Test ® Cache Acceleration (Intel® CAS) for Windows* with IOMeter

March 2016 Revision 001

Intel® Cache Acceleration Software

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Intel® Cache Acceleration Software

Overview This document shows the basic steps to test Intel® CAS performance by using IOMeter. We will use 128k sequential write to build the iobw.tst file, which will also warm up the cache. Then, use 4k random read to test the performance. The attached IOMeter configuration files use following assumptions. Please modify them accordingly if your setup is different. • iobw.tst is located at c:\iobw.tst. • The caching SSD is a RAW drive and will show similar to “Inte…SSDxxxx…” depending on the Intel® SSD you have chosen. Below is an example:

Step1: Turn on Intel® CAS Setup Intel® CAS as following:

• SSD is used as a RAW drive (un-partitioned/un-formatted) and for experimental purposes ideally should be larger than 50GB. • Choose the “Advanced Options” menu in the Intel® Cache Acceleration Software – Caching Drive Setup Wizard. • Choose “Write-Through Caching” or “Write-Back Caching” cache mode • Include list: add “C:\iobw.tst”

Note: If not sure how to do above, please reference to “Intel_CAS_Quick_Start_Guide_for_Windows_332550001US.pdf”

Intel® Cache Acceleration Software

Step2: Build iobw.tst Please load iometer_build_50G_iobw_file.icf and run. This step should take about 2.5 hours. Be sure to do this step after step1, because this step not only build the iobw.tst, also warm up the cache with the iobw.tst file. The test result for this step is not important. You could discard it.

Step3: Test CAS Please load iometer_test_4kRandomRead.icf and run. This step should take about 10 min. Feel free to change the run time longer if the result is not stable. Be sure to save the test result. This result is Intel® CAS performance. Note: As sanity checking, please reference to “Intel_CAS_Quick_Start_Guide_for_Windows_332550-001US.pdf” to check Intel® CAS statistics counters. We would like to see cache read hit rate is 100%. Active Cache Size is about 50G.

Intel® Cache Acceleration Software

Step4: Turn off Intel® CAS Launch Intel® CAS UI and turn off Intel® CAS. It might take a moment. Make sure it is completely stopped.

Step5: Test HDD Continue to use iometer_test_4kRandomRead.icf to do another run. Be sure to save the test result. This result is HDD performance.

Intel® Cache Acceleration Software