ESG Lab Review StorMagic SvSAN · 2020-02-19 · Figure 1. Top Five Most Important Criteria in Justifying IT Investments Source: Enterprise Strategy Group, 2016. Very often, remote

©2016byTheEnterpriseStrategyGroup,Inc.AllRightsReserved.

TheChallenges

Today’scompetitivelandscapedemandshighlevelsofapplicationanddataavailabilityacrosstheenterprise.But

providingfor“alwayson”productivity,especiallyinadistributedenterprisewithmultipleremotelocations,isnotan

easytask.Theadditionalhardwareandmanagementrequiredarenotonlyexpensive,buttheyalsocomplicatetheIT

landscape.Mostorganizationsarelookingforwaystodeliverwhatthebusinessneedswithouttheadditionalcostsand

headaches.

RecentESGresearchbearsthisout.AsFigure1shows,whenaskedwhatconsiderationsweremostimportantfor

justifyingITinvestments,35%ofESGresearchrespondentschoseROI,32%selectedbusinessprocessimprovement,and

27%indicatedreductioninOpEx.1OrganizationsarewillingtoinvestinITsolutionsthatprovideagoodreturnwhile

improvingbusinessprocessesandreducingcosts.

Figure1.TopFiveMostImportantCriteriainJustifyingITInvestments

Source:EnterpriseStrategyGroup,2016.

Veryoften,remotelocations(forexample,retailoutletsoflargechains)areanorganization’sclosestlinktocustomers,

makingtheirapplicationanddataavailabilityessentialtomaximizingrevenueandlimitingliability.Applicationsatthe

business’sremotesitesareoftencritical,andtryingtokeepthemupandrunningcontinuouslywhileworkingtoreduce

costsisanongoingstruggle.

1Source:ESGResearchReport,2016ITSpendingIntentionsSurvey,January2016.

22%

27%

32%

35%

39%

Improvedregulatorycompliance

Reduc[oninopera[onalexpenditures(i.e.,labor,u[li[es,materialsandotherongoingcostsassociatedwith

opera[nganapplica[on,system,orbusinessprocess)

Businessprocessimprovement

Returnoninvestment

Improvedsecurity/riskmanagement

Whichofthefollowingconsidera4onsdoyoubelievewillbemostimportantinjus4fying

ITinvestmentstoyourorganiza4on’sbusinessmanagementteamoverthenext12

months?(Percentofrespondents,N=633,threeresponsesaccepted)

ESGLabReview

StorMagicSvSAN

Date:February2016Author:MikeLeone,ESGLabAnalystandAvivKaufmann,ESGLabAnalyst

Abstract: This ESG Lab Review documents hands-on testing of StorMagic SvSAN with a focus on the simple and

flexible deployment and management capabilities for distributed organizations with a large number of remote

locations.HighavailabilityandhybridSSDcachingperformancewerealsotested,withagoalofunderstandingthe

valueStorMagicSvSANcanprovidewhencomparedwithtraditionalstoragesolutionsfordistributedenvironments.

ESGLabReview:StorMagicSvSAN2


TheSolution:StorMagicSvSAN

StorMagicSvSANisavirtualized,software-definedsharedstorageplatformdesignedtohelpdistributedenterprisestake

advantageofthehigh-endfeaturesofsharedstorage(suchashighavailabilityandworkloadmobility)withoutthe

addedhardwareandmanagementexpense.

SvSANusesserver-basedstorage(internalordirect-attached)tocreatesynchronouslymirrored,virtualizedstorage

poolsacrosstwoormoreclusteredservers,keepingapplicationsanddatahighlyavailable.AVirtualStorageAppliance

(VSA)iscreatedoneachserverandoperatesasavirtualiSCSISAN.Intheeventofserverfailure,theotherserversinthe

clustercontinuetosupportdataserviceswithoutinterruption.SvSANalsosupportsstretchclusteringacrossdistances

thathavebeentestedupto100kmforaddedresiliency.

Figure2.StorMagicSvSAN

BenefitsofanSvSANdeploymentinclude:

• Theabilitytomaintainapplicationuptimeanddataavailabilitywithouttheexpenseandmanagementof

SAN/NASarrays.

• LowerCapEx,withlesshardware(aminimumof2ratherthan3servers)andnoSAN/NASinfrastructure

required.Organizationscanleverageexistingserverstodeliversharedstorage.

• LowerOpEx,includinglesscomplexity,whicheliminatestheneedforonsiteITstafforspecializedstorage

skills;andreducedfloorspace/power/cooling/maintenancecosts.

• Asoftware-based,server-hardwareagnosticsolutionthatissimpletodeployandmanage,includingremote

deploymentandprovisioning.

• SupportforVMwarevSphereandMicrosoftHyper-Vhypervisors.

• IntegrationwithVMwarevCenterandMicrosoftSystemCenter.

• ScalabilitybysimplyaddingstoragecapacitytotheonsiteserverstoexpandthevirtualSAN.

• Simplecapacity-basedlicensing.

SvSANmakesremotelocationhighavailabilitysimpleandcosteffective,andcanquicklysolvetheproblemoflost

revenuethatstemsfromplannedorunplanneddowntimeforbusiness-criticalremoteapplications.Insteadofhavingto

buildaSANateverylocationandhaveITstaffavailabletomanageit,distributedlocationssimplyneedtwoserverswith

internalorDASstorage,andSvSANsoftware.



Othervirtualscale-outstoragesolutionsrequirethreeservers:twoformirroringdata,andathirdtoserveasa“tie-

breaker”incaseswhenwriteshavebeencommittedtooneserverbutnottheother.Thisquorumserveristhearbiterof

whichserverintheclusterhasthecorrectdata.AsshowninFigure3,SvSANeliminatestheneedforhavingthethird

serveron-premisesbyprovidingacentralizedquorumservice,calledtheneutralstoragehostservice(NSH).TheNSH

canbedeployedonphysicalorvirtualWindowsorLinuxmachinesthatareaccessiblebyallremotesites.TheNSHwas

designedtouseminimalnetworkbandwidth,anditcantolerateahighlatencynetworkandsurvivenetworkdowntime.

AsinglesharedserverrunningtheNSHservicecanprovidequorumforthousandsofSvSANs,replacingtheneedto

deploythousandsoflocalizedquorumservers.Alternatively,theNSHcanbeinstalledonthevCenterServerAppliance

(vCSA).WiththereleaseofSvSAN5.3,StorMagicalsonowprovidesanNSHapplianceforVMwaredeployedasanOVF.

ThisisacutdownversionoftheVSA,designedtoprovidequorum.Itusesthesameupgrademechanismandfirmware,

isselfcontained,requiringnoadditionalOSorlicenses,andhasverylightweightsystemrequirements.

Figure3.On-premisesHardwareRequirementsforTraditionalDistributedEnvironmentsVersusStorMagicSvSAN

GettingStarted

ESGLabperformedremotehands-onevaluationandtestingofStorMagic’sSvSANfromitsfacilityintheUnited

Kingdom.Testingfocusedoneaseofdeployment,manageability,andhighavailabilityforlarge,geographically

distributedenterprises.Throughoutthetesting,ESGLabpaidspecialattentiontothekeydesignadvantagesofthe

SvSANarchitecture,includingtheuniquequorumservice,enhancedhypervisorintegration,andcentralizedmonitoring

andmanagement.

EaseofDeployment

ESGLabtestedSvSAN’sdeploymentcapabilitieswithafocusonsimplicityandspeedforlarge,distributedenvironments.

ThetestsetupconsistedoftwoHPProLiantDL380pserversrunningESXiv5.5.EachserverwasconfiguredwithfourIntel

E5-2609processors,32GBofmemory,and8x72GBSASDrives.Two1GbENICswereusedtoprovideconnectivityfor

theVirtualMachineNetwork,andtwo10GbEportsweredirectlyconnectedbetweentheserversusingacrossovercable

forSvSANcommunication.WhileESGchosetoruninatypicaltwo-nodedeploymentwithacentralizedNSHservice,

SvSANoffersdeploymentflexibilitytobestsuittheneedsofthedistributedbusiness.

ESGLabdeployedStorMagicSvSANv5.3inaVMwareenvironmentonapairofHPservers.Theinstallationwasstarted

byexecutingthesetupprogram,whichautomaticallycontactedthevCenterserver,installedtheNSHservice,deployed

theOVFtemplatesandothernecessaryservicestothedatacenters,andensuredthattheVMwareplug-inwas

accessibletoanyconnectedclients.Theinstallationwizardmadethedeploymentprocesseasyandthesystemwasup

andrunninginamatterofminutes.



Figure4.InitialOVFDeploymentWizard

ESGLabthenusedvSpheretoinstalltheStorMagicplug-in,whichprovidedasimpleVSAdeploymentwizardtoguideus

throughtheinstallationofSvSANvirtualcontrollersontothetwoESXhosts.Withinthewizard,ESGLabselectedtheESX

host,datastore,networking,licensing,andallocatedsharedstorageforusebySvSAN.SvSANcanleverageindividual

disksandRAIDvolumesthroughRawDeviceMapping(RDM)oruseexistingVMDKcapacitytocreatetheshared

storage,providingorganizationstheflexibilitytochoosetheidealimplementation.

AftercreatingapasswordfortheVSA,thedeploymentwasinitiatedandthecreationoftheVSAcouldbemonitoredin

theESXtaskslist.ESGLabnotedtheverysmallfootprintofthenewlycreatedLinux-basedVM.TheVSAusedjusta

singlevCPUand1GBofmemory,andcreateda512MBBootDiskconfiguredinadualbootOSconfigurationandcreated

a20GBjournaldrivetotrackmetadatachanges.ThesameprocesswasfollowedtoinstalltheVSAonthesecondESX

hostandoncecompleted,themetadatawassyncedbetweentheVMs.ThiscreatedacompletelyredundantSvSAN

environmentthatwasreadyforuse.

Figure5.VMwareVSADeploymentWizard

Next,ESGLabturnedtoasimilartestbed,butusedMicrosoftHyper-Vasthevirtualizationlayer.Thedeploymentwas

justaseasyaswiththeVMwareenvironment.UsingtheVSAImporterforHyper-V,virtualcontrollerswereinstalledon

twoDellserversintheHyper-Venvironment.

Thisdeploymentflexibilitymeansthatlarge,distributedorganizationscanselectthedeploymentoptionthatbestfits

theirstrategy,whetherthatbewithVMwarevSphereorMicrosoftHyper-Vasthevirtualizationlayer.ThoughESGLab

wasabletoquicklydeploySvSANtoasimulatedremotesiteusingtheVMwareandHyper-Vinstallationwizards,

StorMagicrecommendstakingadifferentapproachtomaketheprocessevenfaster.Thisisespeciallytrueforlarger

deploymentswithmanyremotelocations.CommandLineInterface(CLI)orPowerShellscriptscanbeusedtoautomate

thedeploymentprocessfromacentralizedlocation,helpingtomaintaindeploymentconsistencyacrosseverysite.



Simplicity

ManagementofStorMagicSvSANisdesignedtobesimpleandintuitiveforVMwareandMicrosoftadministrators.They

aregiventheoptiontomanageanSvSANstorageenvironmentthroughintegratedplug-insforvCenterandSCOMor

CLIs.Inaddition,individualVSAscanbemanagedusingastandaloneweb-basedGraphicalUserInterface(GUI),orby

loggingintotheVSAconsole.ESGLabperformedhands-ontestingoftheseinterfaceswithagoalofvalidatinghoweasy

itistomanageandmonitortheSvSANenvironment.

CentralizedManagement

ESGLabbeganthisphaseoftestingbyusingvCentertomanagetheSvSANdeploymentfromasinglepaneofglass.

UsingvCenter,administratorscanmanageeverygloballydeployedSvSANacrosstheentiredistributedinfrastructure

fromasingle,centralizedlocation.EachVSAismanagedasanindividualVM,soESGLabusedalloftheadvanced

managementfeaturesofVMware,includingresourceallocationandconfiguration,eventnotificationandlogging,and

performancemonitoringforeachindividualVSA.Thestoragemanagementtabatthedatacenterlevelallowedusto

manageSvSANfromasystemlevel,includingviewingthesystemoverview,initiatingwizard-baseddeployments,and

managingshareddatastores.UsingtheStorMagictabattheindividualVSAlevel,ESGLabperformedallofthenecessary

managementfunctionsfortheVSAs,includingconfiguringtheVSA,storage,targets,andinitiators.

Figure6.CentralizedManagementofVMwareDistributedDeployments

Next,ESGLabusedtheHyper-VSvSANdeploymentenvironmenttoseehoweasyitwastomanageandmonitorusing

SystemCenterOperationsManager.InstallingtheStorMagicmanagementpackcreatedaMicrosoftManagement

Console(MMC),whichincludedsnap-insforHyper-Vmanager,DiskManagement,FailoverClusterManager,andalink

totheStorMagicweb-basedGUIforeachVSA.Thiscreatedanintegratedmanagementinterfacethatwasusedtoeasily

manageallofthefunctionsoftheclusteredHyper-VSvSANdeployment.ESGLabquicklyandeasilyconfiguredand

monitoredthestatusoftheindividualVSAs,storagepools,targets,initiators,andnetworkports.Theinterfacewasalso

usedtomonitoralertsandstatisticsabouttheconfiguration.Figure7showsthemanagementinterfacesofSvSANina

MicrosoftHyper-Venvironment.

Figure7.ManagingSvSANfromMicrosoftSystemCenter



SimplifiedProvisioning

Forprovisioning,ESGLabusedthevCenterplug-ininterfacetoprovision100GBofSvSANprotectedstoragebyusingthe

“CreateSharedDatastore”wizard.Thedatastorewasprovisionedfromapoolofstoragethatwascreatedusingraw

devicemappings(RDM)andlicensedduringinitialdeployment.Thewizardprovidedguidancethroughthestepsof

creatingthesharedstorageincludingthenameandcapacityofthedatastore,selectionoftheVSAs,locationoftheNSH

service,andthenameandcredentialsofthehoststhatwouldbemountingthedatastore.OnceESGLabcompletedthe

wizard,thenodesynchronizationprogresscouldbemonitoredanddetailedinformationaboutthedatastorecouldbe

viewedfromtheStorMagicplug-intab.The100GBdatastorewasinstantlyavailableforusefromtheVMhostsandwas

fullysynchronizedinthebackgroundinamatterofminutes.ThestoragecreationinaVMwareenvironmentisshownin

Figure8.

Figure8.ProvisioningSvSANStorageinVMwareEnvironment

WhileStorMagicisworkingonareleasethatprovidessimilarintegratedandautomatedprovisioningcapabilitieswithin

SystemCenterVirtualMachineManager(SCVMM),provisioningstoragetodayinaMicrosoftenvironmentrequireda

fewadditionalstepsduetoMicrosoft’sapproachtosharedstoragewithitsClusteredSharedVolumes.Theprovisioning

wascompletedentirelywithinMicrosoftSystemCenterusingtheStorMagicmanagementpack,butrequiredseveral

stepsandwasnotwizard-driven.ThestepsweresimpleandfamiliartoanyMicrosoftAdministratorandincluded

creatingthesharedstoragetarget,mappingtheinitiators,andformattingthediskwiththeNTFSfilesystem.It’s

importanttonotethattheseadditionalstepscanquicklyandeasilybeautomatedusingPowerShellscripts.

WhyThisMatters

Large,distributedenterprisessuchasretailoperationsarecomplexanddifficulttomanage.Thisisespeciallytrue

withhundredsoreventhousandsofsitesbeingdeployedinrapidsuccessiontominimizedowntime.Eachbranch

office must contain an infrastructure that is highly available and capable of independently running when

connectivitytoacentrallocationisunavailable,whilestayingwithinstrictbudgetrequirements.

ESG Lab validated the simplicity of deployment and management of an SvSAN in both VMware and Hyper-V

environments.WithStorMagicSvSANbeingdesignedtoleveragetheadvantageofvirtualizationtogreatlysimplify

themanagementofcomplexdistributedenvironments,theflexibilityofdeploymentmethodswasquicklyapparent.

Thesolution iscoupledwiththeabilitytoeasilymanagefromacentralized locationusingfamiliartools,meaning

thatasingleadministratorcoulddeployandmanagetheentiredistributedenvironment, resulting insignificantly

loweroperationalexpenses.



HighAvailabilityandDataIntegrity

StorMagicSvSANprovidesasynchronous,active-activemirrorbetweenpairsofVSAstoensurehighavailabilityforevery

deploymentscenario.Ifonenodeofthemirrorfails,thehypervisor’smultipathingsoftwarewilldetectthepathfailure

andinstantlyfailovertotheothernode.Fromadata-integritystandpoint,itiscrucialthatbothnodeshavethesame

viewofthemirroreddataatalltimes.Ifthatviewwastobedisruptedduetoanetworkfailureoraserverunexpectedly

goingdown,ascenariocouldoccurinwhichthetwonodeshaveadifferentviewofthedata,knownasa“split-brain”

scenario.Whenthishappens,athirdpartyisrequiredtoactasatie-breakerorquorumservicetohelpmaintainthe

correctstateofthemirror.Toaddressthisscenarioandpreventdataloss,SvSANutilizesaneutralstoragehostservice

(NSH)runningonathird,physicallyindependenthost.Ifonesideofthemirrorgoesdown,theNSHservesasaquorum

servicetoreliablyhandlethefailure.

ThedualVSA,NSH-protectedStorMagicSvSANdeploymentthatESGLabusedduringhigh-availabilitytestingisshownin

Figure9.Typically,synchronously-mirroredVSAsolutionsrequireaminimumoftwoofthethreepoints(eitheroneVSA

andtheNSHorbothVSAs)toremainonlineandcommunicatingwitheachotherinordertostayactive.WithSvSANthis

logicismodifiedtoprovidedataaccessundermorefailurescenarios,buttheorderofthefailureiskey.Ifoneofthetwo

VSAsgoesdown,anyhostedVMsarefailedovertothe

othernodeandservicedbytheremainingVSA.The

storageremainsonline,eveniftheconnectiontothe

NSHlaterbecomesunavailable.If,however,theNSH

connectionfailsfirstandthatfailureisfollowedbya

subsequentfailureonahostoroneofthetwoVSAs,

thenthestoragewillbetakenoffline.Thisparticular

configurationshowsanimportantdifferentiatorfor

StorMagicSvSAN:Onlytwoofthethreepointsare

requiredtobeon-premises.TheuniquelydesignedNSH

servicecanserveallremotelocationsandbecentrally

locatedonasingleserverataglobalheadquartersor

eveninthecloud,requiringlesshardwareand,

therefore,lesscost.Thisperfectbalanceofhigh

availability,deploymentflexibility,andcostsavings

makesSvSANidealfordistributedorganizationswitha

largenumberofbranchofficesorstores.

ESGLabtestedthehighavailabilityofStorMagicSvSANwithagoalofshowinghowquicklyandnon-disruptivelyafailure

couldbehandled.Twovirtualizedenvironmentswereusedduringthisphaseoftesting.Thefirstenvironmentwas

virtualizedusingVMwarevSphere.ESGLableveragedtheVMwaretestbedthatwasdeployedearlierandcreateda

singleVMonthefirstserverthatwasstoredontheSvSANmirroreddatastore.Onceconfigured,thephysicalserverwas

thenrebooted,whichforcedthenewlycreatedVMtovMotiontothesecondserver.Thehighavailabilityfunctionality

workedasexpectedandtheVMwasaccessibleonthesecondserverinlessthanaminute.Thestateoftheenvironment

throughouttheprocessisshowninFigure10.

Figure10.SvSANNodeFailureinVMwareEnvironment

Figure9.StorMagicSvSANThree-pointDeploymentwith

NeutralStorageHostService



Next,ESGLabusedaMicrosoftHyper-Venvironmentinasimilarthree-nodeconfiguration:thetwostoragenodeson-

premisesandtheNSHlocatedoff-premises.AvirtualmachinerunningWindowsServer2012wasconfiguredand

opened.AvideofromwithintheVMbeganplayingandthenahardwarefailurewassimulatedwithagoalofshowing

minimaldisruptiontovideoplayback.ESGLabwatchedinHyper-VManagerastheserverwasshutdown.Oncethe

serverwasrecognizedasbeingunreachable,aliveVMmigrationwastriggered.Themigrationcompletedinlessthan12

secondsandthevideoplaybackwasinterruptedforonlyafewseconds.

Oncethefailoverhadcompleted,ESGLabturnedtoMicrosoftSystemCenterOperationsManagertoseehowthe

simulatedStorMagicSvSANfailuresweredisplayed.Asdescribedearlier,StorMagicprovidesamanagementpackfor

SystemCenterthat,onceimported,providesmanagementfunctionalitydirectlyfromOperationsManager.Underthe

Monitoringtab,aStorMagicfolderwasaccessibletoshowactivealertsandalsoallowedadministratorstomanage

hosts,subsystems,andvirtualdisks.ESGLabclickedontheactivealertstoseetheserverfailureandclickedonthe

virtualdiskstoseetheVSAsthatweredownfromtheserverfailure.Figure11showsthenodefailureandmigration

processfromtwoMicrosoftmanagementinterfaces:Hyper-VManagerandSystemCenterOperationsManager.

Figure11.StorMagicSvSANNodeFailureinaMicrosoftHyper-VEnvironment

WhyThisMatters

System uptime and high availability are crucial for geographically distributed organizations with a large

number of remote branches or offices. More often than not, each remote location serves as the first

interactionwithacustomer.Thisisespeciallytrueintheretailspace,wheresystemdowntimeatastorecan

directly impact profit and customer loyalty. Organizations are looking for a cost-effective way to not only

maintainhighlevelsofavailabilityfortheirremoteoffices,butalsoensuredataintegrityifafailureoccurs.

ESG Lab confirmed that StorMagic SvSAN is a purpose-built, cost-effective solution that is optimized for

distributedorganizations.Withjusttwoserverson-premisesandacentrallylocatedNSHservicethatservesas

atie-breaker,highavailabilityanddata integritycanbeachievedtoensuresystemuptimeandpreventdata

loss. ESG Lab simulated a node failure in both a VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V virtualized

environment and witnessed minimal disruption to hosted virtual machine applications. Throughout both

failurescenarios, integratedVMwarevCenterandMicrosoftSystemCentermanagementallowedESGLabto

clearlyidentifythefailures,monitorVMfailoverstatus,andviewtheappropriatecautionaryalerts.



Cost-optimizedHybridPerformanceScalability

StorMagicSvSANsupportsahybridmixofsolid-statedisk(SSD)andtraditionalharddiskdrive(HDD)technologieswitha

goalofprovidingacost-effectiveperformanceboostforI/O-intensiveapplicationworkloads.Applicationupdatesand

accessrequestsforrecentlywrittendataareacceleratedinrealtimewithhigh-speedSSDconfiguredasawriteback

cachinglayerinfrontoftraditionaldiskdrives.Cachingisconfiguredonaper-volumebasis,whichensuresthat

importantapplicationdataisprioritized.

Performance

ESGLabtestedtheperformanceofStorMagicSvSANSSDcachingwiththeindustry-standardIOmeterutilitythat

emulatedatypicalmulti-userOLTPdatabaseworkload.2Apairofeightcoreserverswithfour1TBSATAdrivesandtwo

20GBvolumes—oneforthedatabaseandtheotherfordatabasejournaling—weretestedinaVMwareenvironment.3

Figure12,whichshowsStorMagicSvSANVSAscreenshotsthatrecordedperformanceovertimeinone-minuteintervals,

illustrateshowSSDcachingimprovedperformance.Addingasingle480GBSSDimprovedperformanceupto11times

comparedwiththeall-diskconfigurationwithnocaching.

Figure12.AcceleratingPerformancewithStorMagicSvSANCachingandaHybridMixofSSDandHDD

IOmeterresultswereusedtoquantifytheperformancebenefitsthataresummarizedinTable1.

Table1.IOmeterPerformanceTestResults

All-disk

(nocaching)

HybridCached

(starting)

HybridCached

(1.5hourslater)Delta

IOPS 468 1,200 5,021 2to11timesmore

DBresponse(ms) 35.48 13.24 4.07 3to9timesfaster

Journalresponse(ms) 56.20 5.05 2.25 11to25timesfaster

Blended

response(ms)36.26 9.15 3.16 4to11timesfaster

2Workloaddetails:8KB,80%read,20%sequential,16outstandingI/Osforthedatabasevolume;8KB,100%sequentialwrite,1I/Ooutstanding

forthejournalvolume;IOmeterversion1.1.0testingwasperformedatthephysicaldisk/rawdeviceleveloniSCSIdirectmappedvolumes.3Testbeddetails:1UserverwitheightcoreIntelXeonX5-2500CPUand64GBRAM,VMwareESXv5.5hypervisor,Windows2012guestOS,WD

Blue1TB2.5"SATAHDD,SamsungEnterprisePM863SATA480GBSSD,RAID-0withsynchronousmirroringbetweenapairofservers.



A summary of the results shown in Table 1 indicates that adding a single SSD with StorMagic SvSAN SSD caching

improved the overall performance capacity of the storage infrastructure up to 11 times with up to 11 times faster

responsetimes.Theresultsalsoshowhowdatabasejournalresponsetimeswereimprovedevenmore:upto25times

faster.Acceleratingjournaledupdatestranslatesdirectlyintofasterperformanceforinteractivedatabaseusersdueto

the fact thatmostmulti-user applications are blocked until journaledwrites have been safely committed to storage

media—inthiscase,high-speedflashSSD.

Price/Performance

Next,ESGLabanalyzedtheprice/performancebenefitsofStorMagicSvSANSSDcaching.StorMagicSvSANSSDcaching

reducesthecostofstorageinremotelocationsbyleveragingtheaffordabilityoftraditionaldiskdrivesforthebulkofa

remoteapplication’slong-termdatastorageneedswhiletakingadvantageofthehighperformanceofSSDflash

technologyforacost-optimizedperformanceboostforthemostrecentlyupdateddata.Thisapproachcandramatically

reducetheoverallcostofprovidingstorageservicesforadistributedenterprise—especiallyforI/O-intensiveapplication

workloadsthatwouldneedalargeall-diskconfigurationoranexpensiveall-flashconfigurationtomeetperformance

requirements.

ThecostadvantagesofStorMagicSvSANSSDcachingwereanalyzedbycomparinghowmuchitwouldcosttodeployan

all-diskconfigurationtomeettheperformancelevelsthatweremeasuredduringESGLabtestingwithfourharddrives

andoneSSDdrive.Theall-diskconfigurationtoppedoutatabout500IOPS,sotenharddriveswouldbeneededtoreach

thelevelof5,000IOPSmeasuredduringhybridSSDcachetesting.Thepricesthatwereusedforthisanalysiswerethe

bestpricesavailableonAmazonwhenthisreportwaswritten.4AsshowninFigure13,StorMagicSvSANSSDcaching

reducedthecostofstoragemediaby31%comparedwithanall-diskconfigurationwithsimilarperformancecapabilities.

Figure13.StorageMediaPrice/PerformanceAnalysis

Finally,ESGLabscaleduptheanalysistoassessthecostsassociatedwithsupportingmoreusersandahigherworkload

requirementof10,000IOPS.Foraretaildeployment,thisemulatesthetypeofcapacityplanningthat’sneededto

supportnewstorerolloutswithtwicethenumberofemployeesandcashregisters,oranewsetofvirtualized

applications.DoublingtheStorMagicSvSANhybridSSDconfigurationyieldstwicethestoragemedia(eightHDDandtwo

SSD),whichfitwellinthe1Userverwith12driveslotsthatwastestedbyESGLab.Theall-diskconfigurationwouldjump

fromtento20drives,whichwouldn’tfitinthe1UserverthatwasusedduringESGLabtesting.Asaresult,theall-disk

configurationwouldrequirethepurchaseofmoreserversorlarger,moreexpensiveserverstomeetthe10,000IOPS

requirement.ThecostdifferencesaresummarizedinFigure14.

4ThisAmazonlinkwasusedforHDDpricingandthisAmazonlinkwasusedforSSDpricinginJanuary2016.

$0

$200

$400

$600

$800

$1,000

$1,200

$1,400

All-disk HybridSSDCache

StorageMediaCostComparison(5,000IOPOLTPWorkload,1TBHDD,480GBSSD)

31%

less



Figure14.ServerandStoragePrice/PerformanceAnalysis

WhattheNumbersMean

• ThehigherperformanceandsmallerfootprintofSSDcanbeusedtoavoidthecostofanotherserver,a

biggerserver,oradriveexpansionchassistofitmoreharddrives.

• StorMagicSvSANSSDcachingreducedthecostofserverandstorageinfrastructurebyhalfforthe10,000

IOPSdatabaseworkloadthatwasanalyzedbyESGLab.

• ThelowerenergyrequirementsofSSDmagnifiesthesavingsevenmoreduetoareductioninspace,power,

andcoolingrequirements.

• WhileESGLabisconfidentthatStorMagicSvSANSSDcachingcanbeusedtoaccelerateperformanceand

reducecosts,itshouldbenotedthattheexactlevelofbenefitsthataredocumentedinthisreportare

specifictotheapplicationworkloadandconfigurationsthatweretestedandanalyzed.

• WhileESGLabexaminedthecosteffectivenessofStorMagicSvSANcachingwithacost-optimizedmixofSSD

andHDD,itshouldbenotedthatStorMagicSvSANcanbeusedtocreateanall-SSDconfigurationfor

applicationswithextremelydemandingperformanceorenvironmentalrequirements.

WhyThisMatters

Costisavitalconcernwhendeployingfrontlineapplicationsinalargegeographicallydistributedenterprise—

especiallyforretailerswithdozenstothousandsofstores.ESGLabhasconfirmedthatcachingwithahybrid

mix of SSD and traditional hard drives can be used to magnify the savings that can be achieved with a

software-definedStorMagicSvSANstorageinfrastructure.

Performancetestingwithasimulatedreal-worlddatabaseworkloadprovedthataddingatouchofSSDtoan

all-diskStorMagicSvSANconfigurationcandeliveradramatic,yetcost-effective,performanceboost—upto11

times more during ESG Lab testing. Delivering similar levels of performance with an all-disk configuration

wouldrequiremorediskdrivesandmayincurthecostofanotherserver,abiggerserver,oradriveexpansion

chassis.AnESGLabcostanalysisindicatesthatSSDcachingcandelivera50%discountontopoftheinherent

savingsofStorMagic’ssoftware-definedapproachthatavoidsthecostofaSANandmorethantwoserversfor

highavailability.

$0

$5,000

$10,000

$15,000

All-disk HybridSSDCache

Server&StorageMediaCostComparison(10,000IOPOLTPWorkload,1TBHDD,480GBSSD,8core1Uservers)

media servers

half

thecost



TheBiggerTruth

InaworldthatismovingrapidlytowardtheInternetofThings(IoT),planninganddeployingtheidealstoragesolution

foradistributedorganizationisadifficulttask.Identifyingatraditionalstoragesolutionthatmeetsthesimplicity,

performance,high-availability,anddata-integrityrequirementsforeachremoteofficelocationwithintheorganizationis

hardenough,neverminddoingthiswhiletryingtominimizecapitalandoperationalexpenses.Traditionalsolutions

requirebalancingtradeoffsbetweenthecost,complexity,andflexibilityofasolution,andwithmostorganizations

requiringconstantsystemuptimetohelpmaximizeprofits,theyoftenpayapremiumforhighavailabilityeitherincost

ofhardwareorcomplexityofmanagementanddeployment.

StorMagicunderstoodthesechallengesandcreatedSvSANtosimply,cost-effectivelyprovideaflexiblesoftware-defined

storagesolutionforlargedistributedenterprises.SvSANconvertsdirect-attachedstoragefromtwoormoreclustered

serversintovirtualized,highlyavailable,mirroredsharedstoragethatisidealfordistributeddeployments.Themost

cost-effectiveSvSANdeploymentconfigurationconsistsofjusttwoon-premisesserverswithacentralizedneutral

storagehostservicethatservesasaquorum.Bycentralizingandconsolidatingthelocationofthequorumservice,

hardwarecostsaregreatlyreducedateveryremotesite,resultinginsignificantcapitalcostsavingsfortheentire

organization.Eachremotelocationrequiresaminimumofonlytwopiecesofhardware,asopposedtothreewhenusing

atraditionalvirtualizedscale-outorSANstorageapproach.Whereneeded,StorMagicSvSANcanscaleouttohundreds

ofnodes.TheStorMagicSvSANstoragesolutionintegrateswiththefamiliarinterfacesofVMwarevSphereand

MicrosoftHyper-Vtomakedeploymentandmanagementquickandeasy,ultimatelyloweringoperationalexpenditures.

ESGLabvalidatedthesimplicity,flexibility,andhighavailabilitySvSANprovidestoorganizationswithalargenumberof

remotelocations.Withsimple,centralizedmanagement,thedeploymentandconfigurationofthetwo-nodesolution

wascompletedquicklyinbothaVMwareandMicrosoftvirtualizedenvironment.Hardwarenodefailureswere

simulatedandworkloadsinstantlymigratedtotheothernodewhilenodatawaslost,reaffirmingtheabilityofthe

solutiontoeliminateasinglepointoffailure.StorMagicSvSANcachingwithahybridmixofSSDandHDDimproved

performanceupto11times,andthecostofserverandstoragemediawascutinhalf.

StorMagicismovingforwardwithaverywiseapproach:Itisstayingtruetothevalueofitsproductandthetypeof

customeritbestserves.StorMagicunderstandsthefundamentalproblemswithlegacysolutionsandbuiltavirtualized

storagesolutionoptimizedspecificallyfordistributedorganizationswithalargenumberofremotelocations.The

technologyisprovenanditshowsbasedontherecentdealsStorMagichaswonwithsomeofthelargestretailersinthe

world.Infact,oneretailer’slegacystoragedeploymentacross2,200storesreportedanaverageoffiveoutagesper

week,withsixhoursofdowntimeperoutage.AfterreplacingitslegacysolutionwithSvSAN,theretailerhasrunvirtually

outage-freesincetheinitialdeploymentoccurredalmosttwoyearsago.Ifyouarelookingforawaytoefficientlydeploy

acost-effective,highlyavailablevirtualizedstoragesolutionacrossadistributedorganization,ESGLabrecommends

takingalookatStorMagicSvSAN.

ThegoalofESGLabreports istoeducateITprofessionalsaboutdatacentertechnologyproductsforcompaniesofalltypesandsizes.ESGLabreportsarenot

meant to replace the evaluation process that should be conducted before making purchasing decisions, but rather to provide insight into these emerging

technologies.Ourobjectiveistogooversomeofthemorevaluablefeature/functionsofproducts,showhowtheycanbeusedtosolverealcustomerproblems

and identify any areas needing improvement. ESG Lab’s expert third-party perspective is based on our own hands-on testing as well as on interviews with

customerswhousetheseproductsinproductionenvironments.ThisESGLabreportwassponsoredbyStorMagic.

Alltrademarknamesarepropertyoftheirrespectivecompanies.InformationcontainedinthispublicationhasbeenobtainedbysourcesTheEnterpriseStrategy

Group(ESG)considerstobereliablebutisnotwarrantedbyESG.ThispublicationmaycontainopinionsofESG,whicharesubjecttochangefromtimetotime.

ThispublicationiscopyrightedbyTheEnterpriseStrategyGroup,Inc.Anyreproductionorredistributionofthispublication,inwholeorinpart,whetherinhard-

copyformat,electronically,orotherwisetopersonsnotauthorizedtoreceiveit,withouttheexpressconsentofTheEnterpriseStrategyGroup,Inc.,isinviolation

ofU.S.copyrightlawandwillbesubjecttoanactionforcivildamagesand,ifapplicable,criminalprosecution.Shouldyouhaveanyquestions,pleasecontactESG

ClientRelationsat508.482.0188.

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ESG Lab Review StorMagic SvSAN · 2020-02-19 · Figure 1. Top Five Most Important Criteria in Justifying IT Investments Source: Enterprise Strategy Group, 2016. Very often, remote