Tag: Performance

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Announcing Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book by Greg Schulz

New SDDI Essentials Book by Greg Schulz of Server StorageIO

Cloud, Converged, Virtual Fundamental Server Storage I/O Tradecraft

server storage I/O data infrastructure trends

Update 1/21/2018
Over the past several months I have posted, commenting, presenting and discussing more about Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials aka SDDI or SDDC and SDI. Now it is time to announce my new book (my 4th solo project), Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book (CRC Press). Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials is now generally available at various global venues in hardcopy, hardback print as well as various electronic versions including via Amazon and CRC Press among others. For those attending VMworld 2017 in Las Vegas, I will be doing a book signing, meet and greet at 1PM Tuesday August 29 in the VMworld book store, as well as presenting at various other fall industry events.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book Announcement

(Via Businesswire) Stillwater, Minnesota – August 23, 2017  – Server StorageIO, a leading independent IT industry advisory and consultancy firm, in conjunction with publisher CRC Press, a Taylor and Francis imprint, announced the release and general availability of “Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials,” a new book by Greg Schulz, noted author and Server StorageIO founder.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials

The Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book covers physical, cloud, converged (and hyper-converged), container, and virtual server storage I/O networking technologies, revealing trends, tools, techniques, and tradecraft skills.

Data Infrastructures Protect Preserve Secure and Serve Information
Various IT and Cloud Infrastructure Layers including Data Infrastructures

From cloud web scale to enterprise and small environments, IoT to database, software-defined data center (SDDC) to converged and container servers, flash solid state devices (SSD) to storage and I/O networking,, the book helps develop or refine hardware, software, services and management experiences, providing real-world examples for those involved with or looking to expand their data infrastructure education knowledge and tradecraft skills.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book topics include:

    • Cloud, Converged, Container, and Virtual Server Storage I/O networking
    • Data protection (archive, availability, backup, BC/DR, snapshot, security)
    • Block, file, object, structured, unstructured and data value
    • Analytics, monitoring, reporting, and management metrics
    • Industry trends, tools, techniques, decision making
    • Local, remote server, storage and network I/O troubleshooting
    • Performance, availability, capacity and  economics (PACE)

Where To Purchase Your Copy

Order via Amazon.com and CRC Press along with Google Books among other global venues.

What People Are Saying About Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book

“From CIOs to operations, sales to engineering, this book is a comprehensive reference, a must-read for IT infrastructure professionals, beginners to seasoned experts,” said Tom Becchetti, advisory systems engineer.

“We had a front row seat watching Greg present live in our education workshop seminar sessions for ITC professionals in the Netherlands material that is in this book. We recommend this amazing book to expand your converged and data infrastructure knowledge from beginners to industry veterans.”

Gert and Frank Brouwer – Brouwer Storage Consultancy

“Software-Defined Data Infrastructures provides the foundational building blocks to improve your craft in several areas including applications, clouds, legacy, and more.  IT professionals, as well as sales professionals and support personal, stand to gain a great deal by reading this book.”

Mark McSherry- Oracle Regional Sales Manager

“Greg Schulz has provided a complete ‘toolkit’ for storage management along with the background and framework for the storage or data infrastructure professional (or those aspiring to become one).”
Greg Brunton – Experienced Storage and Data Management Professional

“Software-defined data infrastructures are where hardware, software, server, storage, I/O networking and related services converge inside data centers or clouds to protect, preserve, secure and serve applications and data,” said Schulz.  “Both readers who are new to data infrastructures and seasoned pros will find this indispensable for gaining and expanding their knowledge.”

SDDI and SDDC components

More About Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials
Software Defined Data Infrastructures (SDDI) Essentials provides fundamental coverage of physical, cloud, converged, and virtual server storage I/O networking technologies, trends, tools, techniques, and tradecraft skills. From webscale, software-defined, containers, database, key-value store, cloud, and enterprise to small or medium-size business, the book is filled with techniques, and tips to help develop or refine your server storage I/O hardware, software, Software Defined Data Centers (SDDC), Software Data Infrastructures (SDI) or Software Defined Anything (SDx) and services skills. Whether you are new to data infrastructures or a seasoned pro, you will find this comprehensive reference indispensable for gaining as well as expanding experience with technologies, tools, techniques, and trends.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials SDDI SDDC content

This book is the definitive source providing comprehensive coverage about IT and cloud Data Infrastructures for experienced industry experts to beginners. Coverage of topics spans from higher level applications down to components (hardware, software, networks, and services) that get defined to create data infrastructures that support business, web, and other information services. This includes Servers, Storage, I/O Networks, Hardware, Software, Management Tools, Physical, Software Defined Virtual, Cloud, Docker, Containers (Docker and others) as well as Bulk, Block, File, Object, Cloud, Virtual and software defined storage.

Additional topics include Data protection (Availability, Archiving, Resiliency, HA, BC, BR, DR, Backup), Performance and Capacity Planning, Converged Infrastructure (CI), Hyper-Converged, NVM and NVMe Flash SSD, Storage Class Memory (SCM), NVMe over Fabrics, Benchmarking (including metrics matter along with tools), Performance Capacity Planning and much more including whos doing what, how things work, what to use when, where, why along with current and emerging trends.

Book Features

ISBN-13: 978-1498738156
ISBN-10: 149873815X
Hardcover: 672 pages
(Available in Kindle and other electronic formats)
Over 200 illustrations and 70 plus tables
Frequently asked Questions (and answers) along with many tips
Various learning exercises, extensive glossary and appendices
Publisher: Auerbach/CRC Press Publications; 1 edition (June 19, 2017)
Language: English

SDDI and SDDC toolbox

Where To Learn More

Learn more about related technology, trends, tools, techniques, and tips with the following links.

Data Infrastructures Protect Preserve Secure and Serve Information
Various IT and Cloud Infrastructure Layers including Data Infrastructures

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

Data Infrastructures exist to protect, preserve, secure and serve information along with the applications and data they depend on. With more data being created at a faster rate, along with the size of data becoming larger, increased application functionality to transform data into information means more demands on data infrastructures and their underlying resources.

Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials: Cloud, Converged, and Virtual Fundamental Server Storage I/O Tradecraft is for people who are currently involved with or looking to expand their knowledge and tradecraft skills (experience) of data infrastructures. Software-defined data centers (SDDC), software data infrastructures (SDI), software-defined data infrastructure (SDDI) and traditional data infrastructures are made up of software, hardware, services, and best practices and tools spanning servers, I/O networking, and storage from physical to software-defined virtual, container, and clouds. The role of data infrastructures is to enable and support information technology (IT) and organizational information applications.

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

Everything is not the same in business, organizations, IT, and in particular servers, storage, and I/O. This means that there are different audiences who will benefit from reading this book. Because everything and everybody is not the same when it comes to server and storage I/O along with associated IT environments and applications, different readers may want to focus on various sections or chapters of this book.

If you are looking to expand your knowledge into an adjacent area or to understand whats under the hood, from converged, hyper-converged to traditional data infrastructures topics, this book is for you. For experienced storage, server, and networking professionals, this book connects the dots as well as provides coverage of virtualization, cloud, and other convergence themes and topics.

This book is also for those who are new or need to learn more about data infrastructure, server, storage, I/O networking, hardware, software, and services. Another audience for this book is experienced IT professionals who are now responsible for or working with data infrastructure components, technologies, tools, and techniques.

Learn more here about Software Defined Data Infrastructure (SDDI) Essentials book along with cloud, converged, and virtual fundamental server storage I/O tradecraft topics, order your copy from Amazon.com or CRC Press here, and thank you in advance for learning more about SDDI and related topics.

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 2006-2026 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

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Data Infrastructure Industry Trends WekaIO Matrix Software Defined Storage SDS

WekaIO Matrix Scale Out Software Defined Storage SDS

server storage I/O trends

Updated 2/11/2018

WekaIO Matrix is a scale out software defined solution (SDS).

WekaIO Matrix software defined scale out storage SDS

This Server StorageIO Industry Trends Perspective report looks at common issues, trends, and how to address different application server storage I/O challenges. In this report, we look at WekaIO Matrix, an elastic, flexible, highly scalable easy to use (and manage) software defined (e.g. software based) storage solution. WekaIO Matrix enables flexible elastic scaling with stability and without compromise.

Matrix is a new scale out software defined storage solution that:

  • Installs on bare metal, virtual or cloud servers
  • Has POSIX, NFS, SMB, and HDFS storage access
  • Adaptable performance for little and big data
  • Tiering of flash SSD and cloud object storage
  • Distributed resilience without compromise
  • Removes complexity of traditional storage
  • Deploys on bare metal, virtual and cloud environments

Where To Learn More

View additional SDS 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

Read more about WekaIO Matrix in this (free, no registration required) Server StorageIO Industry Trends Perspective (ITP) Report compliments of WekaIO.

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 2006-2026 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

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Kevin Closson discusses SLOB Server CPU I/O Database Performance benchmarks

Slilly Little Oracle Benchmark (SLOB) Database Server I/O Podcast

server storage I/O trends

In this Server StorageIO podcast episode, I am joined by @Kevinclosson who is an Oracle (along with other Databases) performance expert and creator of the Silly Little Oracle Benchmark (SLOB) tool. Not surprising our data infrastructure discussion involves server CPU, software, I/O, storage, performance, software, tools, best practices, fundamental tradecraft skills among other items.

server storage I/O performance

Kevin has been involved in database performance (and porting) optimization for decades which means CPU server, memory, I/O and storage issues, resources and tuning. Part of server, storage I/O a tuning is understanding the workloads, also the demands of software such as databases along with how they use CPU and its impact on resources. This means that somewhere in the technology stack, server CPUs are still needed, even in serverless environments.

We also discuss metrics, gaining insight to resources uses, what they mean including how CPU wait may be costing your lost productivity with overhead, as well as benchmarks, simulations, and related themes. Check out Kevins website www.kevinclosson.net to learn more about Oracle, Databases, SLOB, tools and other content. Listen to the podcast discussion here (42 minutes) as well as on iTunes.

Where to learn more

Learn more about Oracle, Database Performance, Benchmarking along with other tools via the following links:

What this all means and wrap-up

Check out my discussion here with Kevin Closson where you may have some Dejavu, or learn something new on server, storage I/O, database performance, software, benchmark workloads as well as much more. Also available on 

Ok, nuff said for now…

Cheers
Gs

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

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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SSD, flash, Non-volatile memory (NVM) storage Trends, Tips & Topics

SSD, flash, Non-volatile memory (NVM) storage Trends, Tips & Topics

Updated 2/2/2018

server storage I/O trends

Will 2017 be there year of solid state device (SSD), all flash, or all Non-volatile memory (NVM) based storage data centers and data infrastructures?

Recently I did a piece over at InfoStor looking at SSD trends, tips and related topics. SSDs of some type, shape and form are in your future, if they are not already. In my InfoStor piece, I look at some non-volatile memory (NVM) and SSD trends, technologies, tools and tips that you can leverage today to help prepare for tomorrow. This also includes NVM Express (NVMe) based components and solutions.

By way of background, SSD can refer to solid state drive or solid state device (e.g. more generic). The latter is what I am using in this post. NVM refers to different types of persistent memories, including NAND flash and its variants most commonly used today in SSDs. Other NVM mediums include NVRAM along with storage class memories (SCMs) such as 3D XPoint and phase change memory (PCM) among others. Let’s focus on NAND flash as that is what is primarily available and shipping for production enterprise environments today.

Continue reading about SSD, flash, NVM and related trends, topics and tips over at InfoStor by clicking here.

Where To Learn More

Additional related content can be found at:

What This All Means

Will 2017 finally be the year of all flash, all SSD and all NVM including emerging storage class memories (SCM)? Or as we have seen over the past decade increasing adoption as well as deployment in most environments, some of which have gone all SSD or NVM. In the meantime it is safe to say that NVMe, NVM, SSD, flash and other related technologies are in your future in some shape or form as well as quantity. Check out my piece over at InfoStor SSD trends, tips and related topics.

What say you, are you going all flash, SSD or NVM in 2017, if not, what are your concerns or constraints and plans?

Ok, nuff said, for now…

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, vSAN and VMware vExpert. Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and <a “https://storageioblog.com/book1”>Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Watch for the spring 2017 release of his new book “Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials” (CRC Press).

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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The Value of Infrastructure Insight – Enabling Informed Decision Making

The Value of Infrastructure Insight – Enabling Informed Decision Making

server storage I/O trends

Join me and Virtual Instruments CTO John Gentry on October 27, 2016 for a free webinar (registration required) titled The Value of Infrastructure Insight – Enabling Informed Decision Making with Virtual Instruments. In this webinar, John and me will discuss the value of data center infrastructure insight both as a technology as well as a business and IT imperative.

Software Defined Data Infrastructure
Various Infrastructures – Business, Information, Data and Physical (or cloud)

Leveraging infrastructure performance analytics is key to assuring the performance, availability and cost-effectiveness of your infrastructure, especially as you transform to a hybrid data center over the coming years. By utilizing real-time and historical infrastructure insight from your servers, storage and networking, you can avoid flying blind and give situational awareness for proactive decision-making. The result is faster problem resolution, problem avoidance, higher utilization and the elimination of performance slowdowns and outages.

View the companion Server StorageIO Industry Trends Report available here (free, no registration required) at the Virtual Instruments web page resource center.

xxxx

The above Server StorageIO Industry Trends Perspective Report (click here to download PDF) looks at the value of data center infrastructure insight both as a technology as well as a business productivity enabler. Besides productivity, having insight into how data infrastructure resources (servers, storage, networks, system software) are used, enables informed analysis, troubleshooting, planning, forecasting as well as cost-effective decision-making.

In other words, data center infrastructure insight, based on infrastructure performance analytics, enables you to avoid flying blind, having situational awareness for proactive Information Technology (IT) management. Your return on innovation is increased, and leveraging insight awareness along with metrics that matter drives return on investment (ROI) along with enhanced service delivery.

Where To Learn More

  • Free Server StorageIO Industry Trends Report The Value of Infrastructure Insight – Enabling Informed Decision Making (PDF)
  • Register for the free webinar on October 27, 2016 1PM ET here.
  • View other upcoming and recent events at the Server StorageIO activities page here.

What This All Means

What this all means is that the key to making smart, informed decisions involving data infrastructure, servers, storage, I/O across different applications is having insight and awareness. See for yourself how you can gain insight into your existing information factory environment performing analysis, as well as comparing and simulating your application workloads for informed decision-making.

Having insight and awareness (e.g. instruments) allows you to avoid flying blind, enabling smart, safe and informed decisions in different conditions impacting your data infrastructure. How is your investment in hardware, software, services and tools being leveraged to meet given levels of services? Is your information factory (data center and data infrastructure) performing at its peak effectiveness?

How are you positioned to support growth, improve productivity, remove complexity and costs while evolving from a legacy to a next generation software-defined, cloud, virtual, converged or hyper-converged environment with new application needs?

Data infrastructure insight benefits and takeaways:

  • Informed performance-related decision-making
  • Support growth, agility, flexibility and availability
  • Maximize resource investment and utilization
  • Find, fix and remove I/O bottlenecks
  • Puts you in control in the driver’s seat

Remember to register and attend the October 27 webinar that you can register here.

Btw, Virtual Instruments has been a client of Server StorageIO and that fwiw is a disclosure.

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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Part 2 – Which HDD for Content Applications – HDD Testing

Part 2 – Which HDD for Content Applications – HDD Testing

HDD testing server storage I/O trends

Updated 1/23/2018

Which enterprise HDD to use with a content server, hdd testing, how and what to do

Insight for effective server storage I/O decision making
Server StorageIO Lab Review

Which enterprise HDD to use for content servers

This is the second in a multi-part series (read part one 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 we look at some decisions and configuration choices to make for testing content applications servers as well as project planning.

Content Solution Test Objectives

In short period, collect performance and another server, storage I/O decision-making information on various HDD’s running different content workloads.

Working with the Servers Direct staff a suitable content solution platform test configuration was created. In addition to providing two Intel-based content servers, Servers Direct worked with their partner Seagate to arrange for various enterprise-class HDD’s to be evaluated. For these series of content application tests, being short on time, I chose to do run some simple workloads including database, basic file (large and small) processing and general performance characterization.

Content Solution Decision Making

Knowing how Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) NAND flash SSD (1) devices (drives and PCIe cards) perform, what would be the best HDD based storage option for my given set of applications? Different applications have various performance, capacity and budget considerations. Different types of Seagate Enterprise class 2.5” Small Form Factor (SFF) HDD’s were tested.

While revolutions per minute (RPM) still plays a role in HDD performance, there are other factors including internal processing capabilities, software or firmware algorithm optimization, and caching. Most HDD’s today have some amount of DRAM for read caching and other operations. Seagate Enterprise Performance HDD’s with the enhanced caching feature (2) are examples of devices accelerate storage I/O speed vs. traditional 10K and 15K RPM drives.

Project Planning And Preparation

Workload to be tested included:

  • Database read/writes
  • Large file processing
  • Small file processing
  • General I/O profile

Project testing consisted of five phases, some of which overlapped with others:

Phase 1 – Plan
Identify candidate workloads that could be run in the given amount of time, determine time schedules and resource availability, create a project plan.

Phase 2 – Define
Hardware define and software define the test platform.

Phase 3 – Setup
The objective was to assess plug-play capability of the server, storage and I/O networking hardware with a Linux OS before moving on to the reported workloads in the next phase. Initial setup and configuration of hardware and software, installation of additional devices along with software configuration, troubleshooting, and learning as applicable. This phase consisted of using Ubuntu Linux 14.04 server as the operating system (OS) along with MySQL 5.6 as a database server during initial hands-on experience.

Phase 4 – Execute
This consisted of using Windows 2012 R2 server as the OS along with Microsoft SQL Server on the system under test (SUT) to support various workloads. Results of this phase are reported below.

Phase 5 – Analyze      
Results from the workloads run in phase 3 were analyzed and summarized into this document.

(Note 1) Refer to Seagate 1200 12 Gbps Enterprise SAS SSD StorageIO lab review

(Note 2) Refer to Enterprise SSHD and Flash SSD Part of an Enterprise Tiered Storage Strategy

Planning And Preparing The Tests

As with most any project there were constraints to contend with and work around.

Test constraints included:

  • Short-time window
  • Hardware availability
  • Amount of hardware
  • Software availability

Three most important constraints and considerations for this project were:

  • Time – This was a project with a very short time “runway”, something common in most customer environments who are looking to make a knowledgeable server, storage I/O decisions.
  • Amount of hardware – Limited amount of DRAM main memory, sixteen 2.5” internal hot-swap storage slots for HDD’s as well as SSDs. Note that for a production content solution platform; additional DRAM can easily be added, along with extra external storage enclosures to scale memory and storage capacity to fit your needs.
  • Software availability – Utilize common software and management tools publicly available so anybody could leverage those in their own environment and tests.

The following content application workloads were profiled:

  • Database reads/writes – Updates, inserts, read queries for a content environment
  • Large file processing – Streaming of large video, images or other content objects.
  • Small file processing – Processing of many small files found in some content applications
  • General I/O profile – IOP, bandwidth and response time relevant to content applications

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

There are many different types of content applications ranging from little data databases to big data analytics as well as very big fast data such as for video. Likewise there are various workloads and characteristics to test. The best test and metrics are those that apply to your environment and application needs.

Continue reading part three of this multi-part series here looking at how the systems and HDD’s were configured and tested.

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 2006-2026 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

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Part 4 – Which HDD for Content Applications – Database Workloads

Part 4 – Which HDD for Content Applications – Database Workloads

data base server storage I/O trends

Updated 1/23/2018
Which enterprise HDD to use with a content server platform for database workloads

Insight for effective server storage I/O decision making
Server StorageIO Lab Review

Which enterprise HDD to use for content servers

This is the fourth in a multi-part series (read part three 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 expands to database application workloads that were run to test various HDD’s.

Database Reads/Writes

Transaction Processing Council (TPC) TPC-C like workloads were run against the SUT from the STI. These workloads simulated transactional, content management, meta-data and key-value processing. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 was configured and used with databases (each 470GB e.g. scale 6000) created and workload generated by virtual users via Dell Benchmark Factory (running on STI Windows 2012 R2).

A single SQL Server database instance (8) was used on the SUT, however unique databases were created for each HDD set being tested. Both the main database file (.mdf) and the log file (.ldf) were placed on the same drive set being tested, keep in mind the constraints mentioned above. As time was a constraint, database workloads were run concurrent (9) with each other except for the Enterprise 10K RAID 1 and RAID 10. Workload was run with two 10K HDD’s in a RAID 1 configuration, then another workload run with a four drive RAID 10. In a production environment, ideally the .mdf and .ldf would be placed on separate HDD’s and SSDs.

To improve cache buffering the SQL Server database instance memory could be increased from 16GB to a larger number that would yield higher TPS numbers. Keep in mind the objective was not to see how fast I could make the databases run, rather how the different drives handled the workload.

(Note 8) The SQL Server Tempdb was placed on a separate NVMe flash SSD, also the database instance memory size was set to 16GB which was shared by all databases and virtual users accessing it.

(Note 9) Each user step was run for 90 minutes with a 30 minute warm-up preamble to measure steady-state operation.

Users

TPCC Like TPS

Single Drive Cost per TPS

Drive Cost per TPS

Single Drive Cost / Per GB Raw Cap.

Cost / Per GB Usable (Protected) Cap.

Drive Cost (Multiple Drives)

Protect
Space Over head

Cost per usable GB per TPS

Resp. Time (Sec.)

ENT 15K R1

1

23.9

$24.94

$49.89

$0.99

$0.99

$1,190

100%

$49.89

0.01

ENT 10K R1

1

23.4

$37.38

$74.77

$0.49

$0.49

$1,750

100%

$74.77

0.01

ENT CAP R1

1

16.4

$24.26

$48.52

$0.20

$0.20

$ 798

100%

$48.52

0.03

ENT 10K R10

1

23.2

$37.70

$150.78

$0.49

$0.97

$3,500

100%

$150.78

0.07

ENT CAP SWR5

1

17.0

$23.45

$117.24

$0.20

$0.25

$1,995

20%

$117.24

0.02

ENT 15K R1

20

362.3

$1.64

$3.28

$0.99

$0.99

$1,190

100%

$3.28

0.02

ENT 10K R1

20

339.3

$2.58

$5.16

$0.49

$0.49

$1,750

100%

$5.16

0.01

ENT CAP R1

20

213.4

$1.87

$3.74

$0.20

$0.20

$ 798

100%

$3.74

0.06

ENT 10K R10

20

389.0

$2.25

$9.00

$0.49

$0.97

$3,500

100%

$9.00

0.02

ENT CAP SWR5

20

216.8

$1.84

$9.20

$0.20

$0.25

$1,995

20%

$9.20

0.06

ENT 15K R1

50

417.3

$1.43

$2.85

$0.99

$0.99

$1,190

100%

$2.85

0.08

ENT 10K R1

50

385.8

$2.27

$4.54

$0.49

$0.49

$1,750

100%

$4.54

0.09

ENT CAP R1

50

103.5

$3.85

$7.71

$0.20

$0.20

$ 798

100%

$7.71

0.45

ENT 10K R10

50

778.3

$1.12

$4.50

$0.49

$0.97

$3,500

100%

$4.50

0.03

ENT CAP SWR5

50

109.3

$3.65

$18.26

$0.20

$0.25

$1,995

20%

$18.26

0.42

ENT 15K R1

100

190.7

$3.12

$6.24

$0.99

$0.99

$1,190

100%

$6.24

0.49

ENT 10K R1

100

175.9

$4.98

$9.95

$0.49

$0.49

$1,750

100%

$9.95

0.53

ENT CAP R1

100

59.1

$6.76

$13.51

$0.20

$0.20

$ 798

100%

$13.51

1.66

ENT 10K R10

100

560.6

$1.56

$6.24

$0.49

$0.97

$3,500

100%

$6.24

0.14

ENT CAP SWR5

100

62.2

$6.42

$32.10

$0.20

$0.25

$1,995

20%

$32.10

1.57

Table-2 TPC-C workload results various number of users across different drive configurations

Figure-2 shows TPC-C TPS (red dashed line) workload scaling over various number of users (1, 20, 50, and 100) with peak TPS per drive shown. Also shown is the used space capacity (in green), with total raw storage capacity in blue cross hatch. Looking at the multiple metrics in context shows that the 600GB Enterprise 15K HDD with performance enhanced cache is a premium option as an alternative, or, to complement flash SSD solutions.

database TPCC transactional workloads
Figure-2 472GB Database TPS scaling along with cost per TPS and storage space used

In figure-2, the 1.8TB Enterprise 10K HDD with performance enhanced cache while not as fast as the 15K, provides a good balance of performance, space capacity and cost effectiveness. A good use for the 10K drives is where some amount of performance is needed as well as a large amount of storage space for less frequently accessed content.

A low cost, low performance option would be the 2TB Enterprise Capacity HDD’s that have a good cost per capacity, however lack the performance of the 15K and 10K drives with enhanced performance cache. A four drive RAID 10 along with a five drive software volume (Microsoft WIndows) are also shown. For apples to apples comparison look at costs vs. capacity including number of drives needed for a given level of performance.

Figure-3 is a variation of figure-2 showing TPC-C TPS (blue bar) and response time (red-dashed line) scaling across 1, 20, 50 and 100 users. Once again the Enterprise 15K with enhanced performance cache feature enabled has good performance in an apples to apples RAID 1 comparison.

Note that the best performance was with the four drive RAID 10 using 10K HDD’s Given popularity, a four drive RAID 10 configuration with the 10K drives was used. Not surprising the four 10K drives performed better than the RAID 1 15Ks. Also note using five drives in a software spanned volume provides a large amount of storage capacity and good performance however with a larger drive footprint.

database TPCC transactional workloads scaling
Figure-3 472GB Database TPS scaling along with response time (latency)

From a cost per space capacity perspective, the Enterprise Capacity drives have a good cost per GB. A hybrid solution for environment that do not need ultra-high performance would be to pair a small amount of flash SSD (10) (drives or PCIe cards), as well as the 10K and 15K performance enhanced drives with the Enterprise Capacity HDD (11) along with cache or tiering software.

(Note 10) Refer to Seagate 1200 12 Gbps Enterprise SAS SSD StorageIO lab review

(Note 11) Refer to Enterprise SSHD and Flash SSD Part of an Enterprise Tiered Storage Strategy

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

If your environment is using applications that rely on databases, then test resources such as servers, storage, devices using tools that represent your environment. This means moving up the software and technology stack from basic storage I/O benchmark or workload generator tools such as Iometer among others instead using either your own application, or tools that can replay or generate various workloads that represent your environment.

Continue reading part five in this multi-part series here where the focus shifts to large and small file I/O processing workloads.

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 2006-2026 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

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Part V – NVMe overview primer (Where to learn more, what this all means)

This is the fifth in a five-part mini-series providing a NVMe primer overview.

View Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V as well as companion posts and more NVMe primer material at www.thenvmeplace.com.

There are many different facets of NVMe including protocol that can be deployed on PCIe (AiC, U.2/8639 drives, M.2) for local direct attached, dedicated or shared for front-end or back-end of storage systems. NVMe direct attach is also found in servers and laptops using M.2 NGFF mini cards (e.g. “gum sticks”). In addition to direct attached, dedicated and shared, NVMe is also deployed on fabrics including over Fibre Channel (FC-NVMe) as well as NVMe over Fabrics (NVMeoF) leveraging RDMA based networks (e.g. iWARP, RoCE among others).

The storage I/O capabilities of flash can now be fed across PCIe faster to enable modern multi-core processors to complete more useful work in less time, resulting in greater application productivity. NVMe has been designed from the ground up with more and deeper queues, supporting a larger number of commands in those queues. This in turn enables the SSD to better optimize command execution for much higher concurrent IOPS. NVMe will coexist along with SAS, SATA and other server storage I/O technologies for some time to come. But NVMe will be at the top-tier of storage as it takes full advantage of the inherent speed and low latency of flash while complementing the potential of multi-core processors that can support the latest applications.

With NVMe, the capabilities of underlying NVM and storage memories are further realized Devices used include a PCIe x4 NVMe AiC SSD, 12 GbpsSAS SSD and 6 GbpsSATA SSD. These and other improvements with NVMe enable concurrency while reducing latency to remove server storage I/O traffic congestion. The result is that application demanding more concurrent I/O activity along with lower latency will gravitate towards NVMe for access fast storage.

Like the robust PCIe physical server storage I/O interface it leverages, NVMe provides both flexibility and compatibility. It removes complexity, overhead and latency while allowing far more concurrent I/O work to be accomplished. Those on the cutting edge will embrace NVMe rapidly. Others may prefer a phased approach.

Some environments will initially focus on NVMe for local server storage I/O performance and capacity available today. Other environments will phase in emerging external NVMe flash-based shared storage systems over time.

Planning is an essential ingredient for any enterprise. Because NVMe spans servers, storage, I/O hardware and software, those intending to adopt NVMe need to take into account all ramifications. Decisions made today will have a big impact on future data and information infrastructures.

Key questions should be, how much speed do your applications need now, and how do growth plans affect those requirements? How and where can you maximize your financial return on investment (ROI) when deploying NVMe and how will that success be measured?

Several vendors are working on, or have already introduced NVMe related technologies or initiatives. Keep an eye on among others including AWS, Broadcom (Avago, Brocade), Cisco (Servers), Dell EMC, Excelero, HPE, Intel (Servers, Drives and Cards), Lenovo, Micron, Microsoft (Azure, Drivers, Operating Systems, Storage Spaces), Mellanox, NetApp, OCZ, Oracle, PMC, Samsung, Seagate, Supermicro, VMware, Western Digital (acquisition of SANdisk and HGST) among others.

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

NVMe is in your future if not already, so If NVMe is the answer, what are the questions?

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 2006-2026 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

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NVMe Need for Performance Speed Performance

server storage I/O trends
Updated 1/12/2018

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

How fast is NVMe?

It depends! Generally speaking NVMe is fast!

However fast interfaces and protocols also need fast storage devices, adapters, drivers, servers, operating systems and hypervisors as well as applications that drive or benefit from the increased speed.

A server storage I/O example is in figure 5 where a 6 Gbps SATA NVM flash SSD (left) is shown with an NVMe 8639 (x4) drive that were directly attached to a server. The workload is 8 Kbyte sized random writes with 128 threads (workers) showing results for IOPs (solid bar) along with response time (dotted line). Not surprisingly the NVMe device has a lower response time and a higher number of IOPs. However also note how the amount of CPU time used per IOP is lower on the right with the NVMe drive.

NVMe storage I/O performance
Figure 5 6 Gbps SATA NVM flash SSD vs. NVMe flash SSD

While many people are aware or learning about the IOP and bandwidth improvements as well as the decrease in latency with NVMe, something that gets overlooked is how much less CPU is used. If a server is spending time in wait modes that can result in lost productivity, by finding and removing the barriers more work can be done on a given server, perhaps even delaying a server upgrade.

In figure 5 notice the lower amount of CPU used per work activity being done (e.g. I/O or IOP) which translates to more effective resource use of your server. What that means is either doing more work with what you have, or potentially delaying a CPU server upgrade, or, using those extra CPU cycles to power software defined storage management stacks including erasure coding or advanced parity RAID, replication and other functions.

Table 1 shows relative server I/O performance of some NVM flash SSD devices across various workloads. As with any performance, the comparison takes them, and the following with a grain of salt as your speed will vary.

8KB I/O Size

1MB I/O size

NAND flash SSD

100% Seq. Read

100% Seq. Write

100% Ran. Read

100% Ran. Write

100% Seq. Read

100% Seq. Write

100% Ran. Read

100% Ran. Write

NVMe

IOPs

41829.19

33349.36

112353.6

28520.82

1437.26

889.36

1336.94

496.74

PCIe

Bandwidth

326.79

260.54

877.76

222.82

1437.26

889.36

1336.94

496.74

AiC

Resp.

3.23

3.90

1.30

4.56

178.11

287.83

191.27

515.17

CPU / IOP

0.001571

0.002003

0.000689

0.002342

0.007793

0.011244

0.009798

0.015098

12Gb

IOPs

34792.91

34863.42

29373.5

27069.56

427.19

439.42

416.68

385.9

SAS

Bandwidth

271.82

272.37

229.48

211.48

427.19

429.42

416.68

385.9

Resp.

3.76

3.77

4.56

5.71

599.26

582.66

614.22

663.21

CPU / IOP

0.001857

0.00189

0.002267

0.00229

0.011236

0.011834

0.01416

0.015548

6Gb

IOPs

33861.29

9228.49

28677.12

6974.32

363.25

65.58

356.06

55.86

SATA

Bandwidth

264.54

72.1

224.04

54.49

363.25

65.58

356.06

55.86

Resp.

4.05

26.34

4.67

35.65

704.70

3838.59

718.81

4535.63

CPU / IOP

0.001899

0.002546

0.002298

0.003269

0.012113

0.032022

0.015166

0.046545

Table 1 Relative performance of various protocols and interfaces

The workload results in table 1 were generated using a vdbench script running on a Windows 2012 R2 based server and are intended to be a relative indicator of different protocol and interfaces; your performance mileage will vary. The results shown below compare the number of IOPs (activity rate) for reads, writes, random and sequential across small 8KB and large 1MB sized I/Os.

Also shown in table 1 are bandwidth or throughput (e.g. amount of data moved), response time and the amount of CPU used per IOP. Note in table 1 how NVMe can do higher IOPs with a lower CPU per IOP, or, using a similar amount of CPU, do more work at a lower latency. SSD has been used for decades to help reduce CPU bottlenecks or defer server upgrades by removing I/O wait times and reduce CPU consumption (e.g. wait or lost time).

Can NVMe solutions run faster than those shown above? Absolutely!

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 IV (Where and How to use NVMe) in this five-part series, or jump to Part I, Part II 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 2006-2026 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

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NVMe Place NVM Non Volatile Memory Express Resources

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 using NVMeoF 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.

NVMe Linux Driver and related info
Its Time for NVMeoF to let iSCSI begin its slow retirement journey (blog post)
Microsoft Windows Server Insider Build NVMeoF Initiator
Installing new Insider’s build Windows Server vnext NVMeoF, host initiator (blog post)
Announcing Native NVMe in Windows Server 2025
Introducing NVMe-oF Initiator Preview in Windows Server Insiders Builds
ToE NVMeoF TCP Performance Line Boost Performance Reduce Costs
Use Intel Optane NVMe U.2 SFF 8639 SSD drive in PCIe slot
NVMe overview and primer – Part I
Part II – NVMe overview and primer (Different Configurations)
Part III – NVMe overview and primer (Need for Performance Speed)
Part IV – NVMe overview and primer (Where and How to use NVMe)
Part V – NVMe overview and primer (Where to learn more, what this all means)

PCIe Server I/O Fundamentals
If NVMe is the answer, what are the questions?
NVMe Wont Replace Flash By Itself
Via Computerweekly – NVMe discussion: PCIe card vs U.2 and M.2
Server storage I/O benchmark tools, workload scripts and examples (Part I) and (Part II)

Via GizModo: Comments on Intel Optane 800P NVMe M.2 SSD
Via InfoStor: 8 Big Enterprise SSD Trends to Expect in 2017
Why NVMe Should Be in Your Data Center – Preparing for Tomorrow’s Data Center Today (StorageIO Guest Post Via Micron.com)
Via SearchStoragae: Comments on Top 10 Tips on Solid State Storage Adoption Strategy
Via J Metz’s Blog – Vendor neutral bibliography of material by subject matter for NVMe

Via InfoStor – SSD Trends, Tips and Topics
StorageIOblog: Get in the NVMe SSD game (if you are not already)
Via VMware VirtualBlocks Blog – Base NVM Express – Part One
Dell EMC PowerEdge MX 7000 Kinetic Based Data Infrastructure Architecture
Via J Metz’s Blog – Vendor neutral learning NVMe A Program of Study
Via StorageIOblog: VMware vSAN v6.6
Via StorageIOblog: Cisco announces 32Gb FC and NVMe fabrics

Data Infrastructure Primer and Overview (Its Whats Inside The Data Center)
SSD, flash, Non-volatile memory (NVM), NVMe, storage Trends, Tips & Topics
Cloud and Object storage are in your future, what are some questions?”>Cloud and Object Storage Questions
Data Infrastructure Server Storage I/O related tradecraft overview
Data Infrastructure Server Storage I/O Tradecraft Trends

Via NextPlatform – Assessing tradeoffs NVMe storage Scale
Via NextPlatform – PCIe flash revamped to compete with NVMe drives
Via NextPlatform – Flash disruption comes to server main memory
Via NextPlatform – Hybrid arrays fight back against all flash
Via NextPlatform – Making remote NVMe flash look local fast

Via NextPlatform – Hyperscaling Consumer Flash NVMe
Via NextPlatform – Purified Implementation NVMe storage
Via NextPlatform – Impatient fabrics Micron forges NVMe arrays
Via NextPlatform – The truth about flash memory in the datacenter

Via Pure Storage: Announces new NVMe storage
Via Micron Blog (Guest Post by Greg Schulz): What’s next for NVMe and your Data Center – Preparing for Tomorrow Today
Via ChannelProSMB: Comments on NVMe (and SSD) and server storage I/O
EnterpriseStorageForum: Comments Top 10 Enterprise SSD Market Trends
SearchSolidStateStorage: Comments on How to add solid-state storage to your enterprise data storage systems

Microsoft TechNet: Understand the cache in Storage Spaces Direct
Microsoft Technet: Don’t do it: consumer-grade solid-state drives (SSD) in Storage Spaces Direct
Why Micron NVMe SSDs (Via Micron.com)
New Path to Storage I/O Performance and Resiliency With NVMe (Via Micron.com)
How NVMe Will Revolutionize Server and Storage I/O(Via Micron.com)

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

Via EnterpriseStorageForum: Where All-Flash Storage Makes No Sense
Via EnterpriseStorageForum: Top Tips for Enterprise SSD Form Factor Selection and Deployment
Who Will Be Top Of Storage World?
Intel announces new processors
Server Storage I/O CI, HCI overview
Data Infrastructure Tradecraft Overview
SSD, flash and NVM Trends
If NVMe is the answer, what are the questions?

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 2006-2026 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

Posted on

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

    Posted on

    Collecting Transaction Per Minute from SQL Server and HammerDB

    Storage I/O trends

    Collecting Transaction Per Minute from SQL Server and HammerDB

    When using benchmark or workload generation tools such as HammerDB I needed a way to capture and log performance activity metrics such as transactions per minute. For example using HammerDB to simulate an application making database requests performing various transactions as part of testing an overall system solution including server and storage I/O activity. This post takes a look at the problem or challenge I was looking to address, as well as creating a solution after spending time searching for one (still searching btw).

    The Problem, Issue, Challenge, Opportunity and Need

    The challenge is to collect application performance such as transactions per minute from a workload using a database. The workload or benchmark tool (in this case HammerDB) is the System Test Initiator (STI) that drives the activity (e.g. database requests) to a System Under Test (SUT). In this example the SUT is a Microsoft SQL Server running on a Windows 2012 R2 server. What I need is to collect and log into a file for later analysis the transaction rate per minute while the STI is generating a particular workload.

    Server Storage I/O performance

    Understanding the challenge and designing a strategy

    If you have ever used benchmark or workload generation tools such as Quest Benchmark Factory (part of the Toad tools collection) you might be spoiled with how it can be used to not only generate the workload, as well as collect, process, present and even store the results for database workloads such as TPC simulations. In this situation, Transaction Processing Council (TPC) like workloads need to be run and metrics on performance collected. Lets leave Benchmark Factory for a future discussion and focus instead on a free tool called HammerDB and more specifically how to collection transactions per minute metrics from Microsoft SQL Server. While the focus is SQL Server, you can easily adapt the approach for MySQL among others, not to mention there are tools such as Sysbench, Aerospike among other tools.

    The following image (created using my Livescribe Echo digital pen) outlines the problem, as well as sketches out a possible solution design. In the following figure, for my solution I’m going to show how to grab every minute for a given amount of time the count of transactions that have occurred. Later in the post processing (you could also do in the SQL Script) I take the new transaction count (which is cumulative) and subtract the earlier interval which yields the transactions per minute (see examples later in this post).

    collect TPM metrics from SQL Server with hammerdb
    The problem and challenge, a way to collect Transactions Per Minute (TPM)

    Finding a solution

    HammerDB displays results via its GUI, and perhaps there is a way or some trick to get it to log results to a file or some other means, however after searching the web, found that it was quicker to come up with solution. That solution was to decide how to collect and report the transactions per minute (or you could do by second or other interval) from Microsoft SQL Server. The solution was to find what performance counters and metrics are available from SQL Server, how to collect those and log them to a file for processing. What this means is a SQL Server script file would need to be created that ran in a loop collecting for a given amount of time at a specified interval. For example once a minute for several hours.

    Taking action

    The following is a script that I came up with that is far from optimal however it gets the job done and is a starting point for adding more capabilities or optimizations.

    In the following example, set loopcount to some number of minutes to collect samples for. Note however that if you are running a workload test for eight (8) hours with a 30 minute ramp-up time, you would want to use a loopcount (e.g. number of minutes to collect for) of 480 + 30 + 10. The extra 10 minutes is to allow for some samples before the ramp and start of workload, as well as to give a pronounced end of test number of samples. Add or subtract however many minutes to collect for as needed, however keep this in mind, better to collect a few extra minutes vs. not have them and wished you did.

    -- Note and disclaimer:
-- 
-- Use of this code sample is at your own risk with Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC
-- assuming no responsibility for its use or consequences. You are free to use this as is
-- for non-commercial scenarios with no warranty implied. However feel free to enhance and
-- share those enhancements with others e.g. pay it forward.
-- 
DECLARE @cntr_value bigint;
DECLARE @loopcount bigint; # how many minutes to take samples for

set @loopcount = 240

SELECT @cntr_value = cntr_value
 FROM sys.dm_os_performance_counters
 WHERE counter_name = 'transactions/sec'
 AND object_name = 'MSSQL$DBIO:Databases'
 AND instance_name = 'tpcc' ; print @cntr_value;
 WAITFOR DELAY '00:00:01'
-- 
-- Start loop to collect TPM every minute
-- 

while @loopcount <> 0
begin
SELECT @cntr_value = cntr_value
 FROM sys.dm_os_performance_counters
 WHERE counter_name = 'transactions/sec'
 AND object_name = 'MSSQL$DBIO:Databases'
 AND instance_name = 'tpcc' ; print @cntr_value;
 WAITFOR DELAY '00:01:00'
 set @loopcount = @loopcount - 1
end
-- 
-- All done with loop, write out the last value
-- 
SELECT @cntr_value = cntr_value
 FROM sys.dm_os_performance_counters
 WHERE counter_name = 'transactions/sec'
 AND object_name = 'MSSQL$DBIO:Databases'
 AND instance_name = 'tpcc' ; print @cntr_value;
-- 
-- End of script
--

    The above example has loopcount set to 240 for a 200 minute test with a 30 minute ramp and 10 extra minutes of samples. I use the a couple of the minutes to make sure that the system test initiator (STI) such as HammerDB is configured and ready to start executing transactions. You could also put this along with your HammerDB items into a script file for further automation, however I will leave that exercise up to you.

    For those of you familiar with SQL and SQL Server you probably already see some things to improve or stylized or simply apply your own preference which is great, go for it. Also note that I’m only selecting a certain variable from the performance counters as there are many others which you can easily discovery with a couple of SQL commands (e.g. select and specify database instance and object name. Also note that the key is accessing the items in sys.dm_os_performance_counters of your SQL Server database instance.

    The results

    The output from the above is a list of cumulative numbers as shown below which you will need to post process (or add a calculation to the above script). Note that part of running the script is specifying an output file which I show later.

    785
785
785
785
37142
1259026
2453479
3635138

    Implementing the solution

    You can setup the above script to run as part of a larger automation shell or batch script, however for simplicity I’m showing it here using Microsoft SQL Server Studio.

    SQL Server script to collect TPM
    Microsoft SQL Server Studio with script to collect Transaction Per Minute (TPM)

    The following image shows how to specify an output file for the results to be logged to when using Microsoft SQL Studio to run the TPM collection script.

    Specify SQL Server tpm output file
    Microsoft SQL Server Studio specify output file

    With the SQL Server script running to collect results, and HammerDB workload running to generate activity, the following shows Quest Spotlight on Windows (SoW) displaying WIndows Server 2012 R2 operating system level performance including CPU, memory, paging and other activity. Note that this example had about the system test initiator (STI) which is HammerDB and the system under test (SUT) that is Microsoft SQL Server on the same server.

    Spotlight on Windows while SQL Server doing tpc
    Quest Spotlight on Windows showing Windows Server performance activity

    Results and post-processing

    As part of post processing simple use your favorite tool or script or what I often do is pull the numbers into Excel spreadsheet, and simply create a new column of numbers that computes and shows the difference between each step (see below). While in Excel then I plot the numbers as needed which can also be done via a shell script and other plotting tools such as R.

    In the following example, the results are imported into Excel (your favorite tool or script) where I then add a column (B) that simple computes the difference between the existing and earlier counter. For example in cell B2 = A2-A1, B3 = A3-A2 and so forth for the rest of the numbers in column A. I then plot the numbers in column B to show the transaction rates over time that can then be used for various things.

    Hammerdb TPM results from SQL Server processed in Excel
    Results processed in Excel and plotted

    Note that in the above results that might seem too good to be true they are, these were cached results to show the tools and data collection process as opposed to the real work being done, at least for now…

    Where to learn more

    Here are some extra links to have a look at:

    How to test your HDD, SSD or all flash array (AFA) storage fundamentals
    Server and Storage I/O Benchmarking 101 for Smarties
    Server and Storage I/O Benchmark Tools: Microsoft Diskspd (Part I)
    The SSD Place (collection of flash and SSD resources)
    Server and Storage I/O Benchmarking and Performance Resources
    I/O, I/O how well do you know about good or bad server and storage I/Os?

    What this all means and wrap-up

    There are probably many ways to fine tune and optimize the above script, likewise there may even be some existing tool, plug-in, add-on module, or configuration setting that allows HammerDB to log the transaction activity rates to a file vs. simply showing on a screen. However for now, this is a work around that I have found for when needing to collect transaction activity performance data with HammerDB and SQL Server.

    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 2006-2026 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

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

    How to test your HDD SSD AFA Hybrid or cloud storage

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

    Updated 2/14/2018

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

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

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

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

    The four basic steps in the article are:

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

    Server Storage I/O performance

    Where To Learn More

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

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

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

    What This All Means

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

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

    Ok, nuff said, for now.

    Gs

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

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2026 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

    Posted on

    February 2015 Server StorageIO Update Newsletter

    Volume 15, Issue II

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

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

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

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

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

    Commentary In The News

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

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

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

    View more trends comments here

    Tips and Articles

    So you have a new storage device or system.

    How will you test or find its performance?

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

    View recent as well as past tips and articles here

    StorageIOblog posts

    Recent StorageIOblog posts include:

    View other recent as well as past blog posts here

    In This Issue

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

    • Events & Activities

    EMCworld – May 4-6 2015

    Interop – April 29 2015

    NAB – April 14-15 2015

    Deltaware Event – March 3 2015

    Feb. 18 – FAST 2015 – Santa Clara CA

    View other recent and upcoming events here

    Webinars

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

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

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

    December 3, 2014 – BrightTalk
    Data Protection Modernization

    November 13 9AM PT – BrightTalk
    Software Defined Storage

    Videos and Podcasts

    StorageIO podcasts are also available via and at StorageIO.tv

    From StorageIO Labs

    Research, Reviews and Reports

    StarWind Virtual SAN
    starwind virtual san

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

    View other StorageIO lab review reports here.

    Resources and Links

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

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

    Cheers gs

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

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2026 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved