Storage

S.Kasraeian Fard
vExpert 2011, VCP4/5, MCITP EA, MCSA 2008

Disk Technology
Part I

Content

Basic Terms SSD

Client SSD
Enterprise SSD SSD Types

HDD Options Performance

Basic Terms

HDD (Hard Disk Drive): storage center for data SSD (Solid State Drive): same thing as a hard drive, but with no moving
parts Example: USB flash drive, internal memory on cell phones and cameras

SSD

It will boot the operating system much quicker and applications will appear much faster since it has no moving parts. Compared to the HDD, SSD produces little to no heat. A Solid-State Disk (SSD) is a data storage device that emulates a hard disk drive (HDD) NAND Flash SSDs are essentially arrays of flash memory devices which include a controller that electrically and mechanically emulate, and are software compatible with magnetic HDDs Flash type MLC/SLC/"enhanced" MLC Over Provisioning percentage (OP) Power Loss Protection (PLP) Redundant Flash (SAFE/RAISE/XOR/RAID) Warranty

Many SSDs (especially client or MLC) do not include write wearout in their warranty? Those that do include wearout often use a Write Throttle

Client SSDs

Nearly all use MLC flash

3000-5000 Program/Erase cycles

Some as low as 1000 P/E cycles

Minimal OP to maximize user available GB

Typical around 7%, but exact amount difficult to determine Many tech web sites have confusing data on OP, because
1.0 GiB == 1073741824 bytes

Most do not have PLP Some have Redundant Flash Most do not have a warranty for writes

Those that do use Write Throttling

Some drive vendors do not tell how much raw flash they have

Enterprise SSDs

SLC and MLC models

SLC rated for 75000 to 300000 P/E cycles MLC rated for 5000 to 50000 P/E cycles

More OP to improve performance and wear life

Typically around 27%

Most have PLP Most have Redundant Flash

If they do not have redundant flash, then they need high quality flash and excellent ECC

Most include writes in the warranty

Use write throttle with small P/E cycle ratings

SSD Types

DRAM SAS SSDs

Small capacity, very high performance

Power Loss Protection via writing contents of DRAM to flash

Good for filesystem logs, where multi-server access is important for HA, write duty cycle is high, and maximum performance is important. Two types

PCIe Flash SSDs

SAS controller with SAS/SATA SSDs attached Native PCIe FPGA/ASIC with Flash Memory

Observation: Native PCIe has lower latency than SAS/SATA SSDs

HDD options

Performance of a HDD: Base speed of a low-end hard drive is 5400 rpm (revolutions per minute) and a highend hard drive would be 7200 rpm. The faster the disk spins, the faster the computer performance will be. In other words, the boot time and/or loading applications will be faster, hence more heat generation. HDD options are well known

Enterprise/Desktop/Laptop 15K, 10K, 7200 RPM

behavior does not depend on previous workload

relatively constant over the life

HDD vs SSD

SSD performance

Highly dependent on

Flash controller and firmware design

Type of flash

SLC versus MLC Asynchronous versus Synchronous (ONFI/Toggle)

Previous workload

More for client than enterprise SSDs

More for writes than for reads Less as OP is increased, either by vendor or by user via partitioning scheme that leaves part unused.

Performance Comparison (MB/s)

Performance Comparison

Disk Types
HDD - SATA Throughput 50-120 MB/s HDD - nlSAS 50-120 MB/s HDD - SAS SSD 200-550MB/s

IOPS *
MTBF RPM Capacity Noise

75~100 IOPS
1.2 million hours 5400-7200 Max 4TB Yes

75~150 IOPS
1.2 million hours 7200-10K Max 4TB Yes

140~210 IOPS
1.6 million hours 10K-15K Max 1TB Yes

400~20,000 IOPS
2.0 milion hours 0 Max 1TB No

*Source: Wikipedia

Interface Speed
Interface SATA I SATA II SATA III eSATA Transfer Speed (MB/s) 150 300 600 600

SAS 150
SAS 300 SAS 600 FC (over optic cable) FC (over copper cable)

150
300 600 1000 400

IOPS Calculation

Rotational speed: 10,000 RPM Average latency: 3 ms (0.003 seconds) Average seek time: 4.2 (r)/4.7 (w) = 4.45 ms (0.0045 seconds) Calculated IOPS for this disk: 1/(0.003 + 0.0045) = about 133 IOPS

Storage Technology
Part II

Content

Basic Terms DAS NAS SAN Comparison

Basic Terms
Direct-attached storage (DAS) refers to a digital storage system directly
attached to a server or workstation, without a storage network in between.

Network-attached storage (NAS) is file-level computer data storage

connected to a computer network providing data access to a heterogeneous group of clients. NAS operates as a file server and is specialized for this task either by its hardware, software, or configuration of those elements.

A storage area network (SAN) is a dedicated network that provides access

to consolidated, block level data storage.

DAS
Limited Access/No Sharing RAID Support Single Point of Failure (If not being replicated) Main protocols used for DAS connections are ATA, SATA, eSATA, SCSI, SAS,
and Fibre Channel.

Cant share unused resources with other servers

NAS

Shared Storage RAID Support NFS, SMB/CIFS (FTP,SFTP,HTTP) Only provides file-based data storage services

SAN
Shared Storage RAID Support FC, iSCSI, FCoE (NFS) A SAN does not provide file abstraction, only block-level operations.
However, file systems built on top of SANs do provide file-level access.

Comparison

NAS vs. SAN

NAS Almost any machine that connects to a LAN (or is interconnected to a LAN via a WAN) may utilize NFS, CIFS or HTTP protocol to connect to a NAS A NAS identifies the data by file name and byte offset, transfers file data or metadata, and handles security, user authentication, file locking A NAS allows greater sharing of information, especially among different operating systems SAN Server class devices that are equipped with SCSI Fibre Channel adapters connect to a SAN. A SAN addresses the data by logical block numbers, and transfers the data in (raw) disk blocks. File Sharing is operating system dependent, and may not exist for all operating systems that are being used

File system is managed by the NAS head unit

The SAN servers manage the file system

NAS vs. SAN (continue)

NAS Backups and mirrors are generated on files, not blocks File-Level Data Sharing Across the Enterprise SAN Backups and mirrors require a block by block copy operation. A mirrored system has to be either identical, or greater in capacity High Availability for Block-Level Data Transfer

ideal choice for organizations looking for a simple and cost-effective way implemented for mission-critical applications in the enterprise space to achieve fast data access for multiple clients at the file level With NAS, the utilization rate is high since storage is shared across the best way to ensure predictable performance and 24x7 data multiple servers availability and reliability

About
Sohrab Kasraeian Fard
vExpert 2011, VCP4/5, MCITP EA, MCSA 2008

Site: Kasraeian.com

Twitter: @Kasraeian