the IT customer side of things. This was followed by switching over to the vendor world involved with among other things competitive positioning, customer design configuration, validation, simulation and benchmarking HDD and SSD based solutions (e.g. life before becoming an analyst and advisory consultant).

Btw, if you happen to be interested in learn more about server, storage and IO performance and capacity planning, check out my first book Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) that has a bit of information on it. There is also coverage of metrics and planning in my two other books The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press). I have some copies of Resilient Storage Networks available at a special reader or viewer rate (essentially shipping and handling). If interested drop me a note and can fill you in on the details.

There are many rules of thumb (RUT) when it comes to metrics that matter such as IOPS, some that are older while others may be guess or measured in different ways. However the answer is that it depends on many things ranging from if a standalone hard disk drive (HDD), Hybrid HDD (HHDD), Solid State Device (SSD) or if attached to a storage system, appliance, or RAID adapter card among others.

Taking a step back, the big picture

Various HDD, HHDD and SSD’s

Server, storage and I/O performance and benchmark fundamentals

Even if just looking at a HDD, there are many variables ranging from the rotational speed or Revolutions Per Minute (RPM), interface including 1.5Gb, 3.0Gb, 6Gb or 12Gb SAS or SATA or 4Gb Fibre Channel. If simply using a RUT or number based on RPM can cause issues particular with 2.5 vs. 3.5 or enterprise and desktop. For example, some current generation 10K 2.5 HDD can deliver the same or better performance than an older generation 3.5 15K. Other drive factors (see this link for HDD fundamentals) including physical size such as 3.5 inch or 2.5 inch small form factor (SFF), enterprise or desktop or consumer, amount of drive level cache (DRAM). Space capacity of a drive can also have an impact such as if all or just a portion of a large or small capacity devices is used. Not to mention what the drive is attached to ranging from in internal SAS or SATA drive bay, USB port, or a HBA or RAID adapter card or in a storage system.

HDD fundamentals

How about benchmark and performance for marketing or comparison tricks including delayed, deferred or asynchronous writes vs. synchronous or actually committed data to devices? Lets not forget about short stroking (only using a portion of a drive for better IOP’s) or even long stroking (to get better bandwidth leveraging spiral transfers) among others.

Almost forgot, there are also thick, standard, thin and ultra thin drives in 2.5 and 3.5 inch form factors. What’s the difference? The number of platters and read write heads. Look at the following image showing various thickness 2.5 inch drives that have various numbers of platters to increase space capacity in a given density. Want to take a wild guess as to which one has the most space capacity in a given footprint? Also want to guess which type I use for removable disk based archives along with for onsite disk based backup targets (compliments my offsite cloud backups)?

Thick, thin and ultra thin devices

Beyond physical and configuration items, then there are logical configuration including the type of workload, large or small IOPS, random, sequential, reads, writes or mixed (various random, sequential, read, write, large and small IO). Other considerations include file system or raw device, number of workers or concurrent IO threads, size of the target storage space area to decide impact of any locality of reference or buffering. Some other items include how long the test or workload simulation ran for, was the device new or worn in before use among other items.

Tools and the performance toolbox

Then there are the various tools for generating IO’s or workloads along with recording metrics such as reads, writes, response time and other information. Some examples (mix of free or for fee) include Bonnie, Iometer, Iorate, IOzone, Vdbench, TPC, SPC, Microsoft ESRP, SPEC and netmist, Swifttest, Vmark, DVDstore and PCmark 7 among many others. Some are focused just on the storage system and IO path while others are application specific thus exercising servers, storage and IO paths.

Server, storage and IO performance toolbox

Having used Iometer since the late 90s, it has its place and is popular given its ease of use. Iometer is also long in the tooth and has its limits including not much if any new development, never the less, I have it in the toolbox. I also have Futremark PCmark 7 (full version) which turns out has some interesting abilities to do more than exercise an entire Windows PC. For example PCmark can use a secondary drive for doing IO to.

PCmark can be handy for spinning up with VMware (or other tools) lots of virtual Windows systems pointing to a NAS or other shared storage device doing real world type activity. Something that could be handy for testing or stressing virtual desktop infrastructures (VDI) along with other storage systems, servers and solutions. I also have Vdbench among others tools in the toolbox including Iorate which was used to drive the workloads shown below.

What I look for in a tool are how extensible are the scripting capabilities to define various workloads along with capabilities of the test engine. A nice GUI is handy which makes Iometer popular and yes there are script capabilities with Iometer. That is also where Iometer is long in the tooth compared to some of the newer generation of tools that have more emphasis on extensibility vs. ease of use interfaces. This also assumes knowing what workloads to generate vs. simply kicking off some IOPs using default settings to see what happens.

Another handy tool is for recording what’s going on with a running system including IO’s, reads, writes, bandwidth or transfers, random and sequential among other things. This is where when needed I turn to something like HiMon from HyperIO, if you have not tried it, get in touch with Tom West over at HyperIO and tell him StorageIO sent you to get a demo or trial. HiMon is what I used for doing start, stop and boot among other testing being able to see IO’s at the Windows file system level (or below) including very early in the boot or shutdown phase.

Here is a link to some other things I did awhile back with HiMon to profile some Windows and VDI activity test profiling.

What’s the best tool or benchmark or workload generator?

The one that meets your needs, usually your applications or something as close as possible to it.

Various 2.5 and 3.5 inch HDD, HHDD, SSD with different performance

Where To Learn More

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

Can we get a side of context with them IOPS and other storage metrics?
WHEN AND WHERE TO USE NAND FLASH SSD FOR VIRTUAL SERVERS
Revisiting RAID storage remains relevant and resources
NVMe overview and primer – Part I
Part 1 of HDD for content servers series Trends and Content Application Servers
Part 2 of HDD for content servers series Content application server decisions and testing plans
Part 3 of HDD for content servers series Test hardware and software configuration
Part 4 of HDD for content servers series Large file I/O processing
Part 5 of HDD for content servers series Small file I/O processing
Part 6 of HDD for content servers series General I/O processing
Part 7 of HDD for content servers series How HDD continue to evolve over different generations and wrap up
As the platters spin, HDD’s for cloud, virtual and traditional storage environments
How many IOPS can a HDD, HHDD or SSD do?
Hard Disk Drives (HDD) for Virtual Environments
Server and Storage I/O performance and benchmarking tools
Server storage I/O performance benchmark workload scripts Part I and Part II
How to test your HDD, SSD or all flash array (AFA) storage fundamentals
What is the best server storage I/O workload benchmark? It depends
I/O, I/O how well do you know about good or bad server and storage I/Os?
Big Files Lots of Little File Processing Benchmarking with Vdbench
Part II – NVMe overview and primer (Different Configurations)
Part III – NVMe overview and primer (Need for Performance Speed)
Part IV – NVMe overview and primer (Where and How to use NVMe)
Part V – NVMe overview and primer (Where to learn more, what this all means)
PCIe Server I/O Fundamentals
If NVMe is the answer, what are the questions?
NVMe Wont Replace Flash By Itself
Via Computerweekly – NVMe discussion: PCIe card vs U.2 and M.2
Intel and Micron unveil new 3D XPoint Non Volatie Memory (NVM) for servers and storage
Part II – Intel and Micron new 3D XPoint server and storage NVM
Part III – 3D XPoint new server storage memory from Intel and Micron
Server storage I/O benchmark tools, workload scripts and examples (Part I) and (Part II)
Data Infrastructure Overview, Its Whats Inside of Data Centers
All You Need To Know about Remote Office/Branch Office Data Protection Backup (free webinar with registration)
Software Defined, Converged Infrastructure (CI), Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) resources
The SSD Place (SSD, NVM, PM, SCM, Flash, NVMe, 3D XPoint, MRAM and related topics)
The NVMe Place (NVMe related topics, trends, tools, technologies, tip resources)
Data Protection Diaries (Archive, Backup/Restore, BC, BR, DR, HA, RAID/EC/LRC, Replication, Security)
Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press 2017) including SDDC, Cloud, Container and more
Various Data Infrastructure related events, webinars and other activities
www.objectstoragecenter.com and Software Defined, Cloud, Bulk and Object Storage Fundamentals
Server Storage I/O Network PCIe Fundamentals

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

What This All Means

That depends, however continue reading part II of this series to see some results for various types of drives and workloads.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links P to T

IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

Where To Learn More

What This All Means

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Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links to Others

IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

Where To Learn More

What This All Means

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Some popular 2016 storageioblog posts

Where To Learn More

What this all means and wrapping up

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Congratulations and welcome new and returning fellow 2017 vExperts

Where To Learn More

What this all means and wrapping up

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What Does CI and HCI Mean to Storage I/O?

Where To Learn More

What This All Means

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If NVMe is the answer, what are the questions?

Main Features and Benefits of NVMe

NVM and Media memory matters

Server and Storage I/O Media access matters

Navigating your various NVMe options

Networking with your Server and NVMe Storage

NVMe and server storage I/O performance

NVMe maximizing your software license investments

Additional NVMe and related tips

Where To Learn More

What This All Means

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Software Defined Data Infrastructure Webinars and Fall 2016 events

December 7, 2016 – Webinar 11AM PT – BrightTalk Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Decision Making

November 29-30, 2016 (New) – Converged & Hyper-Converged Decision Making Is Converged Infrastructure Right For You? Workshop Seminar – Nijkerk The Netherlands

November 28, 2016 (New) – Server Storage I/O Fundamental Trends V2.1116 Whats New, Whats the buzz, what you need to know about and whos doing what Workshop Seminar – Nijkerk The Netherlands

November 23, 2016 – Webinar 10AM PT BrightTalkBCDR and Cloud Backup Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI) and Data Protection

November 23, 2016 – Webinar 9AM PT – BrightTalkCloud Storage – Hybrid and Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI)

November 22, 2016 – Webinar 10AM PT – BrightTalkCloud Infrastructure Hybrid and Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI)

November 15, 2016 (New) – 11AM PT Webinar – Redmond Magazine and Solarwinds The O.A.R. of Virtualization Scaling A journey of optimization, automation, and reporting

November 3, 2016 (New) – Webinar 11AM PT – Redmond Magazine and Dell Software Tailor Your Backup Data Repositories to Fit Your Security and Management Needs

October 27, 2016 (New) – Webinar 10AM PT – Virtual Instruments The Value of Infrastructure Insight

October 20, 2016 – Webinar 9AM PT – BrightTalk Next-Gen Data Centers Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI) including Servers, Storage and Virtualization

September 20, 2016 – Webinar 8AM PT – BrightTalk Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI) Enabling Software Defined Data Centers – Part of Software-Defined Storage summit

September 13, 2016 – Webinar 11AM PT – Redmond Magazine and Dell SoftwareWindows Server 2016 and Active DirectoryWhats New and How to Plan for Migration

September 8, 2016 – Webinar 11AM PT (Watch on Demand) – Redmond Magazine, Acronis and UnitrendsData Protection for Modern Microsoft Environments

Where To Learn More

What This All Means

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Server Storage I/O Insight into Microsoft Windows Server 2016

Whats New With Windows Server 2016

Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) CI and HCI

What About Performance?

Where To Learn More

What This All Means

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Fall 2015 Server Storage I/O Cloud Virtual Seminars Going Dutch

October 13th: Symposium – Software Defined Storage Management

October 14th: Server Storage I/O Fundamental Trends V2.015 – What’s New, What’s the buzz, what you need to know about.

October 15th: Symposium – Data Center Infrastructure Management

October 16th: "Converged Day" Server and Storage Decision making – How do you want or need your storage packaged?

Where to read, watch and learn more

What this all means and wrap up

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How many i/o iops can flash ssd or hdd do with vmware?

Getting started

Taking a step back, the big picture

Server, storage and I/O performance and benchmark fundamentals

Tools and the performance toolbox

What’s the best tool or benchmark or workload generator?

Where To Learn More

What This All Means

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December 7, 2016 – Webinar 11AM PT – BrightTalk
Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Decision Making

November 29-30, 2016 (New) – Converged & Hyper-Converged Decision Making
Is Converged Infrastructure Right For You?
Workshop Seminar – Nijkerk The Netherlands

November 28, 2016 (New) – Server Storage I/O Fundamental Trends V2.1116
Whats New, Whats the buzz, what you need to know about and whos doing what
Workshop Seminar – Nijkerk The Netherlands

November 23, 2016 – Webinar 10AM PT BrightTalk
BCDR and Cloud Backup Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI) and Data Protection

November 23, 2016 – Webinar 9AM PT – BrightTalk
Cloud Storage – Hybrid and Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI)

November 22, 2016 – Webinar 10AM PT – BrightTalk
Cloud Infrastructure Hybrid and Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI)

November 15, 2016 (New) – 11AM PT Webinar – Redmond Magazine and Solarwinds
The O.A.R. of Virtualization Scaling
A journey of optimization, automation, and reporting

November 3, 2016 (New) – Webinar 11AM PT – Redmond Magazine and
Dell Software
Tailor Your Backup Data Repositories to
Fit Your Security and Management Needs

October 27, 2016 (New) – Webinar 10AM PT – Virtual Instruments
The Value of Infrastructure Insight

October 20, 2016 – Webinar 9AM PT – BrightTalk
Next-Gen Data Centers Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI) including Servers, Storage and Virtualization

September 20, 2016 – Webinar 8AM PT – BrightTalk
Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI) Enabling Software Defined Data Centers – Part of Software-Defined Storage summit

September 13, 2016 – Webinar 11AM PT – Redmond Magazine and
Dell Software
Windows Server 2016 and Active Directory
Whats New and How to Plan for Migration

September 8, 2016 – Webinar 11AM PT (Watch on Demand) – Redmond Magazine, Acronis and Unitrends
Data Protection for Modern Microsoft Environments