What do honey and storage systems have in common?
On October 1 of this year, we talked about the new generation of HP 3PAR StoreServ storage systems . Under that post, we talked about testing under the standards of the Storage Performance Council. In order to conduct such tests, it takes time and considerable effort. The test results of one of the 3PAR systems were published on November 4th. In a nutshell, the storage system HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20850 All-Flash Array set a world record in the SPC-2 test. Here you can see the leaderboard, here - see the details of the tests.
Paul Haverfield, our colleague from Australia, was amazed by the results of these tests , he saw in them much more than a simple set of numbers. We share his thoughts with you.
')
A cup of fresh honey, fresh from the hive ... Yummy? Undoubtedly.
The world record in the generally accepted test of storage system performance ... Perhaps it will be sweeter than honey. And honey, by the way, is the only food product that can be stored forever, without losing quality.
If you think about the data storage industry, then forever everyone who has a relation to it will be most interested in system performance. I am sure that any discussion about data storage, even after a thousand years, will always affect performance issues. Like this!
Take a look at the news in the world of storage performance. On November 4, the HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20850 All-Flash Array broke the world record in the SPC-2 test, which previously belonged to EMC VMAX400K . The result is improved by almost 13%. Namely, 3PAR StoreServ scored in the SPC-2 test, which focuses on system capacity testing, 62844 SPC MBPS.
The diagram shows the ratio of cost and performance, which is calculated from the results of the SPC-2 test. As you can see, HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20850 All-Flash Array is out of competition here.
Value for money systems performance
The test result we are talking about here is much more than a set of numbers. In order to realize its great importance for the data storage industry, it’s worth thinking about these numbers.
Thus, the performance of storage systems can be reduced to three main indicators:
Average block sizes are growing, which is a consequence of optimization in the field of server virtualization. There are growing opportunities for sharing data in arrays built on flash drives, when real-time transaction processing is combined with analyzing the same data sets. In addition, there is a growing need to speed up the copying of data for information security purposes.
All this leads to an increase in the importance of system bandwidth, to the constant use of this indicator to measure the performance of data storage solutions.
The SPC-2 test is aimed specifically at examining the bandwidth of the storage system. Another test suite, the SPC-1, is designed to measure the performance aspect that depends on the ability of systems to handle real-time transactions, on the number of I / O operations per second.
So, what is so amazing about the 3PAR StoreServ world record? In order to understand this, we compare the results of the SPC-2 test for various systems built exclusively on the basis of SSD-drives. At the moment, these are results for three systems: EMC VMAX 400K , Kaminario K2 and HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20850 . SPC displays performance on two sets of results. Namely: the top ten systems in terms of performance and the top ten in terms of price and performance.
Everyone would like to ride a Bugatti Veyron, the fastest of the mass-produced cars, but few can afford to pay for this miracle of technology about $ 2.5 million. The same story is repeated in the area of storage systems. There is not much point in an insanely fast system, the price of which makes it inaccessible.
According to test results, HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20850 not only ranked first in performance, but also the sixth in the category of price-performance ratio. In addition, it is the first array, completely built on the basis of flash drives , which is among the ten best solutions in terms of price and performance. This is a stunning result, which suggests that systems that use only solid-state drives are becoming increasingly available to the mass buyer.
Probably the best way to understand how affordable HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20850 is is to compare this system with the previous record holder - EMC VMAX400K . This storage solution is used by many organizations. As a result of this comparison, the details of which are given below, it turned out that it does not matter by what indicators the solutions are compared: the HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20850 turns out to be very interesting and, at the same time, accessible.
Comparison of HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20850 and EMC VMAX400K
Here is one more detail that you should pay attention to when evaluating the availability of 3PAR. The EMC VMAX 400K data warehouse configuration under test uses servers that connect directly to the VMAX Front-End ports. This is an absolutely acceptable practice, but this option of building a system affects its price, reducing it. The HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20850 test configuration uses a redundant FC factory that contributes to a better allocation of array resources on solid-state drives. As a result, the price of the 3PAR configuration includes the FC-factory. This makes the described system even more attractive.
The top five in terms of throughput measurement in the SPC-2 test
The capacity of 62.8 GB per second is a lot. But how can you imagine this whole mountain of data? What can you do with this in practice? Let us single out two areas in which such bandwidth will be particularly useful. This is video on demand (Video on Demand) and work with large database queries (Large Database Query).
The SPC-2 Video On Demand (VOD) test is focused on exploring the ability of the system to provide video on demand. It shows that 3PAR StoreServ can easily provide simultaneous transmission of 95,000 high-definition video streams.
If we talk about large database queries (Large Database Queries, LDQ) that can be found in OLAP / BI / DW environments, 3PAR can support 2697 streams with 64KiB IO and give approximately 28 MBPS per stream (SPC-2 LDQ , 64 KiB, 4 I / O). This is more than enough for modern data analysis tasks, in addition, it will allow to effectively implement only the emerging innovative methods of continuous analysis or analysis of real-time data.
The following are examples of workloads that are highly dependent on system bandwidth. If we use for their execution an architecture capable of providing a large number of simultaneous input-output streams over which large amounts of data are transmitted, the speed gain in solving problems will not make them wait. Namely, we are talking about the following practical tasks:
In October 2011, the 3PAR system ranked first in the SPC-1 test . This test aims to explore the storage capabilities of working in environments with a large number of I / O operations, which usually occurs during real-time transaction processing (OLTP).
The first places in SPC-1 and in SPC-2, which have occupied systems from the same family, albeit at different times, indicate the multidisciplinary architectural advantages of 3PAR. The ability to efficiently, at a very high level of performance, service tasks that operate with large or small data blocks within a single architecture, makes 3PAR systems very interesting for data centers focused on the use of solid-state data storages.
Finally, building a storage system can be a daunting task, especially if the goal is maximum performance. And here it is impossible to underestimate the benefits of solutions that use servers and storage from the same manufacturer. Such solutions are easier to create, maintain and update.
Using advanced server products and storage systems Hewlett Packard Enterprise, you can build a system of any scale, the performance of which will be at the level of world records. Such a system will effectively solve the problems of the present, including - to consolidate IT-resources, and with confidence to look to the future.
Paul Haverfield, our colleague from Australia, was amazed by the results of these tests , he saw in them much more than a simple set of numbers. We share his thoughts with you.
')
A cup of fresh honey, fresh from the hive ... Yummy? Undoubtedly.
The world record in the generally accepted test of storage system performance ... Perhaps it will be sweeter than honey. And honey, by the way, is the only food product that can be stored forever, without losing quality.
If you think about the data storage industry, then forever everyone who has a relation to it will be most interested in system performance. I am sure that any discussion about data storage, even after a thousand years, will always affect performance issues. Like this!
What's new in the storage industry?
Take a look at the news in the world of storage performance. On November 4, the HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20850 All-Flash Array broke the world record in the SPC-2 test, which previously belonged to EMC VMAX400K . The result is improved by almost 13%. Namely, 3PAR StoreServ scored in the SPC-2 test, which focuses on system capacity testing, 62844 SPC MBPS.
The diagram shows the ratio of cost and performance, which is calculated from the results of the SPC-2 test. As you can see, HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20850 All-Flash Array is out of competition here.
Value for money systems performance
The test result we are talking about here is much more than a set of numbers. In order to realize its great importance for the data storage industry, it’s worth thinking about these numbers.
Thus, the performance of storage systems can be reduced to three main indicators:
- The number of I / O operations per second (IOPS) describes the number of read and write operations that can be performed per second.
- The bandwidth allows you to find out the amount of data that can be obtained from the storage system or transferred to it in a second.
- The response time (latency) characterizes the delay before the system responds to a read or write request.
In the process of mastering the enormous performance potential of arrays entirely composed of flash drives, we see a constant increase in the importance of system bandwidth. There are good reasons for this.
Average block sizes are growing, which is a consequence of optimization in the field of server virtualization. There are growing opportunities for sharing data in arrays built on flash drives, when real-time transaction processing is combined with analyzing the same data sets. In addition, there is a growing need to speed up the copying of data for information security purposes.
All this leads to an increase in the importance of system bandwidth, to the constant use of this indicator to measure the performance of data storage solutions.
The SPC-2 test is aimed specifically at examining the bandwidth of the storage system. Another test suite, the SPC-1, is designed to measure the performance aspect that depends on the ability of systems to handle real-time transactions, on the number of I / O operations per second.
The importance of the SPC-2 test record
So, what is so amazing about the 3PAR StoreServ world record? In order to understand this, we compare the results of the SPC-2 test for various systems built exclusively on the basis of SSD-drives. At the moment, these are results for three systems: EMC VMAX 400K , Kaminario K2 and HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20850 . SPC displays performance on two sets of results. Namely: the top ten systems in terms of performance and the top ten in terms of price and performance.
Everyone would like to ride a Bugatti Veyron, the fastest of the mass-produced cars, but few can afford to pay for this miracle of technology about $ 2.5 million. The same story is repeated in the area of storage systems. There is not much point in an insanely fast system, the price of which makes it inaccessible.
According to test results, HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20850 not only ranked first in performance, but also the sixth in the category of price-performance ratio. In addition, it is the first array, completely built on the basis of flash drives , which is among the ten best solutions in terms of price and performance. This is a stunning result, which suggests that systems that use only solid-state drives are becoming increasingly available to the mass buyer.
How available is this solution?
Probably the best way to understand how affordable HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20850 is is to compare this system with the previous record holder - EMC VMAX400K . This storage solution is used by many organizations. As a result of this comparison, the details of which are given below, it turned out that it does not matter by what indicators the solutions are compared: the HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20850 turns out to be very interesting and, at the same time, accessible.
Comparison of HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20850 and EMC VMAX400K
| Indicator | EMC VMAX400K | HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20850 | Difference | Note (as of November 4, 2015) |
| SPC-2 test results published | September 28, 2015 | November 4, 2015 | ||
| SPC ID | B00073 | B00075 | ||
| SPC-2 MBPS (bandwidth) | 55643.78 | 62844.45 | 13% | The capacity of 3PAR is 13% more - this is an excellent result. |
| SPC-2 TSP Total price (price) | $ 1868567.85 | $ 1252723.54 | -33% | And this is a third cheaper. |
| SPC-2 ASU Capacity (GB) (capacity in GB) | 20133 | 28862 | 43% | And 43% more capacity |
| SPC-2 Price Performance ($ / MBPS) (price / performance ratio) | $ 33.58 | $ 19.93 | -41% | The HPE solution is much more affordable. |
| SPC-2 Unused Storage Ratio (percent of unused capacity) | 17.5% | 0.7% | -96% | At 3PAR, the percentage of unused capacity is significantly less. |
| HPE derived metric ($ / SPC-2 ASU GB) (Total Price / SPC-2 ASU GB) (the ratio of solution price and storage size) | $ 92.81 | $ 43.40 | -53% | The cost per gigabyte of storage is more than 2 times less. |
| HPE derived metric index "Value for Money" (SPS-2 MBPS / (Total Price / SPC-2 ASU GB)) (value for money) | 600 | 1448 | 142% | This index reflects the effectiveness of investment. It shows the ratio of the MBPS performance metric to the gigabyte cost of data storage. The purchase of 3PAR, according to the results of the SPC-2 test, is about 2.4 times more profitable than the purchase of VMAX. |
| Data Center Rack Footprint (racks) (space occupied in the data center) (number of racks) | four | 2 | -50% | In the data center, to accommodate 3PAR, you need half the space. |
3PAR is even more accessible than it seems at first glance
Here is one more detail that you should pay attention to when evaluating the availability of 3PAR. The EMC VMAX 400K data warehouse configuration under test uses servers that connect directly to the VMAX Front-End ports. This is an absolutely acceptable practice, but this option of building a system affects its price, reducing it. The HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20850 test configuration uses a redundant FC factory that contributes to a better allocation of array resources on solid-state drives. As a result, the price of the 3PAR configuration includes the FC-factory. This makes the described system even more attractive.
What can be done with 62844 MBPS?
The top five in terms of throughput measurement in the SPC-2 test
The capacity of 62.8 GB per second is a lot. But how can you imagine this whole mountain of data? What can you do with this in practice? Let us single out two areas in which such bandwidth will be particularly useful. This is video on demand (Video on Demand) and work with large database queries (Large Database Query).
The SPC-2 Video On Demand (VOD) test is focused on exploring the ability of the system to provide video on demand. It shows that 3PAR StoreServ can easily provide simultaneous transmission of 95,000 high-definition video streams.
If we talk about large database queries (Large Database Queries, LDQ) that can be found in OLAP / BI / DW environments, 3PAR can support 2697 streams with 64KiB IO and give approximately 28 MBPS per stream (SPC-2 LDQ , 64 KiB, 4 I / O). This is more than enough for modern data analysis tasks, in addition, it will allow to effectively implement only the emerging innovative methods of continuous analysis or analysis of real-time data.
The following are examples of workloads that are highly dependent on system bandwidth. If we use for their execution an architecture capable of providing a large number of simultaneous input-output streams over which large amounts of data are transmitted, the speed gain in solving problems will not make them wait. Namely, we are talking about the following practical tasks:
- Data storage, OLAP systems, big data analysis, implementation of Business Intelligence (BI) methods
- Server virtualization with consolidation of many thousands of virtual machines
- Editing or loading streaming multimedia data
- Computer Generated Image Rendering, Doll Animation
- High performance and scientific computing
- Medical and pharmaceutical research
- And, last in this list, but not the least important thing - data backup
About the past, present and future
In October 2011, the 3PAR system ranked first in the SPC-1 test . This test aims to explore the storage capabilities of working in environments with a large number of I / O operations, which usually occurs during real-time transaction processing (OLTP).
The first places in SPC-1 and in SPC-2, which have occupied systems from the same family, albeit at different times, indicate the multidisciplinary architectural advantages of 3PAR. The ability to efficiently, at a very high level of performance, service tasks that operate with large or small data blocks within a single architecture, makes 3PAR systems very interesting for data centers focused on the use of solid-state data storages.
Finally, building a storage system can be a daunting task, especially if the goal is maximum performance. And here it is impossible to underestimate the benefits of solutions that use servers and storage from the same manufacturer. Such solutions are easier to create, maintain and update.
Using advanced server products and storage systems Hewlett Packard Enterprise, you can build a system of any scale, the performance of which will be at the level of world records. Such a system will effectively solve the problems of the present, including - to consolidate IT-resources, and with confidence to look to the future.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/270749/
All Articles