Tag: FLASH

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Which Enterprise HDD for Content Applications General I/O Performance

Which HDD for Content Applications general I/O Performance

hdd general i/o performance server storage I/O trends

Updated 1/23/2018

Which enterprise HDD to use with a content server platform general I/O performance Insight for effective server storage I/O decision making
Server StorageIO Lab Review

Which enterprise HDD to use for content servers

This is the sixth in a multi-part series (read part five here) based on a white paper hands-on lab report I did compliments of Servers Direct and Seagate that you can read in PDF form here. The focus is looking at the Servers Direct (www.serversdirect.com) converged Content Solution platforms with Seagate Enterprise Hard Disk Drive (HDD’s). In this post the focus is around general I/O performance including 8KB and 128KB IOP sizes.

General I/O Performance

In addition to running database and file (large and small) processing workloads, Vdbench was also used to collect basic small (8KB) and large (128KB) sized I/O operations. This consisted of random and sequential reads as well as writes with the results shown below. In addition to using vdbench, other tools that could be used include Microsoft Diskspd, fio, iorate and iometer among many others.

These workloads used Vdbench configured (13) to do direct I/O to a Windows file system mounted device using as much of the available disk space as possible. All workloads used 16 threads and were run concurrently similar to database and file processing tests.

(Note 13) Sample vdbench configuration for general I/O, note different settings were used for various tests

Table-7 shows workload results for 8KB random IOPs 75% reads and 75% writes including IOPs, bandwidth and response time.

 

ENT 15K RAID1

ENT 10K RAID1

ENT CAP RAID1

ENT 10K R10
(4 Drives)

ECAP SW RAID (5 Drives)

 

75% Read

25% Read

75% Read

25% Read

75% Read

25% Read

75% Read

25% Read

75% Read

25% Read

I/O Rate (IOPs)

597.11

559.26

514

475

285

293

979

984

491

644

MB/sec

4.7

4.4

4.0

3.7

2.2

2.3

7.7

7.7

3.8

5.0

Resp. Time (Sec.)

25.9

27.6

30.2

32.7

55.5

53.7

16.3

16.3

32.6

24.8

Table-7 8KB sized random IOPs workload results

Figure-6 shows small (8KB) random I/O (75% read and 25% read) across different HDD configurations. Performance including activity rates (e.g. IOPs), bandwidth and response time for mixed reads / writes are shown. Note how response time increases with the Enterprise Capacity configurations vs. other performance optimized drives.

general 8K random IO
Figure-6 8KB random reads and write showing IOP activity, bandwidth and response time

Table-8 below shows workload results for 8GB sized I/Os 100% sequential with 75% reads and 75% writes including IOPs, MB/sec and response time in seconds.

ENT 15K RAID1

ENT 10K RAID1

ENT CAP RAID1

ENT 10K R10
(4 Drives)

ECAP SW RAID (5 Drives)

75% Read

25% Read

75% Read

25% Read

75% Read

25% Read

75% Read

25% Read

75% Read

25% Read

I/O Rate (IOPs)

3,778

3,414

3,761

3,986

3,379

1,274

11,840

8,368

2,891

1,146

MB/sec

29.5

26.7

29.4

31.1

26.4

10.0

92.5

65.4

22.6

9.0

Resp. Time (Sec.)

2.2

3.1

2.3

2.4

2.7

10.9

1.3

1.9

5.5

14.0

Table-8 8KB sized sequential workload results

Figure-7 shows small 8KB sequential mixed reads and writes (75% read and 75% write), while the Enterprise Capacity 2TB HDD has a large amount of space capacity, its performance in a RAID 1 vs. other similar configured drives is slower.

8KB Sequential
Figure-7 8KB sequential 75% reads and 75% write showing bandwidth activity

Table-9 shows workload results for 100% sequential, 100% read and 100% write 128KB sized I/Os including IOPs, bandwidth and response time.

ENT 15K RAID1

ENT 10K RAID1

ENT CAP RAID1

ENT 10K R10
(4 Drives)

ECAP SW RAID (5 Drives)

Read

Write

Read

Write

Read

Write

Read

Write

Read

Write

I/O Rate (IOPs)

1,798

1,771

1,716

1,688

921

912

3,552

3,486

780

721

MB/sec

224.7

221.3

214.5

210.9

115.2

114.0

444.0

435.8

97.4

90.1

Resp. Time (Sec.)

8.9

9.0

9.3

9.5

17.4

17.5

4.5

4.6

19.3

20.2

Table-9 128KB sized sequential workload results

Figure-8 shows sequential or streaming operations of larger I/O (100% read and 100% write) requests sizes (128KB) that would be found with large content applications. Figure-8 highlights the relationship between lower response time and increased IOPs as well as bandwidth.

128K Sequential
Figure-8 128KB sequential reads and write showing IOP activity, bandwidth and response time

Where To Learn More

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

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What This All Means

Some content applications are doing small random I/Os for database, key value stores or repositories as well as meta data processing while others are doing large sequential I/O. 128KB sized I/O may be large for your environment, on the other hand, with an increasing number of applications, file systems, software defined storage management tools among others, 1 to 10MB or even larger I/O sizes are becoming common. Key is selecting I/O sizes and read write as well as random sequential along with I/O or queue depths that align with your environment.

Continue reading part seven the final post in this multi-part series here where the focus is around how HDD’s continue to evolve including performance beyond traditional RPM based execrations along with wrap up.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Gs

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

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

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NVMe overview primer

server storage I/O trends
Updated 2/2/2018

This is the first in a five-part mini-series providing a primer and overview of NVMe. View companion posts and more material at www.thenvmeplace.com.

What is NVM Express (NVMe)

Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) includes persistent memory such as NAND flash and other forms Solid State Devices (SSD). NVM express (NVMe) is a new server storage I/P protocol alternative to AHCI/SATA and the SCSI protocol used by Serial Attached SCSI (SAS). Note that the name NVMe is owned and managed by the industry trade group for NVM Express is (www.nvmexpress.org).

The key question with NVMe is not if, rather when, where, why, how and with what will it appear in your data center or server storage I/O data infrastructure. This is a companion to material that I have on my micro site www.thenvmeplace.com that provides an overview of NVMe, as well as helps to discuss some of the questions about NVMe.

Main features of NVMe include among others:

  • Lower latency due to improve drivers and increased queues (and queue sizes)
  • Lower CPU used to handler 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

Why NVMe for Server Storage I/O?
NVMe has been designed from the ground up for accessing fast storage including flash SSD leveraging PCI Express (PCIe). The benefits include lower latency, improved concurrency, increased performance and the ability to unleash a lot more of the potential of modern multi-core modern processors.

NVMe Server Storage I/O
Figure 1 shows common server I/O connectivity including PCIe, SAS, SATA and NVMe.

NVMe, leveraging PCIe, enables modern applications to reach their full potential. NVMe is one of those rare, generational protocol upgrades that comes around every couple of decades to help unlock the full performance value of servers and storage. NVMe does need new drivers, but once in place, it plugs and plays seamlessly with existing tools, software and user experiences. Likewise many of those drivers are now in the box (e.g. ship with) for popular operating systems and hypervisors.

While SATA and SAS provided enough bandwidth for HDDs and some SSD uses, more performance is needed. NVMe near-term does not replace SAS or SATA they can and will coexist for years to come enabling different tiers of server storage I/O performance.

NVMe unlocks the potential of flash-based storage by allowing up to 65,536 (64K) queues each with 64K commands per queue. SATA allowed for only one command queue capable of holding 32 commands per queue and SAS supports a queue with 64K command entries. As a result, the storage IO capabilities of flash can now be fed across PCIe much faster to enable modern multi-core processors to complete more useful work in less time.

Where To Learn More

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

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

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

What This All Means

Continue reading about NVMe with Part II (Different NVMe configurations) in this five-part series, or jump to Part III, Part IV or Part V.

Ok, nuff said, for now.

Gs

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

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

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Server StorageIO February 2016 Update Newsletter

Volume 16, Issue II

Hello and welcome to the February 2016 Server StorageIO update newsletter.

Even with an extra day during the month of February, there was a lot going on in a short amount of time. This included industry activity from servers to storage and I/O networking, hardware, software, services, mergers and acquisitions for cloud, virtual, containers and legacy environments. Check out the sampling of some of the various industry activities below.

Meanwhile, its now time for March Madness which also means metrics that matter and getting ready for World Backup Data on March 31st. Speaking of World Backup Day, check out the StorageIO events and activities page for a webinar on March 31st involving data protection as part of smart backups.

While your focus for March may be around brackets and other related themes, check out the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) white paper listed below that looks at NAND flash SSD failures at Facebook. Some of the takeaways involve the importance of cooling and thermal management for flash, as well as wear management and role of flash translation layer firmware along with controllers.

Also see the links to the Google White Paper on their request to the industry for a new type of Hard Disk Drive (HDD) to store capacity data while SSD’s handle the IOP’s. The take away is that while Google uses a lot of flash SSD for high performance, low latency workloads, they also need to have a lot of high-capacity bulk storage that is more affordable on a cost per capacity basis. Google also makes several proposals and suggestions to the industry on what should and can be done on a go forward basis.

Backblaze also has a new report out on their 2015 HDD reliability and failure analysis which makes for an interesting read. One of the take away’s is that while there are newer, larger capacity 6TB and 8TB drives, Backblaze is leveraging the lower cost per capacity of 4TB drives that are also available in volume quantity.

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

Cheers GS

In This Issue

  • StorageIOblog posts
  • Industry Activity Trends
  • New and Old Vendor Update
  • Events and Webinars

    • StorageIOblog Posts

    Recent and popular Server StorageIOblog posts include:

    • EMC DSSD D5 Rack Scale Direct Attached Shared SSD All Flash Array Part I
      and Part II – EMC DSSD D5 Direct Attached Shared AFA
      EMC announced the general availability of their DSSD D5 Shared Direct Attached SSD (DAS) flash storage system (e.g. All Flash Array or AFA) which is a rack-scale solution. If you recall, EMC acquired DSSD back in 2014 which you can read more about here. EMC announced four configurations that include 36TB, 72TB and 144TB raw flash SSD capacity with support for up to 48 dual-ported host client servers.
    • Various Hardware (SAS, SATA, NVM, M2) and Software (VHD) Defined Odd’s and Ends
      Ever need to add another GbE port to a small server, workstation or perhaps Intel NUC, however no PCIe slots are available? How about attaching a M2 form factor flash SSD card to a server or device that does not have an M2 port, or, for mirroring two M2 cards together with a RAID adapter? Looking for tool to convert a Windows system to a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) while it is running? The following are a collection of odd’s and end’s devices and tools for hardware and software defining your environment.
    • Software Defined Storage Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) Algorithms + Data Structures
      For those who are into, or simply like to talk about software defined storage (SDS), API’s, Windows, Virtual Hard Disks (VHD) or VHDX, or Hyper-V among other related themes, have you ever actually looked at the specification for VHDX? If not, here is the link to the open specification that Microsoft published (this one dates back to 2012).
    • Big Files and Lots of Little File Processing and Benchmarking with Vdbench
      Need to test a server, storage I/O networking, hardware, software, services, cloud, virtual, physical or other environment that is either doing some form of file processing, or, that you simply want to have some extra workload running in the background for what ever reason?

    View other recent as well as past blog posts here

    Server Storage I/O Industry Activity Trends (Cloud, Virtual, Physical)

    StorageIO news (image licensed for use from Shutterstock by StorageIO)

    Some new Products Technology Services Announcements (PTSA) include:

  • Tegile – IntelliFlash HD Now Available To Enterprises Worldwide
  • Via Forbes – Competitors and Cash Bleed Put Pressure on Pure Storage
  • Via HealthCareBusiness – Philips and Amazon team up on cloud-based health record storage
  • Via Zacks – IBM Advances Hybrid Cloud Object Based Storage
  • DataONstorage expands Microsoft Hyper Converged Infrastructure platforms
  • Via ITBusinessEdge – Nimble updates All Flash Array (AFA) storage
  • Carnegie Mellon University – A Large-Scale Study of Flash Memory Failures
  • Cisco Buys Cliqr Cloud Orchestration
  • Backblaze – 2015 Hard Drive Reliability Reports and Analysis
  • Via BusinessCloudNews – Verizon Closing Down Its Public Cloud
  • Via BusinessInsider – US Government Approves Dell and EMC Deal
  • EMC and VMware announce new VCE VxRAIL Converged Solutions
  • EMC announces new IBM zSeries Mainframe enhancements for VMAX
  • EMC announces new DSSD D5 AFA and VMAX AFA enhancements
  • HPE announces enhancements to StoreEasy 1650 storage
  • Seagate now shipping worlds slimmest and fastest 2TB mobile HDD
  • Via VMblog – Oracle Scoops Up Ravello to Boosts Its Public Cloud Offerings
  • Via Investors – SSD and Chinese Investments in Western Digital
  • ATTO announces 32G (e.g. Gen 6) Fibre Channel adapters
  • Google to disk vendors: Make hard drives like this, even if they lose more data
  • Google Disk for Data Centers White Paper (PDF Here)

    • View other recent news and industry trends here

    Vendors you may not have heard of

    Various vendors (and service providers) you may not know or heard about recently.

    StorageIO news (image licensed for use from Shutterstock by StorageIO)

    • SkySync – Enterprise File Sync and Share
    • SANblaze – Storage protocol emulation tools
    • OpenIT – DCIM and Data Infrastructure Management Tools
    • Infinit.sh – Decentralized Software Based File Storage Platform
    • Alluxio –
      Open Source Software Defined Storage Abstraction Layer
    • Genie9 –
      Backup and Data Protection Tools
    • E8 Storage – Software Defined Stealth Storage Startup

    Check out more vendors you may know, have heard of, or that are perhaps new on the Server StorageIO Industry Links page here (over 1,000 entries and growing).

     

    StorageIO Webinars and Industry Events

    EMCworld (Las Vegas) May 2-4, 2016

    Interop (Las Vegas) May 4-6 2016

    NAB (Las Vegas) April 19-20, 2016

    March 31, 2016 Webinar (1PM ET) – Smart Backup and World Backup Day

    February 25, 2016 Webinar (11AM PT) – Migrating to Hyper-V including from Vmware

    February 24, 2016 Webinar (11AM ET) – How To Become a Data Protection Hero

    February 23, 2016 Webinar (11AM PT) – Rethinking Data Protection

    January 19, 2016 Webinar (9AM PT) – Solve Virtualization Performance Issues Like a Pro

    See more webinars and other activities on the Server StorageIO Events page here.

    Server StorageIO Industry Resources and Links

    Check out these useful links and pages:

    storageio.com/links,
    objectstoragecenter.com, storageioblog.com/data-protection-diaries-main/,
    thenvmeplace.com, thessdplace.com and storageio.com/performance among others.

    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

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

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    EMC DSSD D5 Rack Scale Direct Attached Shared SSD All Flash Array Part I

    EMC DSSD D5 Rack Scale Direct Attached Shared SSD All Flash Array Part I

    server storage I/O trends

    This is the first post in a two-part series pertaining to the EMC DSSD D5 announcement, you can read part two here.

    EMC announced today the general availability of their DSSD D5 Shared Direct Attached SSD (DAS) flash storage system (e.g. All Flash Array or AFA) which is a rack-scale solution. If you recall, EMC acquired DSSD back in 2014 which you can read more about here. EMC announced four configurations that include 36TB, 72TB and 144TB raw flash SSD capacity with support for up to 48 dual-ported host client servers.

    Via EMC Pulse Blog

    What Is DSSD D5

    At a high level EMC DSSD D5 is a PCIe direct attached SSD flash storage solution to enable aggregation of disparate SSD card functionality typically found in separate servers into a shared system without causing aggravation. DSSD D5 helps to alleviate server side I/O bottlenecks or aggravation issues that can be the result of aggregation of workloads or data. Think of DSSD D5 as an shared application server storage I/O accelerator for up to 48 servers to access up to 144TB of raw flash SSD to support various applications that have the need for speed.

    Applications that have the need for speed or that can benefit from less time waiting for results, where time is money, or boosting productivity can enable high profitability computing. This includes legacy as well as emerging applications and workloads spanning little data, big data and big fast structure and unstructured data. From Oracle to SAS to HBASE and Hadoop among others, perhaps even Alluxio.

    Some examples include:

    • Clusters and scale-out grids
    • High Performance COMpute (HPC)
    • Parallel file systems
    • Forecasting and image processing
    • Fraud detection and prevention
    • Research and analytics
    • E-commerce and retail
    • Search and advertising
    • Legacy applications
    • Emerging applications
    • Structured database and key-value repositories
    • Unstructured file systems, HDFS and other data
    • Large undefined work sets
    • From batch stream to real-time
    • Reduces run times from days to hours

    Where to learn more

    Continue reading with the following links about NVMe, flash SSD and EMC DSSD.

  • Part one of this series here and part two here.
  • Performance Redefined! Introducing DSSD D5 Rack-Scale Flash Solution (EMC Pulse Blog)
  • EMC Unveils DSSD D5: A Quantum Leap In Flash Storage (EMC Press Release)
  • EMC Declares 2016 The “Year of All-Flash” For Primary Storage (EMC Press Release)
  • EMC DSSD D5 Rack-Scale Flash (EMC PDF Overview)
  • EMC DSSD and Cloudera Evolve Hadoop (EMC White Paper Overview)
  • Software Aspects of The EMC DSSD D5 Rack-Scale Flash Storage Platform (EMC PDF White Paper)
  • EMC DSSD D5 (EMC PDF Architecture and Product Specification)
  • EMC VFCache respinning SSD and intelligent caching (Part II)
  • EMC To Acquire DSSD, Inc., Extends Flash Storage Leadership
  • Part II: XtremIO, XtremSW and XtremSF EMC flash ssd portfolio redefined
  • XtremIO, XtremSW and XtremSF EMC flash ssd portfolio redefined
  • Learn more about flash SSD here and NVMe here at thenvmeplace.com

    • What this all means

    Today’s legacy, and emerging applications have the need for speed, and where the applications may not need speed, the users as well as Internet of Things (IoT) that depend upon, or feed those applications do need things to move faster. Fast applications need fast software and hardware to get the same amount of work done faster with less wait delays, as well as process larger amounts of structured and unstructured little data, big data and very fast big data.

    Different applications along with the data infrastructures they rely upon including servers, storage, I/O hardware and software need to adapt to various environments, one size, one approach model does not fit all scenarios. What this means is that some applications and data infrastructures will benefit from shared direct attached SSD storage such as rack scale solutions using EMC DSSD D5. Meanwhile other applications will benefit from AFA or hybrid storage systems along with other approaches used in various ways.

    Continue reading part two of this series here including how EMC DSSD D5 works and more perspectives.

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers
    Gs

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

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2023 Server StorageIO(R) and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

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    Big Files Lots of Little File Processing Benchmarking with Vdbench

    Big Files Lots of Little File Processing Benchmarking with Vdbench


    server storage data infrastructure i/o File Processing Benchmarking with Vdbench

    Updated 2/10/2018

    Need to test a server, storage I/O networking, hardware, software, services, cloud, virtual, physical or other environment that is either doing some form of file processing, or, that you simply want to have some extra workload running in the background for what ever reason? An option is File Processing Benchmarking with Vdbench.

    I/O performance

    Getting Started


    Here’s a quick and relatively easy way to do it with Vdbench (Free from Oracle). Granted there are other tools, both for free and for fee that can similar things, however we will leave those for another day and post. Here’s the con to this approach, there is no Uui Gui like what you have available with some other tools Here’s the pro to this approach, its free, flexible and limited by your creative, amount of storage space, server memory and I/O capacity.

    If you need a background on Vdbench and benchmarking, check out the series of related posts here (e.g. www.storageio.com/performance).

    Get and Install the Vdbench Bits and Bytes


    If you do not already have Vdbench installed, get a copy from the Oracle or Source Forge site (now points to Oracle here).

    Vdbench is free, you simply sign-up and accept the free license, select the version down load (it is a single, common distribution for all OS) the bits as well as documentation.

    Installation particular on Windows is really easy, basically follow the instructions in the documentation by copying the contents of the download folder to a specified directory, set up any environment variables, and make sure that you have Java installed.

    Here is a hint and tip for Windows Servers, if you get an error message about counters, open a command prompt with Administrator rights, and type the command:

    $ lodctr /r


    The above command will reset your I/O counters. Note however that command will also overwrite counters if enabled so only use it if you have to.

    Likewise *nix install is also easy, copy the files, make sure to copy the applicable *nix shell script (they are in the download folder), and verify Java is installed and working.

    You can do a vdbench -t (windows) or ./vdbench -t (*nix) to verify that it is working.

    Vdbench File Processing

    There are many options with Vdbench as it has a very robust command and scripting language including ability to set up for loops among other things. We are only going to touch the surface here using its file processing capabilities. Likewise, Vdbench can run from a single server accessing multiple storage systems or file systems, as well as running from multiple servers to a single file system. For simplicity, we will stick with the basics in the following examples to exercise a local file system. The limits on the number of files and file size are limited by server memory and storage space.

    You can specify number and depth of directories to put files into for processing. One of the parameters is the anchor point for the file processing, in the following examples =S:\SIOTEMP\FS1 is used as the anchor point. Other parameters include the I/O size, percent reads, number of threads, run time and sample interval as well as output folder name for the result files. Note that unlike some tools, Vdbench does not create a single file of results, rather a folder with several files including summary, totals, parameters, histograms, CSV among others.


    Simple Vdbench File Processing Commands

    For flexibility and ease of use I put the following three Vdbench commands into a simple text file that is then called with parameters on the command line.
    fsd=fsd1,anchor=!fanchor,depth=!dirdep,width=!dirwid,files=!numfiles,size=!filesize

    fwd=fwd1,fsd=fsd1,rdpct=!filrdpct,xfersize=!fxfersize,fileselect=random,fileio=random,threads=!thrds

    rd=rd1,fwd=fwd1,fwdrate=max,format=yes,elapsed=!etime,interval=!itime

    Simple Vdbench script

    # SIO_vdbench_filesystest.txt
    
#
    
# Example Vdbench script for file processing
    
#
    
# fanchor = file system place  where directories and files will be created
    
# dirwid = how wide should the directories be (e.g. how many directories wide)
    
# numfiles = how many files per directory
    
# filesize = size in in k, m, g e.g. 16k = 16KBytes
    
# fxfersize = file I/O transfer size in kbytes
    
# thrds = how many threads or workers
    
# etime = how long to run in minutes (m) or hours (h)
    
# itime = interval sample time e.g. 30 seconds
    
# dirdep = how deep the directory tree
    
# filrdpct = percent of reads e.g. 90 = 90 percent reads
    
# -p processnumber = optional specify a process number, only needed if running multiple vdbenchs at same time, number should be unique
    
# -o output file that describes what being done and some config info
    
#
    
# Sample command line shown for Windows, for *nix add ./
    
#
    
# The real Vdbench script with command line parameters indicated by !=
    
#
    

    fsd=fsd1,anchor=!fanchor,depth=!dirdep,width=!dirwid,files=!numfiles,size=!filesize
    

    fwd=fwd1,fsd=fsd1,rdpct=!filrdpct,xfersize=!fxfersize,fileselect=random,fileio=random,threads=!thrds
    

    rd=rd1,fwd=fwd1,fwdrate=max,format=yes,elapsed=!etime,interval=!itime

    Big Files Processing Script


    With the above script file defined, for Big Files I specify a command line such as the following.
    $ vdbench -f SIO_vdbench_filesystest.txt fanchor=S:\SIOTemp\FS1 dirwid=1 numfiles=60 filesize=5G fxfersize=128k thrds=64 etime=10h itime=30 numdir=1 dirdep=1 filrdpct=90 -p 5576 -o SIOWS2012R220_NOFUZE_5Gx60_BigFiles_64TH_STX1200_020116

    Big Files Processing Example Results


    The following is one of the result files from the folder of results created via the above command for Big File processing showing totals.


    
Run totals
    

    21:09:36.001 Starting RD=format_for_rd1
    

    Feb 01, 2016 .Interval. .ReqstdOps.. ...cpu%...  read ....read.... ...write.... ..mb/sec... mb/sec .xfer.. ...mkdir... ...rmdir... ..create... ...open.... ...close... ..delete...
    
                          rate  resp total  sys   pct   rate  resp   rate  resp  read write  total    size  rate  resp  rate  resp  rate  resp  rate  resp  rate  resp  rate  resp
    
21:23:34.101   avg_2-28 2848.2  2.70   8.8 8.32   0.0    0.0  0.00 2848.2  2.70  0.00 356.0 356.02  131071   0.0  0.00   0.0  0.00   0.1 109176   0.1  0.55   0.1  2006   0.0  0.00
    

    21:23:35.009 Starting RD=rd1; elapsed=36000; fwdrate=max. For loops: None
    

    07:23:35.000 avg_2-1200 4939.5  1.62  18.5 17.3  90.0 4445.8  1.79  493.7  0.07 555.7 61.72 617.44  131071   0.0  0.00   0.0  0.00   0.0  0.00   0.1  0.03   0.1  2.95   0.0  0.00

    Lots of Little Files Processing Script


    For lots of little files, the following is used.


    
$ vdbench -f SIO_vdbench_filesystest.txt fanchor=S:\SIOTEMP\FS1 dirwid=64 numfiles=25600 filesize=16k fxfersize=1k thrds=64 etime=10h itime=30 dirdep=1 filrdpct=90 -p 5576 -o SIOWS2012R220_NOFUZE_SmallFiles_64TH_STX1200_020116

    Lots of Little Files Processing Example Results


    The following is one of the result files from the folder of results created via the above command for Big File processing showing totals.
    Run totals
    

    09:17:38.001 Starting RD=format_for_rd1
    

    Feb 02, 2016 .Interval. .ReqstdOps.. ...cpu%...  read ....read.... ...write.... ..mb/sec... mb/sec .xfer.. ...mkdir... ...rmdir... ..create... ...open.... ...close... ..delete...
    
                          rate  resp total  sys   pct   rate  resp   rate  resp  read write  total    size  rate  resp  rate  resp  rate  resp  rate  resp  rate  resp  rate  resp
    
09:19:48.016    avg_2-5  10138  0.14  75.7 64.6   0.0    0.0  0.00  10138  0.14  0.00 158.4 158.42   16384   0.0  0.00   0.0  0.00 10138  0.65 10138  0.43 10138  0.05   0.0  0.00
    

    09:19:49.000 Starting RD=rd1; elapsed=36000; fwdrate=max. For loops: None
    

    19:19:49.001 avg_2-1200 113049  0.41  67.0 55.0  90.0 101747  0.19  11302  2.42 99.36 11.04 110.40    1023   0.0  0.00   0.0  0.00   0.0  0.00  7065  0.85  7065  1.60   0.0  0.00

    Where To Learn More

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

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

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

    What This All Means

    The above examples can easily be modified to do different things particular if you read the Vdbench documentation on how to setup multi-host, multi-storage system, multiple job streams to do different types of processing. This means you can benchmark a storage systems, server or converged and hyper-converged platform, or simply put a workload on it as part of other testing. There are even options for handling data footprint reduction such as compression and dedupe.

    Ok, nuff said, for now.

    Gs

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

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

    Posted on

    Server StorageIO December 2015 Update Newsletter


    Server and StorageIO Update Newsletter

    Volume 15, Issue XII – End of Year (EOY) Edition

    Hello and welcome to this December 2015 Server StorageIO update newsletter.

    Seasons Greetings and Happy New Years.

    Winter has arrived here in the northern hemisphere and it is also the last day of 2015 e.g. End Of Year or EOY). For some this means relaxing and having fun after a busy year, for others, it’s the last day of the most important quarter of the most important year ever, particular if you are involved in sales or spending.

    This is also that time of year where predictions for 2016 will start streaming out as well as reflections looking back at 2015 appear (more on these in January). Another EOY activity is planning for 2016 as well as getting items ready for roll-out or launch in the new year. Overall 2015 has been a very good year with many things in the works both public facing, as well as several behind the scenes some of which will start to appear throughout 2016.

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

    Thank you for enabling a successful 2015 and wishing you all a prosperous new year in 2016.

    Cheers GS

    In This Issue

  • Tips and Articles
  • Events and Webinars
  • Resources and Links

    • StorageIO Tips and Articles

    Recent Server StorageIO articles appearing in different venues include:

    • IronMountain:  5 Noteworthy Data Privacy Trends From 2015

    • Virtual Blocks (VMware Blogs):  Part III EVO:RAIL – When And Where To Use It?

    • InfoStor:  Object Storage Is In Your Future

    • InfoStor:  Water, Data and Storage Analogy

    Check out these resources and links technology, techniques, trends as well as tools. View more tips and articles here

    StorageIO Webinars and Industry Events

    EMCworld (Las Vegas) May 2-4, 2016

    Interop (Las Vegas) May 4-6 2016

    NAB (Las Vegas) April 19-20, 2016

    Redmond Magazine Gridstore (How to Migrate from VMware to Hyper-V) February 25, 2016 Webinar (11AM PT)

    See more webinars and other activities on the Server StorageIO Events page here.

    Server StorageIO Industry Resources and Links

    Check out these useful links and pages:

    storageio.com/links
    objectstoragecenter.com
    storageioblog.com/data-protection-diaries-main/
    storageperformance.us
    thenvmeplace
    thessdplace.com
    storageio.com/raid
    storageio.com/ssd

    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

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

    Posted on

    NVMe Place NVM Non Volatile Memory Express Resources

    Updated 8/31/19
    NVMe place server Storage I/O data infrastructure trends

    Welcome to NVMe place NVM Non Volatile Memory Express Resources. NVMe place is about Non Volatile Memory (NVM) Express (NVMe) with Industry Trends Perspectives, Tips, Tools, Techniques, Technologies, News and other information.

    Disclaimer

    Please note that this NVMe place resources site is independent of the industry trade and promoters group NVM Express, Inc. (e.g. www.nvmexpress.org). NVM Express, Inc. is the sole owner of the NVM Express specifications and trademarks.

    NVM Express Organization
    Image used with permission of NVM Express, Inc.

    Visit the NVM Express industry promoters site here to learn more about their members, news, events, product information, software driver downloads, and other useful NVMe resources content.

     

    The NVMe Place resources and NVM including SCM, PMEM, Flash

    NVMe place includes Non Volatile Memory (NVM) including nand flash, storage class memories (SCM), persistent memories (PM) are storage memory mediums while NVM Express (NVMe) is an interface for accessing NVM. This NVMe resources page is a companion to The SSD Place which has a broader Non Volatile Memory (NVM) focus including flash among other SSD topics. NVMe is a new server storage I/O access method and protocol for fast access to NVM based storage and memory technologies. NVMe is an alternative to existing block based server storage I/O access protocols such as AHCI/SATA and SCSI/SAS devices commonly used for access Hard Disk Drives (HDD) along with SSD among other things.

    Server Storage I/O NVMe PCIe SAS SATA AHCI
    Comparing AHCI/SATA, SCSI/SAS and NVMe all of which can coexist to address different needs.

    Leveraging the standard PCIe hardware interface, NVMe based devices (that have an NVMe controller) can be accessed via various operating systems (and hypervisors such as VMware ESXi) with both in the box drivers or optional third-party device drivers. Devices that support NVMe can be 2.5″ drive format packaged that use a converged 8637/8639 connector (e.g. PCIe x4) coexisting with SAS and SATA devices as well as being add-in card (AIC) PCIe cards supporting x4, x8 and other implementations. Initially, NVMe is being positioned as a back-end to servers (or storage systems) interface for accessing fast flash and other NVM based devices.

    NVMe as back-end storage
    NVMe as a “back-end” I/O interface for NVM storage media

    NVMe as front-end server storage I/O interface
    NVMe as a “front-end” interface for servers or storage systems/appliances

    NVMe has also been shown to work over low latency, high-speed RDMA based network interfaces including RoCE (RDMA over Converged Ethernet) and InfiniBand (read more here, here and here involving Mangstor, Mellanox and PMC among others). What this means is that like SCSI based SAS which can be both a back-end drive (HDD, SSD, etc) access protocol and interface, NVMe can also being used for back-end can also be used as a front-end of server to storage interface like how Fibre Channel SCSI_Protocol (aka FCP), SCSI based iSCSI, SCSI RDMA Protocol via InfiniBand (among others) are used.

    NVMe features

    Main features of NVMe include among others:

    • 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

    Shared external PCIe using NVMe
    NVMe and shared PCIe (e.g. shared PCIe flash DAS)

    NVMe related content and links

    The following are some of my tips, articles, blog posts, presentations and other content, along with material from others pertaining to NVMe. Keep in mind that the question should not be if NVMe is in your future, rather when, where, with what, from whom and how much of it will be used as well as how it will be used.

    • How to Prepare for the NVMe Server Storage I/O Wave (Via Micron.com)
    • Why NVMe Should Be in Your Data Center (Via Micron.com)
    • NVMe U2 (8639) vs. M2 interfaces (Via Gamersnexus)
    • Enmotus FuzeDrive MicroTiering (StorageIO Lab Report)
    • EMC DSSD D5 Rack Scale Direct Attached Shared SSD All Flash Array Part I (Via StorageIOBlog)
    • Part II – EMC DSSD D5 Direct Attached Shared AFA (Via StorageIOBlog)
    • NAND, DRAM, SAS/SCSI & SATA/AHCI: Not Dead, Yet! (Via EnterpriseStorageForum)
    • Non Volatile Memory (NVM), NVMe, Flash Memory Summit and SSD updates (Via StorageIOblog)
    • Microsoft and Intel showcase Storage Spaces Direct with NVM Express at IDF ’15 (Via TechNet)
    • MNVM Express solutions (Via SuperMicro)
    • Gaining Server Storage I/O Insight into Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (Via StorageIOblog)
    • PMC-Sierra Scales Storage with PCIe, NVMe (Via EEtimes)
    • RoCE updates among other items (Via InfiniBand Trade Association (IBTA) December Newsletter)
    • NVMe: The Golden Ticket for Faster Flash Storage? (Via EnterpriseStorageForum)
    • What should I consider when using SSD cloud? (Via SearchCloudStorage)
    • MSP CMG, Sept. 2014 Presentation (Flash back to reality – Myths and Realities – Flash and SSD Industry trends perspectives plus benchmarking tips)– PDF
    • Selecting Storage: Start With Requirements (Via NetworkComputing)
    • PMC Announces Flashtec NVMe SSD NVMe2106, NVMe2032 Controllers With LDPC (Via TomsITpro)
    • Exclusive: If Intel and Micron’s “Xpoint” is 3D Phase Change Memory, Boy Did They Patent It (Via Dailytech)
    • Intel & Micron 3D XPoint memory — is it just CBRAM hyped up? Curation of various posts (Via Computerworld)
    • How many IOPS can a HDD, HHDD or SSD do (Part I)?
    • How many IOPS can a HDD, HHDD or SSD do with VMware? (Part II)
    • I/O Performance Issues and Impacts on Time-Sensitive Applications (Via CMG)
    • Via EnterpriseStorageForum: 5 Hot Storage Technologies to Watch
    • Via EnterpriseStorageForum: 10-Year Review of Data Storage

    Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Express (NVMe) continues to evolve as a technology for enabling and improving server storage I/O for NVM including nand flash SSD storage. NVMe streamline performance enabling more work to be done (e.g. IOPs), data to be moved (bandwidth) at a lower response time using less CPU.

    NVMe and SATA flash SSD performance

    The above figure is a quick look comparing nand flash SSD being accessed via SATA III (6Gbps) on the left and NVMe (x4) on the right. As with any server storage I/O performance comparisons there are many variables and take them with a grain of salt. While IOPs and bandwidth are often discussed, keep in mind that with the new protocol, drivers and device controllers with NVMe that streamline I/O less CPU is needed.

    Additional NVMe Resources

    Also check out the Server StorageIO companion micro sites landing pages including thessdplace.com (SSD focus), data protection diaries (backup, BC/DR/HA and related topics), cloud and object storage, and server storage I/O performance and benchmarking here.

    If you are in to the real bits and bytes details such as at device driver level content check out the Linux NVMe reflector forum. The linux-nvme forum is a good source if you are developer to stay up on what is happening in and around device driver and associated topics.

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

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

    Disclaimer

    Disclaimer: Please note that this site is independent of the industry trade and promoters group NVM Express, Inc. (e.g. www.nvmexpress.org). NVM Express, Inc. is the sole owner of the NVM Express specifications and trademarks. Check out the NVM Express industry promoters site here to learn more about their members, news, events, product information, software driver downloads, and other useful NVMe resources content.

    NVM Express Organization
    Image used with permission of NVM Express, Inc.

    Wrap Up

    Watch for updates with more content, links and NVMe resources to be added here soon.

    Ok, nuff said (for now)

    Cheers
    Gs

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

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

    Posted on

    August Server StorageIO Update Newsletter – NVM and Flash SSD Focus

    Volume 15, Issue VIII

    Hello and welcome to this August 2015 Server StorageIO update newsletter. Summer is wrapping up here in the northern hemisphere which means the fall conference season has started, holidays in progress as well as getting ready for back to school time. I have been spending my summer working on various things involving servers, storage, I/O networking hardware, software, services from cloud to containers, virtual and physical. This includes OpenStack, VMware vCloud Air, AWS, Microsoft Azure, GCS among others, as well as new versions of Microsoft Windows and Servers, Non Volatile Memory (NVM) including flash SSD, NVM Express (NVMe), databases, data protection, software defined, cache, micro-tiering and benchmarking using various tools among other things (some are still under wraps).

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

    Cheers GS

    In This Issue

  • Feature Topic
  • Industry Trends News
  • Commentary in the news
  • Tips and Articles
  • StorageIOblog posts
  • Videos and Podcasts
  • Events and Webinars
  • Recommended Reading List
  • Industry Activity Trends
  • Server StorageIO Lab reports
  • New and Old Vendor Update
  • Resources and Links

    • Feature Topic – Non Volatile Memory including NAND flash SSD

    Via Intel History of Memory
    Via Intel: Click above image to view history of memory

    This months feature topic theme is Non Volatile Memory (NVM) which includes technologies such as NAND flash commonly used in Solid State Devices (SSDs) storage today, as well as in USB thumb drive, mobile and hand-held devices among many other uses. NVM spans servers, storage, I/O devices along with mobile and handheld among many other technologies. In addition to NAND flash, other forms of NVM include Non Volatile Random Access Memory (NVRAM), Read Only Memory (ROM) along with some emerging new technologies including the recently announced Intel and Micron 3D XPoint among others.

    • NVMe: The Golden Ticket for Faster Flash Storage? (Via EnterpriseStorageForum)
    • What should I consider when using SSD cloud? (Via SearchCloudStorage)
    • MSP CMG, Sept. 2014 Presentation (Flash back to reality – Myths and Realities
    • Flash and SSD Industry trends perspectives plus benchmarking tips) – PDF
    • Selecting Storage: Start With Requirements (Via NetworkComputing)
    • Spot The Newest & Best Server Trends (Via Processor)
    • Market ripe for embedded flash storage as prices drop (Via Powermore (Dell))

    Continue reading more about NVM, NVMe, NAND flash, SSD Server and storage I/O related topics at www.thessdplace.com as well as about I/O performance, monitoring and benchmarking tools at www.storageperformance.us.

     

    StorageIOblog Posts

    Recent and popular Server StorageIOblog posts include:

    View other recent as well as past blog posts here

    Server Storage I/O Industry Activity Trends (Cloud, Virtual, Physical)

    StorageIO news (image licensed for use from Shutterstock by StorageIO)

    • PMC Announces NVMe SSD Controllers (Via TomsITpro)
    • New SATA SSD powers elastic cloud agility for CSPs (Via Cbronline)
    • Toshiba Solid-State Drive Family Features PCIe Technology (Via Eweek)
    • SanDisk aims CloudSpeed Ultra SSD at cloud providers (Via ITwire)
    • Everspin & Aupera reveal MRAM Module M.2 Form Factor (Via BusinessWire)
    • PMC-Sierra Scales Storage with PCIe, NVMe (Via EEtimes)
    • Seagate Grows Its Nytro Enterprise Flash Storage Line (Via InfoStor)
    • New SAS Solid State Drive From Seagate Micron Alliance (Via Seagate)
    • Samsung ups the SSD ante with faster, higher capacity drives (Via ITworld)

    View other recent news and industry trends here

    StorageIO Commentary in the news

    StorageIO news (image licensed for use from Shutterstock by StorageIO)
    Recent Server StorageIO commentary and industry trends perspectives about news, activities tips, and announcements.

    • Processor: Comments on Spot The Newest & Best Server Trends
    • Processor: Comments on A Snapshot Strategy For Backups & Data Recovery
    • EnterpriseStorageForum: Comments on Defining the Future of DR Storage
    • EnterpriseStorageForum: Comments on Top Ten Tips for DR as a Service
    • EnterpriseStorageForum: Comments on NVMe: Golden Ticket for Faster Storage

    View more Server, Storage and I/O hardware as well as software trends comments here

    Vendors you may not have heard of

    Various vendors (and service providers) you may not know or heard about recently.

    • Scala – Scale out storage management software tools
    • Reduxio – Enterprise hybrid storage with data services
    • Jam TreeSize Pro – Data discovery and storage resource analysis and reporting

    Check out more vendors you may know, have heard of, or that are perhaps new on the Server StorageIO Industry Links page here (over 1,000 entries and growing).

    StorageIO Tips and Articles

    Recent Server StorageIO articles appearing in different venues include:

    • IronMountain:  Information Lifecycle Management: Which Data Types Have Value?
      It’s important to keep in mind that on a fundamental level, there are three types of data: information that has value, information that does not have value and information that has unknown value. Data value can be measured along performance, availability, capacity and economic attributes, which define how the data gets managed across different tiers of storage. In general data can have value, unknown value or no value. Read more here.
    • EnterpriseStorageForum:  Is Future Storage Converging Around Hyper-Converged?
      Depending on who you talk or listen to, hyper-converged storage is either the future of storage, or it is a hype niche market that is not for everybody, particular not larger environments. How converged is the hyper-converged market? There are many environments that can leverage CI along with HCI, CiB or other bundles solutions. Granted, not all of those environments will converge around the same CI, CiB and HCI or pod solution bundles as everything is not the same in most IT environments and data centers. Not all markets, environments or solutions are the same. Read more here.

    Check out these resources and links technology, techniques, trends as well as tools. View more tips and articles here

    StorageIO Videos and Podcasts

    StorageIO podcasts are also available via and at StorageIO.tv

    StorageIO Webinars and Industry Events

    Server Storage I/O Workshop Seminars
    Nijkerk Netherlands October 13-16 2015

    VMworld August 30-September 3 2015

    See additional webinars and other activities on the Server StorageIO Events page here.

    From StorageIO Labs

    Research, Reviews and Reports

    Enmotus FuzeDrive (Server based Micro-Tiering)
    Enmotus FuzeDrive
    • Micro-teiring of reads and writes
    • FuzeDrive for transparent tiering
    • Dynamic tiering with selectable options
    • Monitoring and diagnostics tools
    • Transparent to operating systems
    • Hardware transparent (HDD and SSD)
    • Server I/O interface agnostic
    • Optional RAM cache and file pinning
    • Maximize NVM flash SSD investment
    • Compliment other SDS solutions
    • Use for servers or workstations

    Enmotus FuzeDrive provides micro-tiering boosting performance (reads and writes) of storage attached to physical bare metal servers, virtual and cloud instances including Windows and Linux operating systems across various applications. In the simple example above five separate SQL Server databases (260GB each) were placed on a single 6TB HDD. A TPCC workload was run concurrently against all databases with various numbers of users. One workload used a single 6TB HDD (blue) while the other used a FuzeDrive (green) comprised of a 6TB HDD and a 400GB SSD showing basic micro-tiering improvements.

    View other StorageIO lab review reports here

    Server StorageIO Recommended Reading List

    The following are various recommended reading including books, blogs and videos. If you have not done so recently, also check out the Intel Recommended Reading List (here) where you will also find a couple of my books.

    Get Whats Yours via Amazon.com
    While not a technology book, you do not have to be at or near retirement age to be planning for retirement. Some of you may already be at or near retirement age, for others, its time to start planning or refining your plans. A friend recommended this book and I’m recommending it to others. Its pretty straight forward and you might be surprised how much money people may be leaving on the table! Check it out here at Amazon.com.

    Server StorageIO Industry Resources and Links

    Check out these useful links and pages:

    storageio.com/links
    objectstoragecenter.com
    storageioblog.com/data-protection-diaries-main/
    storageperformance.us
    thenvmeplace
    thessdplace.com
    storageio.com/raid
    storageio.com/ssd

    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

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

    Posted on

    Non Volatile Memory (NVM), NVMe, Flash Memory Summit and SSD updates

    Storage I/O trends

    Non Volatile Memory (NVM), NVMe, Flash Memory Summit and SSD updates

    I attended the Flash Memory Summit in Santa Clara CA last week and not surprisingly there were many announcements about Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) along with related enabling technologies. Some of these announcements were component based intended for original equipment manufactures (OEMs) ranging from startup to established, systems integrators (SI), value added resellers (VAR’s) while others were more customer solution focused. From a customer solution focus, some of the technologies were consumer oriented while others for business and some for cloud scale service providers.

    Recent NVM, NVMe and Flash SSD news

    A sampling of some recent NVM, NVMe and Flash related news includes among others:

    • PMC Announces Flashtec NVMe SSD NVMe2106, NVMe2032 Controllers (Via TomsITpro)
    • New SATA SSD powers elastic cloud agility for CSPs (Via Cbronline)
    • Toshiba Solid-State Drive Family Features PCIe Technology (Via Eweek)
    • SanDisk aims CloudSpeed Ultra SSD at cloud providers (Via ITwire)
    • Everspin & Aupera show all-MRAM Storage Module in M.2 Form Factor (Via BusinessWire)
    • Intel and Micron unveil new 3D XPoint Non Volatile Memory (NVM) for servers and storage (part I, part II and part III)
    • PMC-Sierra Scales Storage with PCIe, NVMe (Via EEtimes)
    • Seagate Grows Its Nytro Enterprise Flash Storage Line (Via InfoStor)
    • New SAS Solid State Drive First Product From Seagate Micron Alliance (Via Seagate)
    • Wow, Samsung’s New 16 Terabyte SSD Is the World’s Largest Hard Drive (Via Gizmodo)
    • Samsung ups the SSD ante with faster, higher capacity drives (Via ITworld)

    NVMe primer

    Via Intel History of Memory
    Via Intel: Click above image to view history of memory via Intel site

    NVM includes technologies such as NAND flash commonly used in Solid State Devices (SSD’s) storage today, as well as in USB thumb drive, mobile and hand-held devices among many other uses. NVM spans servers, storage, I/O devices along with mobile and handheld among many other technologies. In addition to NAND flash, other forms of NVM include Non Volatile Random Access Memory (NVRAM), Read Only Memory (ROM) along with some emerging new technologies including the recently announced Intel and Micron 3D XPoint among others.

    Server Storage I/O access and NVM
    Server Storage I/O memory (and storage) hierarchy

    Keep in mind that memory is storage and storage is persistent memory as well as that there are different classes, categories and tiers of memory and storage as shown above to meet various performance, availability, capacity and economic requirements. Besides NVM ranging from flash to NVRAM to emerging 3D XPoint among others, another popular topic that is gaining momentum is NVM Express (NVMe). NVMe (more material here at www.thenvmeplace.com) is a new server storage I/O access method and protocol for fast access to NVM based products. NVMe is an alternative to existing block based server storage I/O access protocols such as AHCI/SATA and SCSI/SAS devices commonly used for access Hard Disk Drives (HDD) along with SSD among other things.

    Server Storage I/O NVMe PCIe SAS SATA AHCI
    Comparing AHCI/SATA, SCSI/SAS and NVMe all of which can coexist to address different needs.

    Leveraging the common PCIe hardware interface, NVMe based devices (that have an NVMe controller) can be accessed via various operating systems (and hypervisors such as VMware ESXi) with both in the box drivers or optional third-party device drivers. Devices that support NVMe can be 2.5" drive format packaged that use a converged 8637/8639 connector (e.g. PCIe x4) coexisting with SAS and SATA devices as well as being add in card (AIC) PCIe cards supporting x4, x8 and other implementations. Initially NVMe is being positioned as a back-end to servers (or storage systems) interface for accessing fast flash and other NVM based devices.

    NVMe as back-end storage
    NVMe as a "back-end" I/O interface in a server or storage system accessing NVM storage/media devices

    NVMe as front-end server storage I/O interface
    NVMe as a “front-end” interface for servers (or storage systems/appliances) to use NVMe based storage systems

    NVMe has also been shown to work over low latency, high-speed RDMA based network interfaces including RoCE (RDMA over Converged Ethernet) and InfiniBand (read more here, here and here involving Mangstor, Mellanox and PMC among others). What this means is that like SCSI based SAS which can be both a back-end drive (HDD, SSD, etc) access protocol and interface, NVMe can in addition to being used for back-end can also be used as a front-end of server to storage interface like how Fibre Channel SCSI_Protocol (aka FCP), SCSI based iSCSI, SCSI RDMA Protocol via InfiniBand (among others) are used.

    Shared external PCIe using NVMe
    NVMe and shared PCIe

    NVMe features

    Main features of NVMe include among others:

    • Lower latency due to improve drivers and increased queues (and queue sizes)
    • Lower CPU used to handler 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

    Watch for more about NVMe as it continues to gain in both industry adoption and deployment as well as customer adoption and deployment.

    Where to read, watch and learn more

    • NVMe: The Golden Ticket for Faster Flash Storage? (Via EnterpriseStorageForum)
    • What should I consider when using SSD cloud? (Via SearchCloudStorage)
    • MSP CMG, September 2014 Presentation (Flash back to reality – Myths and Realities Flash and SSD Industry trends perspectives plus benchmarking tips) – PDF
    • Selecting Storage: Start With Requirements (Via NetworkComputing)
    • Spot The Newest & Best Server Trends (Via Processor)
    • Intel and Micron unveil new 3D XPoint Non Volatile Memory (NVM) for servers and storage (part I, part II and part III)
    • Market ripe for embedded flash storage as prices drop (Via Powermore (Dell))
    • Continue reading more about NVM, NVMe, NAND flash, SSD Server and storage I/O related topics at www.thessdplace.com as well as about I/O performance, monitoring and benchmarking tools at www.storageperformance.us.

    Storage I/O trends

    What this all means and wrap up

    The question is not if NVM is in your future, it is! Instead the questions are what type of NVM including NAND flash among other mediums will be deployed where, using what type of packaging or solutions (drives, cards, systems, appliances, cloud) for what role (as storage, primary memory, persistent cache) along with how much among others. For some environments the solution is already, or will be All NVM Arrays (ANA) or All Flash Arrays (AFA) or All SSD Arrays (ASA) while for others the home run will be hybrid based solutions that work for you, fitting in and adapting to your environment as it changes.

    Also keep in mind that a little bit of fast memory including NVM based flash among others in the right place can have a big benefit. My experiences using NVMe to use flash enabled NVMe devices on Windows and Linux systems is that you can see lower response times at higher-IOP’s however also with lower CPU consumption particular when compared to 6Gbps SATA. Likewise bandwidth can easily be pushed to the limits of the NVMe device as well as PCIe interface being used such as x4 or x8 depending on implementation. That is also a warning and something to watch out for comparing apples to oranges in that while NVMe uses PCIe, understand when looking at different results if those are for x4 or x8 or faster PCIe as their mere presence of using PCIe does not mean you are running at full potential.

    Keep an eye on NVMe as a new high-speed, low-latency server storage I/O access protocol for unlocking the full performance capabilities of fast NVM based storage as well as leveraging the multiple cores in today’s fast processors. Does this mean AHCI/SATA or SCSI/SAS are now dead? Some will claim that, however at least near-term for next few years (if not longer), those interfaces will continue to be used where they make sense, as well as where they can save dollars specifically for cost sensitive, high-capacity environments that do not need the full performance of NVMe just yet.

    As for the Flash Memory Summit event in Santa Clara, that was a good day with time well spent in briefings, meetings, demo’s and add hoc discussions on the expo floor.

    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

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

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    Some August 2015 Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure Cloud Updates

    Storage I/O trends

    Some August 2015 Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure Cloud Updates

    Cloud Services Providers continue to extend their feature, function and capabilities and the following are two examples. Being a customer of both Amazon Web Services (AWS) as well as Microsoft Azure (among others), I receive monthly news updates about service improvements along with new features. Here are a couple of examples involving recent updates from AWS and Azure.

    Azure enhancements

    Microsoft Azure customer update

    Azure Premium Storage generally available in Japan East

    Solid State Device (SSD) based Azure Premium Storage is now available in Japan East region. Add up to 32 TB and more than 64,000 IOPs (read operations) per virtual machine with  Azure Premium Storage. Learn more about Azure storage and pricing here.

    Azure Data Factory generally available

    Data Factory is a cloud based data integration service for automated management as well as movement and transformation of data, learn more and view pricing options here.

    AWS Partner Updates

    Recent Amazon Web Services (AWS) customer update included the following pertaining to partner storage solutions.

    AWS partner updates

    AWS Partner Network APN

    Learn more about AWS Partner Network (APN) here or click on the above image.

    AWS APN competency programs include:

    • Storage
    • Healthcare
    • Life Sciences
    • SAP Solutions
    • Microsoft Solutions
    • Oracle Solutions
    • Marketing and Commerce
    • Big Data
    • Security
    • Digital Media

    AWS Partner Network (APN) Solutions for Storage include:

    Archiving to AWS Glacier

  • Commvault
  • NetApp (AltaVault)

    • Backup to AWS using S3

  • CloudBerry Lab
  • Commvault
  • Ctera
  • Druva
  • NetApp (AltaVault)

    • Primary Cloud File and NAS storage complementing on-premises (e.g. your local) storage

  • Avere
  • Ctera
  • NetApp (Cloud OnTap)
  • Panzura
  • SoftNAS
  • Zadara

    • Secure File Transfer

  • Aspera
  • Signiant

    • Note that the above are those listed on the AWS Storage Partner Page as of this being published and subject to change. Likewise other solutions that are not part of the AWS partner program may not be listed.

    Where to read, watch and learn more

    Storage I/O trends

    What this all means and wrap up

    Cloud Service Providers (CSP) continue to enhance their capabilities, as well as their footprints as part of growth. In addition to technology, tools and number of regions, sites and data centers, the CSPs are also expanding their partner networks both about how many partners, also in the scope of those partnerships. Some of these partnerships are in the scope of the cloud as a destination, others are for enabling hybrid where public clouds become an extension complementing traditional IT. Everything is not the same in most environments and one type of cloud approach does not have to suit or fit all needs, hence the value of hybrid cloud deployment and usage.

    Ok, nuff said, for now…

    Cheers
    Gs

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

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

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    Intel Micron 3D XPoint server storage NVM SCM PM SSD

    3D XPoint server storage class memory SCM


    Storage I/O trends

    Updated 1/31/2018

    Intel Micron 3D XPoint server storage NVM SCM PM SSD.

    This is the second of a three-part series on the recent Intel and Micron 3D XPoint server storage memory announcement. Read Part I here and Part III here.

    Is this 3D XPoint marketing, manufacturing or material technology?

    You can’t have a successful manufactured material technology without some marketing, likewise marketing without some manufactured material would be manufactured marketing. In the case of 3D XPoint and its announcement launch, their real technology shown, granted it was only wafer and dies as opposed to an actual DDR4 DIMM or PCIe Add In Card (AIC) or drive form factor Solid State Device (SSD) product. On the other hand, on a relative comparison basis, even though there is marketing collateral available to learn more from, this was far from a over the big-top made for TV or web circus event, which can be a good thing.


    Wafer unveiled containing 3D XPoint 128 Gb dies

    Who will get access to 3D XPoint?

    Initially 3D XPoint production capacity supply will be for the two companies to offer early samples to their customers later this year with general production slated for 2016 meaning early real customer deployed products starting sometime in 2016.

    Is it NAND or NOT?

    3D XPoint is not NAND flash, it is also not NVRAM or DRAM, it’s a new class of NVM that can be used for server class main memory with persistency, or as persistent data storage among other uses (cell phones, automobiles, appliances and other electronics). In addition, 3D XPoint is more durable with a longer useful life for writing and storing data vs. NAND flash.

    Why is 3D XPoint important?

    As mentioned during the Intel and Micron announcement, there have only been seven major memory technologies introduced since the transistor back in 1947, granted there have been many variations along with generational enhancements of those. Thus 3D XPoint is being positioned by Intel and Micron as the eighth memory class joining its predecessors many of which continue to be used today in various roles.


    Major memory classes or categories timeline

    In addition to the above memory classes or categories timeline, the following shows in more detail various memory categories (click on the image below to get access to the Intel interactive infographic).

    Intel History of Memory Infographic
    Via: https://intelsalestraining.com/memory timeline/ (Click on image to view)

    What capacity size is 3D XPoint?

    Initially the 3D XPoint technology is available in a 2 layer 128 bit (cell) per die capacity. Keep in mind that there are usually 8 bits to a byte resulting in 16 GByte capacity per chip initially. With density improvements, as well as increased stacking of layers, the number of cells or bits per die (e.g. what makes up a chip) should improve, as well as most implementations will have multiple chips in some type of configuration.

    What will 3D XPoint cost?

    During the 3D XPoint launch webinar Intel and Micron hinted that first pricing will be between current DRAM and NAND flash on a per cell or bit basis, however real pricing and costs will vary depending on how packaged for use. For example if placed on a DDR4 or different type of DIMM or on a PCIe Add In Card (AIC) or as a drive form factor SSD among other options will vary the real price. Likewise as with other memories and storage mediums, as production yields and volumes increase, along with denser designs, the cost per usable cell or bit can be expected to further improve.

    Where to read, watch and learn more

    Storage I/O trends

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

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

    What This All Means

    DRAM which has been around for sometime has plenty of life left for many applications as does NAND flash including new 3D NAND, vNAND and other variations. For the next several years, there will be a co-existences between new and old NVM and DRAM among other memory technologies including 3D XPoint. Read more in this series including Part I here and Part III here.

    Disclosure: Micron and Intel have been direct and/or indirect clients in the past via third-parties and partners, also I have bought and use some of their technologies direct and/or in-direct via their partners.

    Ok, nuff said, for now.

    Gs

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

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

    Posted on

    3D XPoint nvm pm scm storage class memory

    Part III – 3D XPoint server storage class memory SCM


    Storage I/O trends

    Updated 1/31/2018

    3D XPoint nvm pm scm storage class memory.

    This is the third of a three-part series on the recent Intel and Micron 3D XPoint server storage memory announcement. Read Part I here and Part II here.

    What is 3D XPoint and how does it work?

    3D XPoint is a new class or class of memory (view other categories of memory here) that provides performance for reads and writes closer to that of DRAM with about 10x the capacity density. In addition to the speed closer to DRAM vs. the lower NAND flash, 3D XPoint is also non-volatile memory (NVM) like NAND flash, NVRAM and others. What this means is that 3D XPoint can be used as persistent higher density fast server memory (or main memory for other computers and electronics). Besides being fast persistent main memory, 3D XPoint will also be a faster medium for solid state devices (SSD’s) including PCIe Add In Cards (AIC), m2 cards and drive form factor 8637/8639 NVM Express (NVMe) accessed devices that also has better endurance or life span compared to NAND flash.


    3D XPoint architecture and attributes

    The initial die or basic chip building block 3D XPoint implementation is a layer 128 Gbit device which if using 8 bits would yield 16GB raw. Over time increased densities should become available as the bit density improves with more cells and further scaling of the technology, combined with packaging. For example while a current die could hold up to 16 GBytes of data, multiple dies could be packaged together to create a 32GB, 64GB, 128GB etc. or larger actual product. Think about not only where packaged flash based SSD capacities are today, also think in terms of where DDR3 and DDR4 DIMM are at such as 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB densities.

    The 3D aspect comes from the memory being in a matrix initially being two layers high, with multiple rows and columns that intersect, where those intersections occur is a microscopic material based switch for accessing a particular memory cell. Unlike NAND flash where an individual cell or bit is accessed as part of a larger block or page comprising several thousand bytes at once, 3D XPoint cells or bits can be individually accessed to speed up reads and writes in a more granular fashion. It is this more granular access along with performance that will enable 3D XPoint to be used in lower latency scenarios where DRAM would normally be used.

    Instead of trapping electrons in a cell to create a bit of capacity (e.g. on or off) like NAND flash, 3D XPoint leverages the underlying physical material propertied to store a bit as a phase change enabling use of all cells. In other words, instead of being electron based, it is material based. While Intel and Micron did not specify what the actual chemistry and physical materials that are used in 3D XPoint, they did discuss some of the characteristics. If you want to go deep, check out how the Dailytech makes an interesting educated speculation or thesis on the underlying technology.

    Watch the following video to get a better idea and visually see how 3D XPoint works.



    3D XPoint YouTube Video

    What are these chips, cells, wafers and dies?

    Left many dies on a wafer, right, a closer look at the dies cut from the wafer

    Dies (here and here) are the basic building block of what goes into the chips that in turn are the components used for creating DDR DIMM for main computer memory, as well as for create SD and MicroSD cards, USB thumb drives, PCIe AIC and drive form factor SSD, as well as custom modules on motherboards, or consumption via bare die and wafer level consumption (e.g. where you are doing really custom things at volume, beyond using a soldering iron scale).

    Storage I/O trends

    Has Intel and Micron cornered the NVM and memory market?

    We have heard proclamations, speculation and statements of the demise of DRAM, NAND flash and other volatile and NVM memories for years, if not decades now. Each year there is the usual this will be the year of “x” where “x” can include among others. Resistive RAM aka ReRAM or RRAM aka the memristor that HP earlier announced they were going to bring to market and then earlier this year canceling those plans while Crossbar continues to pursue RRAM. MRAM or Magnetorestive RAM, Phase Change Memory aka CRAM or PCM and PRAM, FRAM aka FeRAM or Ferroelectric RAM among others.

    flash SSD and NVM trends

    Expanding persistent memory and SSD storage markets

    Keep in mind that there are many steps taking time measured in years or decades to go from research and development lab idea to prototype that can then be produced at production volumes in economic yields. As a reference for, there is still plenty of life in both DRAM as well as NAND flash, the later having appeared around 1989.

    Industry vs. Customer Adoption and deployment timeline

    Technology industry adoption precedes customer adoption and deployment

    There is a difference between industry adoption and deployment vs. customer adoption and deployment, they are related, yet separated by time as shown in the above figure. What this means is that there can be several years from the time a new technology is initially introduced and when it becomes generally available. Keep in mind that NAND flash has yet to reach its full market potential despite having made significant inroads the past few years since it was introduced in 1989.

    This begs the question of if 3D XPoint is a variation of phase change, RRAM, MRAM or something else. Over at the Dailytech they lay out a line of thinking (or educated speculation) that 3D XPoint is some derivative or variation of phase change, time will tell about what it really is.

    What’s the difference between 3D NAND flash and 3D XPoint?

    3D NAND is a form of NAND flash NVM, while 3D XPoint is a completely new and different type of NVM (e.g. its not NAND).

    3D NAND is a variation of traditional flash with the difference between vertical stacking vs. horizontal to improve density, also known as vertical NAND or V-NAND. Vertical stacking is like building up to house more tenants or occupants in a dense environment or scaling up, vs scaling-out by using up more space where density is not an issue. Note that magnetic HDD’s shifted to perpendicular (e.g. vertical) recording about ten years ago to break through the super parametric barrier and more recently, magnetic tape has also adopted perpendicular recording. Also keep in mind that 3D XPoint and the earlier announced Intel and Micron 3D NAND flash are two separate classes of memory that both just happen to have 3D in their marketing names.

    Where to read, watch and learn more

    Storage I/O trends

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

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

    What This All Means

    First, keep in mind that this is very early in the 3D XPoint technology evolution life-cycle and both DRAM and NAND flash will not be dead at least near term. Keep in mind that NAND flash appeared back in 1989 and only over the past several years has finally hit its mainstream adoption stride with plenty of market upside left. Same with DRAM which has been around for sometime, it too still has plenty of life left for many applications. However other applications that have the need for improved speed over NAND flash, or persistency and density vs. DRAM will be some of the first to leverage new NVM technologies such as 3D XPoint. Thus at least for the next several years, there will be a co-existences between new and old NVM and DRAM among other memory technologies. Bottom line, 3D XPoint is a new class of NVM memory, can be used for persistent main server memory or for persistent fast storage memory. If you have not done so, check out Part I here and Part II here of this three-part series on Intel and Micron 3D XPoint.

    Disclosure: Micron and Intel have been direct and/or indirect clients in the past via third-parties and partners, also I have bought and use some of their technologies direct and/or in-direct via their partners.

    Ok, nuff said, for now.

    Gs

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

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

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    May and June 2015 Server StorageIO Update Newsletter

    Volume 15, Issue V & VI

    Hello and welcome to this joint May and June 2015 Server StorageIO update newsletter. Here in the northern hemisphere its summer which means holiday vacations among other things.

    There has been a lot going on this spring and so far this summer with more in the wings. Summer can also be a time to get caught up on some things, preparing for others while hopefully being able to enjoy some time off as well.

    In terms of what have I been working on (or with)? Clouds (OpenStack, vCloud Air, AWS, Azure, GCS among others), virtual and containers, flash SSD devices (drives, cards), software defining, content servers, NVMe, databases, data protection items, servers, cache and micro-tiering among other things.

    Speaking of getting caught up, back in early May among many other conferences (Cisco, Docker, HP, IBM, OpenStack, Red Hat and many other events) was EMCworld. EMC covered my hotel and registration costs to attend the event in Las Vegas (thanks EMC, that’s a disclosure btw ;). View a summary StorageIOblog post covering EMCworld 2015 here along with recent EMC announcements including Acquisition of cloud services vendor Virtustream for $1.2B, and ECS 2.0.

    Server and Storage I/O Wrappings

    This months newsletter has a focus on software and storage wrappings, that is, how your storage or software is packaged, delivered or deployed. For example traditional physical storage systems, software defined storage as shrink-wrap or download, tin-wrapped software as an appliance, virtual wrapped such as a virtual storage appliance or cloud wrapped among others.

    OpenStack software defined cloud

    OpenStack (both the organization, community, event and software) continue to gain momentum. The latest release known as Kilo (more Kilo info here) was released in early April followed by the OpenStack summit in May.

    Some of you might be more involved with OpenStack vs. others, perhaps having already deployed into your production environment. Perhaps you, like myself have OpenStack running in a lab for proof of concept, research, development or learning among other things.

    You might even be using the services of a public cloud or managed service provider that is powered by OpenStack. On the other hand, you might be familiar with OpenStack from reading up on it, watching videos, listening to podcast’s or attending events to figure out what it is, where it fits, as well as what can your organization use it for.

    Drew Robb (@Robbdrew) has a good overview piece about OpenStack and storage over at Enterprise Storage Forum (here). OpenStack is a collection of tools or bundles for building private, hybrid and public clouds. These various open source projects within the OpenStack umbrella include compute (Nova) and virtual machine images (Glance). Other components include dashboard management (Horizon), security and identity control (Keystone), network (Neutron), object storage (Swift), block storage (Cinder) and file-based storage (Manila) among others.

    It’s up to the user to decide which pieces you will add. For example, you can use Swift without having virtual machines and vice versa. Read Drew’s complete article here.

    Btw, if you missed it, not only has OpenStack added file support (e.g. Manila), Amazon Web Services (AWS) also recently added Elastic File Services (EFS) complementing there Elastic Block Services (EBS).

    Focus on Storage Wrappings

    Software exists and gets deployed in various places as shown in the following examples.

    software wrapped storage

    • Cloud wrapped software – software that can be deployed in a cloud instance.
    • Container wrapped software – software deployed in a docker or other container
    • Firmware wrapped software – software that gets packaged and deployed as firmware in a server, storage, network device or adapter
    • Shrink wrapped software – software that can be downloaded and deployed where you want
    • Tin wrapped software – software that is packaged or bundled with hardware (e.g. tin) such as an appliance or storage system
    • Virtual wrapped software

    server storage software wrapping

    StorageIOblog posts

    Data Protection Diaries

    Modernizing Data Protection
    Using new and old things in new ways

    This is part of an ongoing series of posts that part of www.storageioblog.com/data-protection-diaries-main/ on data protection including archiving, backup/restore, business continuance (BC), business resiliency (BC), data footprint reduction (DFR), disaster recovery (DR), High Availability (HA) along with related themes, tools, technologies, techniques, trends and strategies.
    world backup day (and test your restore) image licensed from Shutterstock by StorageIO

    Data protection is a broad topic that spans from logical and physical security to HA, BC, BR, DR, archiving(including life beyond compliance) along with various tools, technologies, techniques. Key is aligning those to the needs of the business or organization for today’s as well as tomorrows requirements. Instead of doing things what has been done in the past that may have been based on what was known or possible due to technology capabilities, why not start using new and old things in new ways.

    Let’s start using all the tools in the data protection toolbox regardless of if they are new or old, cloud, virtual, physical, software defined product or service in new ways while keeping the requirements of the business in focus. Read more from this post here.

    In case you missed it:

    View other recent as well as past blog posts here

    In This Issue


  • Industry Trends Perspectives News
  • Commentary in the news
  • Tips and Articles
  • StorageIOblog posts
  • Events and Webinars
  • Recommended Reading List
  • StorageIOblog posts
  • Server StorageIO Lab reports
  • Resources and Links

    • Industry News and Activity

    Recent Industry news and activity

    AWS adds new M4 virtual machine instances
    Cisco provides FCoE proof of life

    Google new cloud storage pricing
    HP announces new data center services
    HDS announces new products & services
    IBM enhances storage portfolio

    IBTA announces RoCE initiative
    InfiniteIO announces network/cloud cache
    Intel buying FPGA specialist Altera
    NetApp – Changes CEO

    View other recent and upcoming events here

    StorageIO Commentary in the news

    StorageIO news (image licensed for use from Shutterstock by StorageIO)
    Recent Server StorageIO commentary and industry trends perspectives about news, activities and announcements.

    BizTechMagazine: Comments on how to simplify your data center with virtualization
    EnterpriseStorageForum: Comments on Open Stack and Clouds
    EnterpriseStorageForum: Comments on Top Ten Software Defined Storage Tips, Gotchas and Cautions
    EdTech: Comments on Harness Power with New Processors
    Processor: Comments on Protecting Your Servers & Networking equipment
    EdTech: Comments on Harness Power with New Processors

    Processor: Comments on Improve Remote Server Management including KVM
    CyberTrend: Comments on Software Defined Data Center and virtualization
    BizTechMagazine: Businesses Prepare as End-of-Life for Windows Server 2003 Nears
    InformationWeek: Top 10 sessions from Interop Las Vegas 2015
    CyberTrend: Comments on Software Defined Data Center and Virtualization

    View more trends comments here

    Vendors you may not heard of

    This is a new section starting in this issue where various new or existing vendors as well as service providers you may not have heard about will be listed.

    CloudHQ – Cloud management tools
    EMCcode Rex-Ray – Container management
    Enmotus FUZE – Flash leveraged micro tiering
    Rubrik – Data protection management
    Sureline – Data protection management
    Virtunet systems – VMware flash cache software
    InfiniteIO – Cloud and NAS cache appliance
    Servers Direct – Server and storage platforms

    Check out more vendors you may know, have heard of, or that are perhaps new on the Server StorageIO Industry Links page here. There are over 1,000 entries (and growing) vendors on the links page.

    StorageIO Tips and Articles

    So you have a new storage device or system. How will you test or find its performance? Check out this quick-read tip on storage benchmark and testing fundamentals over at BizTech.

    Check out these resources and links on server storage I/O performance and benchmarking tools. View more tips and articles here

    Webinars

    BrightTalk Webinar – June 23 2015 9AM PT
    Server Storage I/O Innovation v2.015: Protect Preserve & Serve Your Information

    Videos and Podcasts

    VMware vCloud Air Server StorageIO Lab Test Drive Ride along videos.

    Server StorageIO Lab vCloud test drive video part 1Server StorageIO Lab vCloud test drive video part 2
    VMware vCloud Air test drive videos Part I & II

    StorageIO podcasts are also available via and at StorageIO.tv

    Various Industry Events

     

    VMworld August 30-September 3 2015

    Flash Memory Summit August 11-13

    Interop – April 29 2015 Las Vegas (Voted one of top ten sessions at Interop, more here)
    Smart Shopping for Your Storage Strategy

    View other recent and upcoming events here

    Webinars

    BrightTalk Webinar – June 23 2015 9AM PT
    Server Storage I/O Innovation v2.015: Protect Preserve & Serve Your Information

    From StorageIO Labs

    Research, Reviews and Reports

    VMware vCloud Air Test Drive
    VMware vCloud Air
    local and distributed NAS (NFS, CIFS, DFS) file data. Read more here.

    VMware vCloud Air

    VMware vCloud Air provides a platform similar to those just mentioned among others for your applications and their underlying resource needs (compute, memory, storage, networking) to be fulfilled. In addition, it should not be a surprise that VMware vCloud Air shares many common themes, philosophies and user experiences with the traditional on-premises based VMware solutions you might be familiar with.

    View other StorageIO lab review reports here

    Resources and Links

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

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

    Cheers gs

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

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

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    EMCworld 2015 How Do You Want Your Storage Wrapped?

    Server Storage I/O trends

    EMCworld 2015 How Do You Want Your Storage Wrapped?

    Back in early May I was invited by EMC to attend EMCworld 2015 which included both the public sessions, as well as several NDA based discussions. Keep in mind that there is the known, there is the unknown (or assumed or speculated) and in between there are NDA’s, nuff said on that. EMC covered my hotel and registration costs to attend the event in Las Vegas (thanks EMC, that’s a disclosure btw ;) and here is a synopsis of various EMCworld 2015 announcements.

    What EMC announced

    • VMAX3 enhancements to the EMC enterprise flagship storage platform to keep it relevant for traditional legacy workloads as well as for in a converged, scale-out, cloud, virtual and software defined environment.
    • VNX 3200 entry-level All Flash Array (AFA) flash SSD system starting at $25,000 USD for a 3TB unified platform with full data services found in other VNX products.
    • vVNX aka Virtual VNX aka "project liberty" which is a community (e.g. free) software version of the VNX. vVNX is a Virtual Storage Appliance (VSA) that you download and run on a VMware platform. Learn more and download here. Note the install will do a CPU type check so forget about trying to run it on a Intel Nuc or similar, I tried just because I could, the install will protect you from doing such things.
    • Various data protection related items including new Datadomain platforms as well as software updates and integration with other EMC platforms (storage systems).
    • All Flash Array (AFA) XtremIO 4.0 enhancements including larger clusters, larger nodes to boost performance, capacity and availability, along with copy service updates among others improvements.
    • Preview of DSSD shared (inside a rack) external flash Solid State Device (SSD) including more details. While much of DSSD is still under NDA, EMC did provide more public details at EMCworld. Between what was displayed and announced publicly at EMCworld as well as what can be found via Google (or other searches) you can piece together more of the DSSD story. What is known publicly today is that DSSD leverages the new Non-Volatile Memory express (NVMe) access protocol built upon underlying PCIe technology. More on DSSD in future discussions,if you have not done so, get an NDA deep dive briefing on it from EMC.
    • ScaleIO is now available via a free download here including both Windows and Linux clients as well as instructions for those operating systems as well as VMware.
    • ViPR can also be downloaded here for free (has been previously available) from here as well as it has been placed into open source by EMC.

    What EMC announced since EMCworld 2015

    • Acquisition of cloud services (and software tools) vendor Virtustream for $1.2B adding to the federation cloud services portfolio (companion to VMware vCloud Air).
    • Release of ECS 2.0 including a free download here. This new version of ECS (Elastic Cloud Storage) can be used independent of the ViPR controller, or in conjunction with ViPR. In addition ECS now has about 80% of the functionality of the Centera object storage platform. The remaining 20% functionality (mainly regulatory compliance governance) of Centera will be added to ECS in the future providing a migration path for Centera customers. In case you are wondering what does EMC do with Centera, Atmos, ViPR and now ECS, answer is that ECS can work with or without ViPR, second is that the functionality of Centera, Atmos are being rolled into ECS. ECS as a refresher is software that transforms general purpose industry standard servers with direct storage into a scale-out HDFS and object storage solution.
    • Check out EMCcode including S3motion that I use and have reviewed here. Also check out EMCcode Rex-Ray which if you are into docker containers, it should be of interest, I know I’m interested in it.

    Server Storage I/O trends

    What this all means and wrap-up

    There were no single major explosive announcements however the sum of all the announcements together should not be over shadowed by the big tent made for TV (or web) big tent productions and entertainment. What EMC announced was effectively how would you like, how do you want and need your storage and associated data services along with management wrapped.

    tin wrapped software

    By being wrapped, do you want your software defined storage management and storage wrapped in a legacy turnkey solution such as VMAX3, VNX or Isilon, do you want or need it to be hybrid or all flash, converged and unified, block, file or object.

    software wrapped storage

    Or do you need or want the software defined storage management and storage to be "shrink wrapped" as a download so you can deploy on your own hardware "tin wrapped" or as a VSA "virtual wrapped" or cloud wrapped? Do you need or want the software defined storage management and storage to leverage anybody’s hardware while being open source?

    server storage software wrapping

    How do you need or want your storage to be wrapped to fit your specific needs, that IMHO was the essence of what EMC announced at EMCworld 2015, granted the motorcycles and other production entertainment was engaging as well as educational.

    Ok, nuff said for now

    Cheers
    Gs

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

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