TWITTER.COM/RAYLUCCHESI|RAYONSTORAGE.COM|GREYBEARDSONSTORAGE.COM|1-720-221-7270|SILVERTONCONSULTING.COM©2016SILVERTONCONSULTING,INC.ALLRIGHTSRESERVED
SPC performance report SilvertonConsulting,Inc.StorInt™DispatchThisStorageIntelligence(StorInt™)dispatchcoversStoragePerformanceCouncil(SPC)results1.TherehavebeenonenewSPC1v3(MacroSANMS3000G2)submissionandtwonewSPC-2v1.6(OracleZFSStorageZS5-2AFAandOracleZFSStorageZS5-2disk-only)submissionssinceourlastreport.AlthoughtheMacroSANwasflashonlystorage,itdidn’tmanagetobreakintoanyofourtoptenSPC-1charts.AssuchforthisreportweconcentrateouranalysisonSPC-2,wherethetwoOraclesubmissionspresentaninterestingstoryincontrast.
SPC-2resultsWebeginourdiscussionwithtoptenSPC-1MPBSbyworkloadtype,whereweuseanewcharttype,showninFigure1.
Figure1Top10SPC-2MPBSresultsbyworkloadtype
1AllSPCresultsavailablefromhttp://www.storageperformance.org/home/asof24Nov2016
28Nov2016 SCISPCPERFORMANCEREPORT PAGE2OF5
TWITTER.COM/RAYLUCCHESI|RAYONSTORAGE.COM|GREYBEARDSONSTORAGE.COM|1-720-221-7270|SILVERTONCONSULTING.COM©2015SILVERTONCONSULTING,INC.ALLRIGHTSRESERVED
InFigure1,wesortthesystemsbySPC-2MBPS™(notshownonthechart)andwecanseethenewOracleZFSStorageZS5-2AFAanddisk-onlysystemscameinat#8and#9inMBPSwithanaggregateMPBSof24.4GB/secand19.6GB/sec,respectively.OnethingtonoteaboutthesetwoOracleZFSsubmissionsisthattheAFAstoragehad40800GBSSDsandthedisk-onlyversionhad288600GBdiskdrives.Thedisk-onlyversionhadsmallerandmore~7.2XdrivesthantheAFASSDsbutstillonlymanaged~80%oftheAFA’sthroughput.Wenormallyshowthisanalysisinaspiderchartbutwenowbelievetheclusteredcolumnchartshowsabetterview.Nonetheless,thedisk-onlysystemdidworseacrossallworkloadsanditmightbehardtoseeonFigure1butitperformedrelativelybetterontheLDQworkload(~85%ofAFA,24.8GB/secvs.28.8GB/sec)andslightlyworseontheLFPworkload(~72%ofAFA,14.4GB/secvs.20.0GB/sec).FortheVoDworkload,thedisk-onlyversionwas~80%oftheAFA,at19.7GB/secvs.24.4GB/sec.Itisworthmentioning-thattheOracleZFSStorageZS5-2disk-onlysystemalsohadmoretotalASUcapacity(47.6TBvs.8.4TB),potentiallyallowingthemtospreadtheIOworkloadacrossalltheirdrives.Justtocompletethestory,theOracleZFSZS5-2disk-onlyversionalsocostmore($253.6Kvs.$217.0K)thantheAFAsystem.InFigure2weexamineSPC-2TopPricePerformance™or$/MBPSmetricreportedbySPC.
Figure2SPC-2Top10$/MBPSperformance
28Nov2016 SCISPCPERFORMANCEREPORT PAGE3OF5
TWITTER.COM/RAYLUCCHESI|RAYONSTORAGE.COM|GREYBEARDSONSTORAGE.COM|1-720-221-7270|SILVERTONCONSULTING.COM©2015SILVERTONCONSULTING,INC.ALLRIGHTSRESERVED
InFigure2thesametwoOracleZFSStorageZS5-2systemsranked#3and#5inpriceperformance,respectively.FortheOracleZS5-2AFAthepriceperformancewas$8.89/MBPSandforthedisk-onlyversionthepriceperformancewas$12.93/MBPS.Next,fordisk-onlysystemswehavehistoricallyreportedonIOperformanceperdrivemetricshowninFigure3.
Figure3SPC-2Top10MBPS/diskdrive
InFigure3thenewOracleZFSStorageZS5-2cameinat#3with68.1MBPS/diskdrive,rightinthemiddleof2ndtiersystemswhichallhadbetween65and70MBPS/diskdrive.TheOracleZFSZS5-2used10Krpmdrives,whichmostofthistoptenalsoused,theexceptionsbeing#1and#4-5,whichwebelievehad15Krpmdrives.Next,weturntoaneverreportedmetric,theSPC-2topcompositeresponsetimes,inFigure4.
28Nov2016 SCISPCPERFORMANCEREPORT PAGE4OF5
TWITTER.COM/RAYLUCCHESI|RAYONSTORAGE.COM|GREYBEARDSONSTORAGE.COM|1-720-221-7270|SILVERTONCONSULTING.COM©2015SILVERTONCONSULTING,INC.ALLRIGHTSRESERVED
Figure4SPC-2Top10composite™
Wemuststartbystatingthatresponsetimesaren’tnormallyreportedforbandwidthintensiveworkloads.TheyseemlessimportantherethanOLTPIObutwewoulddisagree.Waitingforavideotostarttoplay,alargefiletransfertobeginoralargedatabasequerytoinitiateisstillavalidaconcern,eventhoughtheendoftheseactivitiestakesheerthroughputtocomplete.ThedataforaverageresponsetimeshavealwaysbeenavailableintheSPC-2FDR.Weuseacompositenumber,aseachworkloadhasdifferentcharacteristicsandthisisnotanaverage(likeSPC-2MPBS),itisbasedonaproprietaryformulawhichwealsousetoranksystemsinourSCISANStorageBuyingGuide2toratestoragesystems.Thatbeingsaid,thenewOracleZFSStorageZS5-2AFAshowsupas#8inthistop10withacompositeresponsetimeof0.8msec.,respectablebutnotthatgreatforanAFAsystem.UnlikeSPC-1,topresponsetimesinSPC-2arenotallAFA,infactonly6oftheseareAFAsystems.
2Pleaseseehttp://silvertonconsulting.com/cms1/product/san-storage-buying-guide/
28Nov2016 SCISPCPERFORMANCEREPORT PAGE5OF5
TWITTER.COM/RAYLUCCHESI|RAYONSTORAGE.COM|GREYBEARDSONSTORAGE.COM|1-720-221-7270|SILVERTONCONSULTING.COM©2015SILVERTONCONSULTING,INC.ALLRIGHTSRESERVED
SignificanceThenewSPC-2resultswereforv1.6ofthebenchmark.SPCreportstheseresultsalongwithv1,andhereinwefollowtheirlead.BandwidthbenchmarksubmissionsseemlesspopularthanSPC-1andassuch,it’sunusualtoseeonenewSPC-2submission,seeingtwoisatreat.Furthermore,havingthesamestoragesysteminaAFAandadisk-onlyversionforSPC-2presentsaninterestingcasestudyonthemeritsofSSDvs.disk.However,thedaysofdisk-onlysystemsdoingbestonbandwidthworkloadsseemtobenumbered.Theloneadvantageleftfordisk-onlyis$/GBbuteventhatadvantageneedsscrutiny,asoftenyouneedmorediskdrives(andthuscapacity)justtooptimizeperformanceonadisk-onlystoragesystem.Asalways,suggestionsonhowtoimproveanyofourperformanceanalysesarewelcomed.Additionally,ifyouareinterestedinmoreblockstorageperformanceinformation,checkoutourrecentlyupdated(May2017),SANStorageBuyingGuideavailableforpurchasefromourwebsite.3InSCI’sSANStorageBuyingGuidewenowprovidetop30resultsforsomeofourSPCperformancechartsandnew,SCIderived,OLTP,ThroughputandEmailChampionsCharts™forenterprise,all-flash,mid-rangeandSMBclassSANstorage.
Silverton Consulting, Inc., is a U.S.-based Storage, Strategy & Systems consulting firm offering products and services to the data storage community
SANStorageBuyingGuideURLinQRcodeNewslettersignupURLinQRcode)
3Ibid
