Delivering Leading Sustained Performance with OCZ s Z-Drive 4500 PCIe SSD Series

Transcription

1 Delivering Leading Sustained Performance with OCZ s Z-Drive 4500 PCIe SSD Series Validated by PCIe SSD Verification Testing Conducted by DataCore Software (as part of the DataCore Ready Program Certification) Scott Harlin OCZ Storage Solutions INTRODUCTION DataCore Software is a global leader in software-defined storage particularly related to virtualization. Its flagship product, SANsymphony-V, is DataCore s tenth generation storage virtualization solution, and as of this publishing, has been deployed in more than 10,000 customer sites worldwide. The software is designed to maximize IT infrastructure performance, availability and utilization by virtualizing storage assets. Once deployed, it seamlessly manages and scales data storage architectures, combines all available storage into a single storage pool and virtualizes it, delivering large performance gains through a hardware-agnostic model. As SANsymphony-V software is highly regarded and used extensively worldwide, OCZ s Z-Drive 4500 PCIe SSD Series complements this software with performance optimization, virtualization, caching, and large densities, amongst a host of other features and capabilities. It is backed by a more robust architectural design (over the previous generation Z-Drive R4 Series), as well as an advanced suite of enterprise-class endurance and data reliability tools expected by today s IT managers. In the software-defined datacenter, virtualization and system efficiencies are driven through software requiring a cost-effective approach to managing storage growth while maximizing hardware investments, such as SSDs. To identify those hardware solutions that are trusted to enhance DataCore s SANsymphony-V software-defined storage infrastructures, the DataCore Ready Program was established. Those solutions listed as DataCore Ready have completed additional verification testing to provide customer confidence of joint solution compatibility. A DataCore Ready designation is awarded to these third party hardware products that have successfully met the verification test criteria. OCZ s Z-Drive 4500 PCIe SSD Series achieved DataCore Ready certification and as part of the verification criteria, included a series of performance tests based on DataCore specifications as outlined in the next Test Procedures section. The results of the 4500 tests utilizing a 1.6TB capacity model were completed for certification and compared to three PCIe SSD solutions that had achieved DataCore Ready status. The purpose of this white paper is to present some of the key findings and test results from this DataCore Ready verification test platform which validates the Z-Drive 4500 s performance as the foremost enterprise PCIe-based SSD in its class. What the performance results demonstrate is that the Z-Drive 4500 is particularly strong in small block random performance regardless of whether the workload is read-intensive, writeintensive or mixed. The paper will briefly review the test procedures and results assisted by graphical representations. TEST CRITERIA In order for the Z-Drive 4500 to achieve DataCore Ready certification, the 1.6TB model was run through a series of performance tests in both native and Fibre Channel transport mode as part of a DataCore SANsymphony-V storage pool. As native performance will be typically higher than performance over an FC-Transport since Seite 1 von 8

2 direct PCIe access enables near-zero latency, for the purposes of this white paper, the test results over an FC-Transport are used to demonstrate a worst case latency scenario in comparison to native PCIe performance. The complete array of testing consisted of 11 individual performance profiles as follows: % Read, 0% Write, 8KB I/O block size, 100% random (or the 100R8K test) 2. 90% Read, 10% Write, 8KB I/O block size, 100% random (or the 90R8K test) 3. 80% Read, 20% Write, 8KB I/O block size, 100% random (or the 80R8K test) 4. 70% Read, 30% Write, 8KB I/O block size, 100% random (or the 70R8K test) 5. 60% Read, 40% Write, 8KB I/O block size, 100% random (or the 60R8K test) 6. 50% Read, 50% Write, 8KB I/O block size, 100% random (or the 50R8K test) 7. 40% Read, 60% Write, 8KB I/O block size, 100% random (or the 40R8K test) 8. 30% Read, 70% Write, 8KB I/O block size, 100% random (or the 30R8K test) 9. 20% Read, 80% Write, 8KB I/O block size, 100% random (or the 20R8K test) % Read, 90% Write, 8KB I/O block size, 100% random (or the 10R8K test) 11. 0% Read, 100% Write, 8KB I/O block size, 100% random (or the 0R8K test) For the purposes of this white paper, and to provide a reasonable expectation of the performance testing categories that IT managers will most resonate with, OCZ selected a cross section of tests to present as follows: 1. The 100R8K test results are included demonstrating a 100% read-intensive workload environment that includes Read bandwidth results and Transactions per Minute (TPM) results. 2. The 0R8K test results are included demonstrating a 100% write-intensive workload environment that includes Write IOPS results, Write bandwidth results and Transactions per Minute (TPM) results. 3. The 70R8K test results are included demonstrating a mixed workload environment of 70% Read workloads mixed with 30% Write workloads and one of the most common workload profiles in the enterprise. The test results include aggregate Read and Write bandwidth and Transactions per Minute (TPM) results. Each test performed above included a queue depth of 16 (or the number of pending I/O requests for a volume) and was repeated 10 times to create enough data for analysis. The data was then compiled in maximum, average and minimum value sets. For the purposes of this white paper, the average tested values and maximum tested values are presented. The compiled results were then compared to three additional DataCore Ready certified PCIe SSD solutions using comparable storage capacities and the results appear in the next section. As the DataCore Ready Program is a certification program and not a competitive analysis program, the identity of the actual models for the other three PCIe SSD vendors certified and tested are intentionally blinded. The white paper refers to these competitive products as Vendor A, Vendor B and Vendor C. TEST RESULTS In this section, the test results are divided into read-intensive workloads, write-intensive workloads and mixed workloads with the average and maximum values presented. A fourth area presents the Transactions per Minute (TPM) results for a typical OnLine Transaction Processing (OLTP) environment. Read-Intensive Workloads: For these tests, Read bandwidth was tested and the following results were achieved: Seite 2 von 8

3 100R8K Test Results: Read Bandwidth SSD Vendor Maximum Value Average Value OCZ Z-Drive Mb/s 604 Mb/s Vendor A 417 Mb/s 413 Mb/s Vendor B 705 Mb/s 701 Mb/s Vendor C 423 Mb/s 396 Mb/s Write-Intensive Workloads: For these tests, Write IOPS and Write bandwidth were tested and the following results were achieved: Seite 3 von 8

4 0R8K Test Results: Write IOPS SSD Vendor Maximum Value Average Value OCZ Z-Drive ,578 IOPS 72,830 IOPS Vendor A 27,522 IOPS 26,122 IOPS Vendor B 28,987 IOPS 28,782 IOPS Vendor C 49,998 IOPS 35,550 IOPS Write Bandwidth 0R8K Test Results: Write Bandwidth SSD Vendor Maximum Value Average Value OCZ Z-Drive Mb/s 569 Mb/s Vendor A 215 Mb/s 204 Mb/s Vendor B 226 Mb/s 225 Mb/s Vendor C 391 Mb/s 278 Mb/s Mixed Workloads 70% Read / 30% Write: For these tests, the aggregate Read and Write bandwidth were tested and the following results were achieved: Seite 4 von 8

5 Maximum Values SSD Vendor OCZ Z-Drive 4500 Vendor A Vendor B Vendor C 70R8K Test Results: Mixed Workload Aggregate Bandwidth Max. Read Max.Write Max. BW Avg. Read Avg. Write Avg. BW Bandwidth Bandwidth Aggregate Bandwidth Bandwidth Aggregate 393 Mb/s 168 Mb/s 561 Mb/s 384 Mb/s 164 Mb/s 548 Mb/s 181 Mb/s 77 Mb/s 258 Mb/s 177 Mb/s 76 Mb/s 253 Mb/s 204 Mb/s 88 Mb/s 292 Mb/s 202 Mb/s 86 Mb/s 288 Mb/s 226 Mb/s 97 Mb/s 323 Mb/s 166 Mb/s 71 Mb/s 237 Mb/s Transactions Per Minute (TPM): In a transactional environment, such as OLTP, Transactions per Minute are typically the measure of how many New Order transactions per minute a system or storage device can generate while the system is executing other transaction types such as payment, order status, delivery and stock levels. These systems have a large number of users that conduct short transactions that are usually simple, require sub-second response times and return relatively few records. Transactional processing of this nature is best represented by a mixed workload split. For this white paper, the workload test profile selected covers 70% Read and 30% Write operations. 70R8K Test Results: Transactions per Minute SSD Vendor Maximum Value Average Value OCZ Z-Drive ,843 TPM 70,165 TPM Vendor A 33,050 TPM 32,404 TPM Vendor B 37,313 TPM 36,869 TPM Vendor C 41,391 TPM 30,311 TPM Seite 5 von 8

6 TEST ANALYSIS In review of the test results, the Z-Drive 4500 PCIe SSD Series proved dominant in small block random performance, particularly for write-intensive applications. Its performance in a 100% write-intensive environment (as depicted in the 100R8K test results), delivered 73,578 input/output operations per seconds with sustained throughput measured at 575 Mb/s. In comparison to the results obtained from the three competitors already DataCore Ready certified, the Z-Drive 4500 significantly outperformed them as follows: Improved Write-intensive workload performance over Vendor A by ~2.7X or 270% Improved Write-intensive workload performance over Vendor B by ~2.5X or 250% Improved Write-intensive workload performance over Vendor C by ~1.5X or 150% 0R8K Test Results Write IOPS Z-Drive 4500 Vendor A Vendor B Vendor C Improvement 73,578 IOPS 27,522 IOPS ~2.7X 73,578 IOPS 28,987 IOPS ~2.5X 73,578 IOPS 49,998 IOPS ~1.5X 0R8K Test Results Write Bandwidth Z-Drive 4500 Vendor A Vendor B Vendor C Improvement 575 Mb/s 215 Mb/s ~2.7X 575 Mb/s 226 Mb/s ~2.5X 575 Mb/s 391 Mb/s ~1.5X For a commonly used mixed workload environment (as depicted in the 70R8K test results), where performance is based on 70% Read and 30% Write operations, the Z-Drive 4500 delivered aggregate throughput of 561 Mb/s. In comparison to the results obtained from the three competitors already DataCore Ready certified, the Z-Drive 4500 significantly outperformed them as follows: Improved mixed workload performance over Vendor A by ~2.2X or 220% Improved mixed workload performance over Vendor B by ~1.9X or 190% Improved mixed workload performance over Vendor C by ~1.7X or 170% 70R8K Test Results Write Bandwidth Z-Drive 4500 Vendor A Vendor B Vendor C Improvement 561 Mb/s 258 Mb/s ~2.2X 561 Mb/s 292 Mb/s ~1.9X 561 Mb/s 323 Mb/s ~1.7X When tested in a common transactional environment with 70% Read workloads and 30% Write workloads, the Z-Drive 4500 was equally dominant delivering 71,843 TPM. Regardless of the workload split tested by DataCore as presented by the 11 individual performance profiles outlined in the Test Criteria section, the Z- Drive 4500 continued to consistently deliver data overwhelmingly faster than any other drive tested. In comparison to the results obtained from the three competitors already DataCore Ready certified, the Z-Drive 4500 significantly outperformed them as follows: Improved TPM performance over Vendor A by ~2.2X or 220% Improved TPM performance over Vendor B by ~1.9X or 190% Improved TPM performance over Vendor C by ~1.7X or 170% Seite 6 von 8

7 70R8K Test Results Transactions per Minute Z-Drive 4500 Vendor A Vendor B Vendor C Improvement 71,843 TPM 33,050 TPM ~2.2X 71,843 TPM 37,313 TPM ~1.9X 71,843 TPM 41,391 TPM ~1.7X Additional DataCore Testing: When DataCore tallied the test results of all 11 individual performance profiles outlined in the Test Criteria section, the average performance delivered by the four PCIe-based SSDs tested was as follows: OCZ Z-Drive 4500 delivered 2.53 Gb/s on average with no sudden write cliff 1 Vendor A delivered between 550 Mb/s and 880 Mb/s on average with no sudden write cliff Vendor B delivered between 440 Mb/s and 911 Mb/s with no sudden write cliff Vendor C delivered 1 Gb/s initially but settled between 310 Mb/s and 350 Mb/s as write cliff appeared after 2 minutes On average, the Z-Drive 4500 consistently delivered performance improvements over the three competitive solutions ranging from 2.5x up to 8x. Author s Note: If an SSD runs out of free blocks, a delay may occur while garbage collection works to provide some. In write-intensive operations, it is common for free blocks to be used up, especially during peak system I/O usage when immediate responses are required. This slow-down or drop-off in performance is referred to as write cliff. SUMMARY The Z-Drive 4500 PCIe SSD Series addresses the demanding performance requirements of today s on-host storage and computing applications and is OCZ s most advanced PCIe edge card to date. It leverages 19 nanometer Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND flash covering 800GB, 1.6TB and 3.2TB usable capacities in a Full- Height/Half-Length (FH/HL) format. This industry-fast solution is driven by OCZ s proprietary Virtualized Controller Architecture (VCA) that processes storage commands across eight (8) controllers effectively making them appear and act as single controller/single drive to the host system. Seite 7 von 8

8 Designed in a Full-Height/Half-Length (FH/HL) format, the Z-Drive 4500 SSD Series supports 800GB, 1.6TB and 3.2TB usable capacities utilizing 19nm MLC flash process geometry VCA Technology dynamically reorders storage commands in the most efficient manner before processing them across the multiple NAND flash controllers. By utilizing the full processing bandwidth of eight controllers working in unison, the overall storage system runs more efficiently while delivering enhanced aggregated performance. The VCA architecture provides an efficient management stack for handling all storage transactions and commands by virtualizing the available hardware resources, including the NAND flash and controllers, in parallel to be viewed as a single physical device to the host rather than multiple devices. As each Z-Drive 4500 incorporates eight NAND controllers, the host would have typically viewed and managed the Z-Drive 4500 device as eight separate devices if the VCA layer was not present. The ability to provide a virtualized view of the Z-Drive 4500 flash resources enables the host system to use all of the features and capabilities of an aggregated set of controllers as if they were one physical device resulting in less management, more efficiency and superlative performance. As demonstrated independently by these DataCore results, and previously validated by the recent Calypso PCIe Blind Survey results 1, OCZ s VCA Technology continues to be dominant in small and large block write performance, whether data is accessed randomly or sequentially. This capability to efficiently aggregate data throughput across multiple flash devices on a single PCIe edge card provides the best solution to alleviate I/O contention as validated by the testing performed by DataCore in certifying the Z-Drive 4500 PCIe SSD Series as a DataCore Ready and compliant solution. ### 1 The Calypso PCIe Blind Survey white paper is available at: Seite 8 von 8