Excellent Value in Scale-out NAS Performance with Compellent

Compellent FS8600 with the Fluid Delivers Outstanding SPECsfs2008 Performance

A Dell Point of View paper

Dell Product Group June 2013 DELL POINT OF VIEW: Excellent Value in Scale-out NAS Performance with

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June 2013, version 1.0 DELL POINT OF VIEW: Excellent Value in Scale-out NAS Performance with Dell Compellent

Compellent FS8600 with the Fluid File System Delivers Outstanding SPECsfs2008 Performance

A relentless growth in unstructured data is driving the Dell Compellent FS8600 delivers demand for increasing file-based storage capabilities. outstanding NFS value among leading In meeting these needs efficiently, Dell’s Compellent scale-out NAS providers. FS8600 running the Dell Fluid File System (FluidFS) delivers market leading value for users who need  Exceptional file operation excellent NFS performance at the lowest possible performance. SPECsfs2008 cost. Industry standard SPECsfs2008 file benchmarks illustrate the performance benchmarks prove the FS8600 is efficiency of Dell’s Fluid File capable of high performance without busting the System in delivering high budget. performance. Users of file-based storage systems face a daunting  Linear performance when challenge when comparing systems from a variety of scaling-out. Scale performance vendors who all claim they best meet the user’s as workload needs increase. needs. Fortunately, there are some industry-standard tools that help a user sift through all the competing  Single file system scale-out claims. The SPECsfs2008 benchmark is one such reduces overhead. As tool which provides a standard method for assessing unstructured data grows NFS file system performance. This benchmark managing complexity doesn’t. requires vendors to submit results in a standardized format with full-disclosure of the system  Flexibility in configuration configuration, allowing for replicable results and lowers TCO. Independently comparisons among the nearly 70 submissions. adding NAS, block, or capacity The SPECsfs2008 benchmark is designed to model a services minimizes expansion mix of metadata and data IO patterns, and a standard costs as needs expand. data set that emulates a typical NFS file-serving environment. SPECsfs2008 results are measured in operations per second (OPS), and should not be confused with the simpler performance metrics such as throughput (measured in GB/sec) or SAN-level block IOPS. SPECsfs2008 not only measures file read and write operations, but also non-data file system operations such as (but not limited to) creating a file, reading directory metadata, or setting file attributes. By measuring these and other non-data operations, SPECsfs2008 stresses NAS systems in a holistic fashion, providing a more complete measure of system performance than simple data transfer speed. SPECsfs2008 also recognizes that increased performance load often results in increased transaction latency, so this additional parameter is important.

3 DELL POINT OF VIEW: Excellent Value in Scale-out NAS Performance with Dell Compellent

About the Dell SPECsfs2008 Filing

Dell’s submissions for three different FluidFS-based FS8600 configurations (Table 1) show excellent results, ranging from over 130,000 SPECsfs2008 operations per second to nearly 500,000 (Figure 1). The smallest configuration uses a single FS8600 appliance, a single Storage Center array, and 36 SSDs. Each subsequent configuration doubles the number of appliances and drives – the largest configuration being four FS8600 appliances and 144 SSDs in two Storage Center arrays. In all cases, a Brocade 8Gbps fabric switch was utilized as part of the NAS solution.

1-appliance filing 2-appliance filing 4-appliance filing

131,684 OPS NFS 254,412 OPS 494,244 OPS 1.68 ms Overall Response Performance 1.71 ms ORT 1.85 ms ORT Time (ORT) NAS FS8600 dual-controller (HA) 2x FS8600 4x FS8600 Controllers NAS appliance with FluidFSv2

SAN 2x Compellent SC8000 2x SC8000 4x SC8000 Controllers SAN controller (HA)

Disks 36 SSD 72 SSD 144 SSD

Table 1- Dell's SPECsfs2008_nfs.v3 submissions consisted of three different FS8600-based configurations running FluidFS.

Comparing Benchmarks

To extract the most value from the SPECsfs2008 benchmark, a user must segregate submissions into meaningful comparisons. A good way to streamline the comparison process is to consider the most recent submissions from vendors that Gartner recognizes as industry leaders1.

While SPECsfs2008 is intended to provide a standardized means of comparison, the rules allow for vendors to submit configurations that vary widely in terms of number of CPUs, memory size, disk drive type, number of spindles, networking connections and so on. Some submissions are modest in size with corresponding lower performance results while others systems are massive, built for bragging rights (often short-lived). A simple ranking by file system OPS is insufficient for meaningful comparison because it ignores how efficiently the configuration delivers performance in terms of required hardware and licensed software, which is critical to understanding the value of the NAS system.

1 Learn more about industry leaders in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant report at http://en.community.dell.com/dell- blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2013/04/11/dell-storage-positioned-in-the-leaders-quadrant-of-the-2013-magic- quadrant-for-general-purpose-disk-arrays.aspx

4 DELL POINT OF VIEW: Excellent Value in Scale-out NAS Performance with Dell Compellent

For example, there are submissions from leading vendors with total operations per second of well over one million SPECsfs2008 OPS. However, to achieve these results, thousands of drives were required, and these configurations cost millions of dollars.

A better way to evaluate the real-world value of a vendor’s benchmark results is to weigh the performance of the system against the cost. The SPECsfs2008 performance ratings for Dell’s FS8600 submissions are very good, competitive with other leading vendors’ submissions in terms of both file operations throughput and overall response time.

When factoring the efficiency in which the storage delivers the performance, the FS8600 jumps to the top, regardless of the size of the configuration. Figure 2 shows this by plotting the cost2 to deliver a single SPECsfs2008 ops/sec.

Figure 1- FS8600 file system performance scales linearly — as the number of FS8600 appliances and disk drives doubles, file system performance doubles as well.

In addition to delivering market leading value, the FS8600-based solutions fulfill the promise of scale-out by showing linear scaling of performance, capacity, and cost. Each of the Dell configurations has virtually the same cost per SPECsfs2008 OPS, even though each subsequent configuration doubles the number of NAS appliances and backend drives (see Figure 2). This means that users can expect to receive a linear return on investment as the system grows.

2 Each submission’s cost determined using the SPECsfs2008_nfs.v3 Bill of Materials; for leading vendors published price information and for Dell Compellent FS8600/SC8000 a standard pricing quote was used.

5 DELL POINT OF VIEW: Excellent Value in Scale-out NAS Performance with Dell Compellent

Linear scalability isn’t the only part of Dell’s FluidFS-based scale-out value proposition. Whereas some vendors leverage many file systems provisioned across many volumes to achieve performance, each of Dell’s submissions employed only one file system and a single namespace. For storage administrators, this means that system performance can be scaled without disrupting applications or users. FluidFS v3 supports a maximum namespace of 2PB, which

Figure 2 - Dell's FS8600 delivers excellent value for NFS file serving operations simplifies administration for users with large, unstructured data sets. In contrast, some offerings from other vendors still require administration of individual volumes behind separate controllers in a clustered-configuration.

For users with mixed file and block-access needs, the FS8600/SC8000 combination gives users the flexibility to deploy both block and file workflows on the same storage platform. By comparison, systems from other leading vendors compromise by delivering scale-out capabilities at the expense of a strong block-protocol implementation. FS8600/Storage Center maximizes value by not compromising on either.

Another way the Compellent FS8600 NAS solution maximizes value is by transparently placing data on the optimal tier of storage. This capability, called Data Progression, makes intelligent decisions based on historical data usage to determine which drive type or protection scheme is optimal. When data is “hottest” and is likely to be most frequently accessed, it is stored on high performing RAID-10 protected tiers which use the fastest drives. “Colder” data migrates to RAID- 5/6 protected tiers that use lower performing but more cost-effective drives. Data Progression applies even within classes of drives – for instance, SSDs that are ideal for write-intensive operations are used for the initial writing of user data and as the data begins to age it is moved to SSDs that are optimal for read-intensive environments; eventually, if the data continues to “cool,” it will be migrated to even more cost-effective hard drives.

6 DELL POINT OF VIEW: Excellent Value in Scale-out NAS Performance with Dell Compellent

In the FS8600, Data Progression further enhances efficient delivery of performance by insuring that hot (or recently written) data is always placed on fastest media, and that colder data migrates to more cost effective tiers. In typical performance workflows this means that high OPS performance can be maintained without scaling endlessly with expensive 15K or SSD disks. In fact capacity expansion can leverage NL-SAS drives, thus further enhancing the economics of the Dell solution.

Summary

One of the fastest growing storage requirements is that for file-based, unstructured data. There are a variety of NAS systems on the market today that may be considered for performance- oriented workloads. SPECsfs2008 is an industry standard NFS benchmark that provides a tool for streamlining the evaluation process when faced with many choices. Through the submission of Compellent FS8600/Storage Center SPECsfs2008_nfs.v3 results, Dell reinforces its leadership position. When viewed relative to other leaders, Dell’s Fluid File System solution value stands out – delivering exceptional performance while keeping investment under control. With the Fluid Data Architecture as a foundation, Dell scale-out NAS storage not only provides great value based on performance and cost, but also with flexibility and ease-of-use that make choosing Dell as the cornerstone of file-based storage needs an easy choice.

For more information on FluidFS-based NAS solutions for Compellent, EqualLogic or PowerVault storage, please contact a Dell representative.

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