IBM SVC with Real-time Compression

7/28/2019 IBM SVC with Real-time Compression

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LabValidationReportIBMSVCwithReal-timeCompression

Efficient,Reliable,andEasy-to-useStorageVirtualization

ByVinnyChoinski,SeniorLabAnalystandKerryDolan,LabAnalyst

June2013

©2013byTheEnterpriseStrategyGroup,Inc.AllRightsReserved.



LabValidation:IBMSVCwithReal-timeCompression2


Contents

Introduction................................................................................................................................................3

Background..............................................................................................................................................................3

IBMSystemStorageSANVolumeController...........................................................................................................4

ESGLabValidation......................................................................................................................................6

GettingStarted........................................................................................................................................................6 Efficiency..................................................................................................................................................................9 Performance..........................................................................................................................................................11 Agility.....................................................................................................................................................................14 Availability..............................................................................................................................................................17

ESGLabValidationHighlights...................................................................................................................20

IssuestoConsider.....................................................................................................................................20

TheBiggerTruth.......................................................................................................................................21

Appendix...................................................................................................................................................22

Alltrademarknamesarepropertyoftheirrespectivecompanies.InformationcontainedinthispublicationhasbeenobtainedbysourcesTheEnterprise

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youhaveanyquestions,pleasecontactESGClientRelationsat508.482.0188.

ESGLabReports

ThegoalofESGLabreportsistoeducateITprofessionalsaboutdatacentertechnologyproductsfor

companiesofalltypesandsizes.ESGLabreportsarenotmeanttoreplacetheevaluationprocessthatshouldbeconductedbeforemakingpurchasingdecisions,butrathertoprovideinsightintotheseemerging

technologies.Ourobjectiveistogooversomeofthemorevaluablefeature/functionsofproducts,showhow

theycanbeusedtosolverealcustomerproblemsandidentifyanyareasneedingimprovement.ESGLab's

expertthird-partyperspectiveisbasedonourownhands-ontestingaswellasoninterviewswithcustomers

whousetheseproductsinproductionenvironments.ThisESGLabreportwassponsoredbyIBM.





Introduction

ThisESGLabValidationisanupdatetoa2008reportonIBMSANVolumeController(SVC),andincludesnew

testingtohighlighttheefficiencyofIBMReal-timeCompression(RTC)andeaseofmanagementwiththenew

graphicaluserinterface(GUI).Additionaltopicsincludeperformance,agility,andhighavailability.

Background

ESGaskedrespondentstoarecentresearchsurveywhattheirmostcommonreasonsforaddingnewstorage

systemswere.Thereasonmostoftencited(by25%ofrespondents)wastheneedforadditionalcapacitywithan

inabilitytoexpandexistingsystems.Othertopreasonsincludedadesiretorefreshtechnology(18%),theneedfor

improvedI/Operformance(11%),andconsolidationofexistingstoragedevices(11%).1

Figure1.MostCommonReasonsforPurchasingandDeployingNewStorageSystems

Source:EnterpriseStrategyGroup,2013.

Whatliesbehindthesemotivations?Theongoinggrowthofdatastorageisakeyfactor.Theabilitytoquickly

launchnewvirtualserversisonecauseofdatagrowth,alongwithbusiness-drivingapplicationsthatgenerate

mountainsofdata.Atthesametime,mobiledevicesareusedtobothcreateandconsumedatacontinuouslyand

everywebactivityortransactiongeneratesdatathatwilllikelybecopiedmultipletimesforanalysis.Additional

pressurecomesfromongoingescalationofend-userperformancedemands,astheeaseandspeedofspinningup

VMsmakesitseemlikeITcandeliveranyserviceinstantly.Finally,ITorganizationsarefacedwithdelivering

servicesquicklybutalsoefficiently,asbudgetsremainconstrained.

Storagevirtualizationcansolvemanyofthesechallengeswhilekeepingcoststoaminimum.Deployingvirtualized

poolsofconsolidatedstoragecapacitycanenablesimplermanagement,betterstorageutilization,andreduced

equipmentandoperationalcosts.Heterogeneousstoragedevicesfrommultiplevendorscanbemanagedand

provisionedtogether,andautomatedtieringcanmovedatabetweenstoragetierstooptimizefastdisksuchas

1Source:ESGResearchReport,2012StorageMarketSurvey ,November2012.

Needaddional

capacityandwecan’t

expandexisng

system(s),25%

Technologyrefresh,18%

NeedimprovedI/O

performance,11%

Consolidaonof

exisngstorage

devices,11%

Needimproved

reliability,9%

Supportanew

applicaon/workload,

9%

Needimproved

throughput

performance,8%

Needimproved

availability,4%

Needaddionalfeature/funconality,

4% Don’tknow,1%

Ingeneral,whenyourorganizaonpurchasesanddeploysnewstoragesystems,what

wouldyousayisthemostcommonreasonwhyyouhaveaddedthosenewsystems?

(Percentofrespondents,N=418)





solid-statedisk(SSD)whilestreamliningcosts.Storagevirtualizationcanimproveefficiency,ensureagility,andstill

deliverhighperformancealongwithafullrangeofdataserviceslikeinstantcopies,easymigration,andreplication.

Itisnotablethatearlyadoptersofintelligentstoragenetworksolutionssuchasstoragevirtualizationreported

achievingsavingsaboveandbeyondwhatwasexpected .AsFigure2shows,reclaimingandreusingexistingstorage

generatedthemostsignificantsavings(afterall,thestorageyoualreadyownissurelytheleastexpensive),but

softwareandadministrativesavingsalsoexceededexpectations.2

Figure2.StorageVirtualizationEarlyAdopterSavings

IBMSystemStorageSANVolumeController

IBM’sSANVolumeControllerisanintegratedhardwareandsoftwaresolutionthatprovidesasinglepointofmanagementforheterogeneousstorageresourcesfromIBMandothervendors.ByvirtualizingstoragebehindSVC

controllers,ITcanmakeoptimaluseofstorageresourcesforefficiencyandflexibility,whileinsulatinghostsand

applicationsfromdisruptionduringstoragetasks.

RedundantpairsofSVCcontrollersformanI/Ogroupandaredeployedforhighavailability.BasedontheIBM

Systemxservertechnology,SVCcontrollersincludesix-coreXeonprocessors,24GBofcache,portsfor8GbpsFibre

Channel,1and10GbpsiSCSI,and(optionally)10GbpsiSCSI/FCoE.Performanceandbandwidthcanbeincreasedby

addingI/Ogroupstothecluster.ClusterscanscaletosupportfourI/Ogroupsandupto4,096hostservers,8,192

volumes,and32PBofvirtualizedstoragecapacity.

SVCincludesnumerousadvancedfeaturesthatdeliverefficient,flexibledataservices.Theseinclude:

• Real-timeCompression .IBMReal-timeCompressionenablesmoreeffectivestoragecapacityofupto5Xbycompressingactive,primarydata;savingonfloorspace,power,andcooling;andminimizinghardware

costs.

• Next-generationGUI .IBM’snewandwell-receivedstorageGUInowcoversXIV,StorwizeV7000,Storwize

V7000Unified,andSVCimplementations,providingaconsistentinterfaceforconfigurationand

management,evenforvirtualizedstorage.Plug-instoMSSystemCenterOperationsManagerandVMware

vCenterensureefficientmanagementintheseenvironments.

2Source:ESGResearchReport,TheFutureofNetwork-basedStorageIntelligence ,September2004.

11%

9%

13%

24%

16%

19%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

HardwareSavings SowareSavings AdminSavings

GeneralMarketExpectedSavings EarlyAdopterActualSavings





• Flashsolid-statedisksupport.SVCsupportsupto12.8TBofFlashpercontrollersystem,andFlashin

virtualizeddisksystems.Thetightintegrationenablesnon-disruptivedatamovement,replication,and

consolidatedmanagementofFlashcapacity.

• Automatedtiering.IBMSystemStorageEasyTierautomaticallyidentifieshighlyactivedataandmovesitto

Flash(orotherdisk)tomaximizeperformance.

• Thinprovisioning.Thisfeatureenablesautomatedprovisioningforgreaterproductivityandminimal

disruption.• Dynamicdatamigration.SVCenablesnon-disruptivedatamovementbetweenstoragesystemswhile

maintainingdataaccess.

• Replication.SVC’sadvancedreplicationservicesoperateconsistentlyregardlessofstoragetype,eliminating

thelike-to-likeboxlimitationoftraditionalarrays.SVCalsosupportsIBMFlashCopyoperations,enabling

almostinstantcopiesofactivedataforbackup,testanddev,andparallelprocessing.

• Mirroring.Synchronousmetromirroringandasynchronousglobalmirroringensureapplicationavailability

incaseofafailureordisruption;SVCautomaticallyusestheavailablecopyforproductionoperations.

ThesefunctionsspeedDRwithVMwarevCenterSiteRecoveryManager.

SVCstoragevirtualizationcomplementsservervirtualization,ensuringthatstorageserviceskeepupwiththe

advancedfunctionalityofserverVMs.SVCsupportforautomatedprovisioning,vMotion,VMwarevStorageAPIs,

andreplicationtodissimilarremoteinfrastructuresensurethattheflexibility,mobility,andcostsavingbenefitsofservervirtualizationareduplicatedonthestorageside.Thesefeaturesalsoprovidethehighlyavailable

infrastructuresrequiredforclouddeployments.

Figure3providesanoverviewofSVCfunctionality.TheleftsideshowsSVC’swiderangeofsupportedvirtualand

physicalhosts,includingWindows,Linux,AIX,andvirtualservers.InthemiddleisapairofSVCengines,providing

redundancyforhighavailability,whichiscentrallymanagedusingtheIBMstorageGUI.UsingtheSAN,theseSVC

enginesconnecthoststovirtualizedpoolsofstoragefromIBM,otherhigh-endstoragevendors,andcommodity

storage.SVCenablesevencommoditystoragetoinheritadvancedfunctionalityforhigh-enddataservices.

Figure3.IBMSANVolumeController





ESGLabValidation

ESGLabperformedhands-onevaluationandtestingoftheIBMSANVolumeControllerwithReal-timeCompression

solutionatanIBMfacilityinGaithersburg,Maryland,andconductedaremotetestingsessionwiththeRTC

developmentteambasedinIsrael.TestingwasdesignedtodemonstratehowRTCimprovesSVCstorageefficiency

byusingcompressiononalargerangeofactivedatasets,andtheease-of-useimprovementsbroughttothe

solutionbythenewGUImodeledonIBMXIVstoragesystem.Alsoofinterestwasareviewofthestrong

virtualizationandavailabilityfeaturesinherentinthesolution.

GettingStarted

ThissectionexploreshowthenewuserinterfaceimproveseaseofmanagementandconfigurationoftheSVC

storagesolution.Itfocusesonintuitiveworkflowvisualsandeasy-to-navigatewizardsavailableintheinterfacethat

simplifystoragevirtualizationadministration.

ESGLabTesting

ESGLabbeganitsvalidationtestingbylaunchingandnavigatingthenewSVCgraphicaluserinterface.Asshownin

Figure4,theLabselectedtheoverviewpagefromtheinterfacetodisplayaneasy-to-followviewofthe

provisioningworkflowfromthearraytothehost.Theoverviewpagealsoprovidesanat-a-glancesummaryofthecurrentconfigurationofthesolution.

Figure4.NewSVCGraphicalUserInterface





Next,theLabusedthepoolconfigurationwizardwithintheuserinterfacetocreateapoolofdiskonwhichvolumes

wouldsubsequentlybeconfigured.AsshowninFigure5,thecreatepool wizardallowsdifferentbuilt-iniconstobe

selectedtovisuallyrepresentthepool.Onceapooliscreatedthisway,theiconwillbeusedtorepresentthatpool

inotherviewsthroughouttheinterface,makingiteasytoidentifypoolsbystorageattributes.

Figure5.CreateSSDPoolWizard

Inthiscase,theLabchosetocreateasolid-statediskpoolcall ESG_LAB_POOLwiththebuilt-iniconthatrepresents

SSDdevices.Thisiconselectionallowstheadministratortoquicklyunderstandtheattributes(e.g.,SSDvs.HDD)of

thepoolwhenselectingitasatargetforcreatinganewvolume.





Finally,ESGLabselectedtheactualMDiskforthepoolcreationfromalistofavailabledevices.AsshowninFigure6,

theLabselectedfour200GBdevicesfromtheIBMFlashSystem810storagedevices.Thisstepisoptional,as

selectioncanbedoneautomaticallybytheconfigurationwizard.Providingthisstepgivestheadministratorthe

abilitytomoregranularlydefinethesizeandattributesofastoragepool.

Figure6.MDiskSelectionOption

WhyThisMatters

Server virtualization and continuously growing data volumes present numerous challenges, among them the

difficultyinmonitoringandmanagementacrossacomplexandheterogeneousinfrastructure.Withoutanend-to-

end view, it is difficult to properly manage and provision resources to ensure optimal data services while

minimizingcosts.

ESGLabhasevaluatedtheIBMstorageGUIonseveraloccasions,fortheXIV,V7000,andnowSVCplatforms.The

Lab continues to be impressed with its clarity and simplicity. The interface makes it easy to understand the

topologyandrelationships andmakes themanagementofadvancedfunctions intuitive andfast. Theworkflow

offersaclearviewofcomponentsthatcanbeconfiguredandmanagedwithjustamouseclick,whichESGLab

discoveredwhilecreatingpoolsandvolumesofvariouscomponents.







Figure8.VMwarevSpherewithIBMStorageTabView

Table1.CompressionSavingsDetails

DataType

Volume

Capacity

UsedSpace

Non-Compressed

UsedSpace

Compressed

Compression

Savings

LinuxOracle 1TB 1TB 173GB 82%

VMwareWindowsVM 100GB 13.6GB 6.4GB 52.8%

WindowsPhysical 100GB 14GB 7.2GB 48.8%

WhattheNumbersMean

• Compressionsavingsrangedfrom48.8%to82%dependingonthedatatype.

• OracledataonLinuxachievedthegreatestcapacitysavingsat82%.

WhyThisMatters

Ever-expandingdatavolumesdriveupthecostsofstorage,datamanagement,backup,andarchiving.Theseinturn

driveup the costsof data center operations, floor space, power, and cooling. Any opportunity to reduce the

amountofstoreddataisachancetosavemoney,streamlineoperations,andincreaseagility.Therearenumerous

solutionsdesignedtoreducedatavolumesduringthebackupprocess,buttheseoffernohelptothechallengesof

growingproductionstorage.

SVCcomesequippedwith IBMReal-timeCompression,a datareductiontechnologydesignedforusewithactive

primarydata,suchase-mailanddatabases.Dataiscompressedduringthewriteprocess,eliminatingtheextra

storageneededbypost-process data reduction solutions. ESGLab validated theease of creating a compressed

volumebyselectingapreseticon,whichhasbeenaddedasanoptiontoothervolumepresets,andpresentedthat

volumeto varioushosts.ESGLabvalidatedReal-timeCompressionsavingsof 48.8%to82%forLinux,Windows,

andVMwarevolumes.





Performance

TheperformancesectionofthisreportfocusesonhowusingRTCwithanactivedatasetimpactsoverallapplication

performance.Here,ESGLabreviewedperformancemetricsofanOLTPworkloadrunningonanOracledatabase

withandwithoutRTCenabledforthedatabasevolumes.TheLabalsoconfirmedthecapacitysavingsachievedby

enablingRTCforthesameOracledatabasevolumes.

ESGLabTesting

ESGLabbeganperformancetestingbyvalidatingthestorageconfigurationoftheOracle11gdatabasevolumes.As

showninFigure9,four1TBvolumeswerecreatedtosupporttwosimilardatabaseinstances.Twoofthevolumes

werecompressedandtwovolumeswerenot.Figure9showsthatthecompressedvolumesreducedtheamountof

usedspaceconsumedbythedatabasefrom1TBtoapproximately173GB,orapproximately82%.

Figure9.OracleOLTPVolumeDetail





Next,theLabobservedandcomparedtheperformanceresultsofanOLTPworkloadrunningonthenon-

compressedvolumestothatoftheworkloadrunningonthecompressedvolumes.TheOLTPworkloadsimulateda

groupofusersexecutingtransactionsagainstthetestdatabases.Thesimulationconsistedofamixofconcurrent

transactionsincluding:enteringanddeliveringorders,checkingorderstatus,andmonitoringinventorylevels.

Figure10.CompressedandNon-CompressedPerformanceMetrics

AsshowninFigure10,ESGLabusedthemonitoringcapabilitiesavailableintheSVCuserinterfacetoreviewsystem

performancedetailsasthesimulatedOLTPworkloadwasrunagainstthenon-compressedandcompressed

volumes.Theleftsideofthefiguredisplaysperformancemetricsforthenon-compressedvolumewhiletheright

sideofthefiguredisplaysmetricsforthecompressedvolume.TheperformancemetricsincludeSVCcontrollerCPU

utilization,networkutilization,VolumeIOPSandresponsetimes,andMDiskIOPSandresponsetimes.Azoomed-in

viewoftheMDiskIOPSandresponsetime(bottomleftandright)isshownforboththenon-compressedand

compressedvolumes.





Figure11.CompressedandNon-CompressedOLTPResponseTimes

Table2.PerformanceDetails

Configuration

Transactions

perminute

Average

ResponseTime

(Seconds)

NewOrder

Response

Time(Sec)

Payment

Response

Time(Sec)

OrderStatus

Response

Time

Delivery

Response

Time

StockLevel

Response

Time

Non-Compressed 11,335 .50 .45 .23 .13 1.05 3.91

Compressed 11,265 .30 .26 .18 .06 .54 2.15

WhattheNumbersMean• Transactionsperminutewerealmostequalbetweenthenon-compressedandcompressedDBvolumes.

• Averageandindividualtransactionresponsetimesimprovedwhenusingthecompressedvolumes.

• Therewasan82%reductioninconsumedstoragecapacityobservedwhenusingcompressedvolumes.

• SVCvolumelevelIOPSwereapproximatelythesameforcompressedandnon-compressedvolumes.

• Compressionimprovedback-endstorageefficiencybyreducingMDiskI/Oactivity.

WhyThisMatters

DeliveringexpectedapplicationperformanceisoneofIT’sprimarygoalsand,asaresult,administratorsmustuse

cautionwhen implementing infrastructure changes. Historically, data compressionalgorithms caused toomuch

performance degradation to be usedwith primary storage. IBMdeveloped compression algorithms that couldoperate in real time, but these algorithms originally supported file-based data only. Bringing Real-time

Compressiontoblockworkloadsvastlyexpandstheuniverseofapplicationsthatcanreapitsbenefits.

ESG Lab compared the performanceof compressed and non-compressed volumes using anOLTP test harness

designed to simulate heavy transaction processing workloads. The Lab validated that once the volume was

compressed, thenumber ofOLTP transactionsremainedalmost identical (a differenceof <1%) while response

timesimproved.In thefinalanalysis,therewasvirtuallynoperformancetrade-offforcompressingprimarydata

volumes.

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5

Average

OrderStatus

Payment

NewOrder

Delivery

StockLevel

OLTPResponseTimesinSeconds

(lessisbeer)

Non-CompressedVolumes CompressedVolumes





Agility

Agilityiscentraltostoragevirtualization.Byabstractingthephysicalstoragefromtheapplicationsitsupports,

storagevirtualizationenablesITtomanipulatephysicalresourcesinthebackgroundtooptimizecostandcapacity

withoutdisruptingproductionoperations.Totestagility,ESGLabusedSVCtonon-disruptivelymigrateavolume

betweenarrays.

ESGLabTesting

ESGLabtestedagilitybyselectingoneofthevolumespreviouslycreatedonaFlashSystem810poolinthetest

environment.TheLabthenchoseapoolonadifferentstoragearrayasthemigrationtarget.AsshowninFigure12,

thetargetvolumecontainedfilesystemtestdatamountedas /home/esgontheLinuxtesthost.Toconfirmthe

abilitytonon-disruptivelymigratedata,ESGLabrananumberofcommonuseroperationswhilethemigrationwas

inprogress.Theseoperationsincludedcreatingafile,deletingafile,modifyingafile,andcopyingfilesand

directories.

Figure12.VolumeMigration





ESGLabusedthebuilt-inGUIautomationtoconfigureandrunthemigrations.AsshowninFigure13,theLab

selectedtheWIN2008_IMAGE_COMPRESSED volumeasthemigrationsource.Withthevolumeselected,theLab

wasabletosimplyright-clickintheinterfacetodisplaytheactionsthatcouldbeperformedonthevolume.The

rightsideofFigure13showsazoomed-inviewoftheavailableactions,frommappingthevolumetoahostthrough

simplydisplayingthevolumeproperties.Thebluehighlightedareainthezoomed-inviewshowsthattheLabhad

selectedtheoptiontomigratethevolumetoanotherpool.

Figure13.VolumeMappingandMigrationOptions





Finally,theLabselectedthetargetpoolforthevolumemigration.AsshowninFigure14andhighlightedinyellow,

the XIV_POOLwasselectedasthemigrationtarget.Themigrationwasinitiatedandthevolumewasmovednon-

disruptivelyfromapoolontheFlashSystem810toapoolontheXIVstoragesystem.Itshouldbenotedthatthe

migrationprocesscanbeusedtomovedatafromnon-compressedvolumestocompressedvolumesandviceversa.

Figure14.MigratingaVolumeCopy

WhyThisMatters

Servervirtualizationseparatesapplicationworkloadsfromdedicatedhardware,enablingorganizationstobemore

flexible.Workloadscanbemovedasneeded,fortaskssuchascapacityreclamation,loadbalancing,datamigration,andhardwarerefresh,butalsotomaintainproductionoperationsincaseofafailureoroutage.Butmovingserver

VMsaccomplisheslittleifthestoragedoesn’thavethesamecapabilities.Thenewrealityofthevirtualizedand

cloud-focusedITlandscapeisthatcompanyandend-userexpectationsnecessitatethatkindofagility.

ESGLabvalidatedthattheSVCstoragevirtualizationenginesfacilitatethesametypeofagilityasvirtualservers.

ESGLabeasilymigrated volumes between IBMFlashSystem andXIV arrays andbetweennon-compressed and

compressed volumes without downtime or disruption. Using the GUI this process was simple, intuitive, and

seamless.TheLabalsoconfirmedthatinanSVCwithRTCsolutionthemigrationprocessisapowerfultoolthatcan

be leveraged to improve ROI by better aligning storage. Non-compressed data can be seamlessly moved to

compressedvolumes,freeingupexistingstorageresourcesforotherapplications.





Availability

Availabilityisalwaysanimportantcomponentofanenterprisestoragesolution.Here,ESGLabconfirmedtheability

toconfigureSVCfordifferenthigh-availabilityscenarios.TheLabusedcurrentvalidationtestingresultsaswellas

resultsfromourpreviousSVCvalidationtodemonstratetheseavailabilityfeatures.3

ESGLabTestingSVCappliances,whicharedeployedinpairsforfaulttolerance,providebi-directionalfailover.ESGLabtestedthis

featurebyhavingaWindowsserverplayavideofromafileresidingonanSVC-managedvolume.Asshownin

Figure15,ESGLabshutdownpowertooneSVCengineintheclusterduringvideoplayback.Thevideocontinuedto

playwithoutinterruptionandtheSVCmanagementconsolenotedthefailure.

Figure15.High-availabilitySVCCluster

Next,ESGLabtestedSVC’sabilitytocreatevolumemirrors,remotelyreplicatedcopiesofdatathatcanbeusedfor

highavailabilityanddisasterrecovery.Metromirrorscanbecreatedwithinacampusormetropolitanarea,and

provideasynchronouscopyofthevolumeinrealtime.Thisvolumeisalwayscompletelyinsyncwiththe

productionvolumeandcanbeusedinstantlyifneeded.Globalmirrorscanbecreatedbetweendatacentersin

distantgeographicregions,andprovideasynchronouscopies.Thesevolumecopiesarenotcompletelyuptodate,

butrunslightlybehindtheproductionvolume.Theyenableafastapplicationrestartwithoutthelastfew

transactionsthatgetcaughtduringthesyncprocess.

Figure16showsthemetroandglobalmirrortestconfigurations.ESGLabsimulatedmetroandglobalmirrorsusing

SVCclustersondifferentfloorsofthesamedatacenter.TheLabusedtheSVCconsoletocreateametromirror

betweenlocalIBMstorageandaremoteEMCarray.A20GbpsFibreChanneltrunkandCiscoswitcheswereusedforhigh-speedreplication.TheLabsimulatedanunplannedoutagebyseveringtheFCconnection;usingascript

thatcreatedtime-stampedfiles,theLabverifiedthatallfileswrittentothelocalSVCclusterwerecopiedand

readableontheremotecluster.ESGLabalsoverifiedthattherewasnoimpactonapplicationperformance.

3ThepreviousSVCLabValidationwaspublishedinAugust,2008.





Totesttheglobalmirror,ESGLabreplacedthehigh-speedFClinkwithanEmperixWANsimulator,whichsimulated

aDS3linkbetweendatacenters3,000milesapart.AnFCIPconnectionintheswitchesateachlocationwasusedto

connectthesimulatedWAN.TheLabmonitoredthesynchronizationusingtheSVCconsole,andverifiedthatfiles

createdbeforethemirroringoperationwereavailableattheremotesiteoncethemirrorreachedthe“Consistent

Synchronized”state.

Figure16.MetroandGlobalMirrorConfigurations





Finally,ESGLabtestedSVClocalmirroringandresponsetimeduringasimulatedarrayfailure.First,theLab

simulatedwritesfromanonlinetransactiondatabaseapplicationusingatestutilitytogenerateupdateoperations

atarateoffourI/Ospersecond.Next,theLabusedtheSVCconsoletomirroranAIXhomedirectoryacrosstwo

IBMDS8300arrays(seeFigure17).

Responsetimewasmonitoredduringthemirrorsynchronizationandduringasimulatedarrayfailurebyusingan

AIXutility.Duringthesynchronization,aresponsetimeoftwomillisecondswasmaintained.Oncethesyncwas

complete,ESGLabdisabledtheSANfabriczoneconnectionononeofthearraystosimulateanarrayfailure.ThetestutilitycontinuedwithoutinterruptionorerrorasSVCfailedovertothemirroredvolume.Duringthefailover,

therewasasmallperformanceimpact,asresponsetimeincreasedto16millisecondsforapproximatelytwo

secondsandthenreturnedtonormal.

Figure17.LocalMirroring

WhyThisMatters

ESG recently asked enterprise and midmarket storage professionals what features were “must haves” when

purchasing storage systems. First on the list, cited by 59% of respondents, was high availability.Whether for

disasters, maintenance, or technology refresh, downtime tolerance is shrinking, particularly formission-critical

applications,andkeepingapplicationsavailablerisesaboveallelse.4

ESGLabvalidatedthatwithredundantSVCengines,losinga controllerhadno impactonproductionoperations,

andrequirednoadministrativeintervention;avideothatwasplayingbeforeacontrollerwasshutdowncontinueduninterrupted duringthefailover. Inaddition, SVC failedover seamlessly tometro,global,and locallymirrored

volumeswithouterrorsorinterruption,andmaintainedexcellentperformanceduringthefailover.

4Source:ESGResearchBrief,DataStorageTechnologyPurchasingTrends ,April2013.





ESGLabValidationHighlights

þ ESGLabwasthrilledtoseethenewXIVmodeledinterfaceavailablefortheSVCsolution.WefindthisGUI

tobeoneofthemostintuitiveandeasytousestorageinterfacesonthemarkettodate.ThenewGUI

helpedmaketheoveralltestingexperienceapleasuretoconduct.Itwaseasytojumpinandconduct

configurationtasksevenafternotseeingtheinterfaceforalmostayear.

þ Wewerealsoimpressedwiththecompressionresults.Weobservedproductiondatacapacitysavingsof

48.8%to82%.

þ TheLabwasabletomaintainclosetoequalperformanceforourOracleOLTPtestenvironmentwhilestill

achieving82%capacitysavingswithReal-timeCompression.

þ Evenwhiledeliveringcompressionsavingsinrealtime,SVCprovidesagilitybyabstractingtheback-end

storage,whichESGLabvalidatedbyseamlesslymigratingdatanon-disruptivelybetweenstoragedevices.

Thismakesitanexcellentsolutionfortechnologyrefreshandnow,withRTC,apowerfultoolforcapacity

reclamation.

þ Thehighavailabilityessentialintoday’sbusinessenvironmentismaintainedusingredundantSVCengines

andmultipledatamirroringfeatures.

IssuestoConsider

þ IfyouareconsideringimplementingRTCinyourcurrentSVCenvironment,deploymentmayrequiresoftwareandpossiblyahardwareupgrade.IBMrecommendsthattheSVCcontrollersrunningRTCbe

upgradedtoahigherperformingmodel,thoughtheycurrentlyhavecustomersrunningRTConstandard

SVCcontrollers.ThesizeoftheSVCenvironmentwillplayanimportantroleintheupgradedecision.

þ Aswithanydatareductiontechnology,“yourmileagewillvary”dependingondatatype.Themore

compressibleyourdatais,themorecapacitysavingsyouwillrealize.ESGLabtestedwithdatasetscommon

tomostenvironmentsandfoundthecompressionsavingstobesignificant,butitisimportantfor

environmentswithhighlyspecializeddatasetstounderstanddatacompressibilitybeforehand.Itshouldbe

notedthatIBMoffersaquickandaccuratehost-basedutilitythatcanbedownloadedandusedtoanalyze

potentialcompressionsavingsonexistingdatasets.5

5ComprestimatorUtility:http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=ssg1S4001012





TheBiggerTruth

Tosupporttoday’scomplex,virtualized,globallydistributedbusinessenvironments,applicationsrequiregreater

availability,performance,agility,andmobilitythaneverinthepast.Atthesametime,marketandeconomic

conditionsdemandCAPEXandOPEXreductionsalongtheway.

Somevendorsdevelopand/orpurchaseexcitingnewtechnologiestomeettheseneeds,withhighhopesof

integratingthemtoaddvaluetotheirexistingproductsets,butendupstrugglingandoftenfailingtobringthepiecestogetherintoacohesivewhole.Othervendorsareexpertsatbringingitalltogether,takingthetimeand

puttingintheefforttodoitright.IBMisthelatterkindofcompany.ESGLabhasbeenevaluatingIBMsolutionsfor

manyyears,andthisvalidationdemonstratesonceagainhowIBMhasorganicallypulledtogetherkeytechnologies

thatsolvetheproblemscustomerfacetodayandintegratedthemeffectively.

IBMSANVolumeControllerhasbeenprovidingstoragevirtualizationforadecadenow.Bypoolingcapacityfrom

differentarraysandvendorsusingredundantengines,SVCletsorganizationsleveragealloftheirstorage

investmentswithgreaterflexibility.Insteadofstandingupseparateinfrastructurestackswithseparatestorage

capacityforgrowingdataanalytics,testanddev,replication,etc.,organizationscanusethestoragetheyalready

haveforthesedifferentpurposes.Theycanalsopurchasestoragewithouthavingtomatchittoaspecificproject,

whichmeansthattheynolongerhavestrandedstoragesittingidle,unabletobesharedoutwhereit’sneeded.SVC

storagevirtualizationlengthenstheusefullifeofstorageassets,enablesconsolidatedmanagementacrossheterogeneousresources,andevenaddsadvancedcapabilitiessuchasthinprovisioning,FlashCopy,andmirroring

toarraysthatwerenotnativelyendowedwiththosefeatures.

ESGLablastevaluatedSVCin2008,andtheimprovementsIBMhasaddedsincethenbringittoawholenewlevel.

Certainimprovementsalongthewaywereexpectedandnecessary,suchassupportforiSCSIandFCoE.Thereally

excitingimprovementsweseewithtoday’sSVCaretheadditionofReal-timeCompressionforprimaryblockdata,

andtheintegrationofwhatESGconsidersthebeststorageGUIonthemarket.IBMReal-timeCompressionwas

originallydeployedforfile-baseddatainNASsystems,andthevaluehasbeenprovenoverandover.BringingReal-

timeCompressiontoblock-basede-mail,database,andotherbusiness-drivingapplicationswithoutslowing

applicationperformanceisanexcitingdevelopmentthatofferstremendouseconomicandoperationalbenefits.

Extendingtheindustry-bestGUInowtoSVCaswellasXIVandV7000,IBMaddsbettervisibilityandeasier

managementtoanincreasinglycomplexenvironment—anothereconomicbenefit.

ESGLabtestingdemonstratedhowSVCmeetsallthekeyrequirementsoftoday’sadvancedinfrastructures.The

newGUIissimpleandintuitive,evenforadvancedfunctions.TheLabdemonstratedReal-timeCompressionsavings

of48%-82%forblock-basedLinux,Windows,andVMwarevolumes,minimizingequipmentandoperationalcosts

forprimarydata.OLTPtestingshowedthatcompressedvolumessufferedvirtuallynoperformancedegradation,

evenfordemandingtransaction-orientedworkloads,andinfacttransactionresponsetimesimprovedwith

compressedvolumes.Finally,ESGLabprovedtheeaseofmigratingworkloadswithSVC(foravailabilityaswellas

capacityreclamation),andalsoprovedthattheredundancyandmirroringfeaturesensurecontinuousapplication

availability,anessentialfeaturefortoday’s“always-on”infrastructure.

IBM’staglineis“Let’sBuildaSmarterPlanet.”ThenewandimprovedSVCfitsrightin,bringingtogetheressential

featuresinastoragevirtualizationenginethatenablescustomerstospendmoretimeontheirbusinessandlessonthesupportinginfrastructure.





Appendix

Table3.ESGLabTestBedDetail

SVC

(2)SANVolumeControllers

Model:EnhancedCG8

CPU:Dual6CoreIntelXeonE56452.4GHz

48GBRAM

SVCVersion:7.1.0.0

Storage

XIVStorageSystem

Model:XIV-gen3

6Nodes

72DiskDrives

SoftwareVersion11.1.1

IBMFlashSystem810

Model:IBMFlashSystem810

10TBeMLCFlash

Firmware:5.6.0-RC23

Servers

(1)IBMIntelServer

Model:x3650

CPU:12coreIntelXeon56803.3GHx

RAM:193GB

Driver:(2)140GB10kSAS

(2)IBMIntelServers

Model:x3550M4

CPU:Dual8coreIntelXeonE5-26802.7GHz

RAM:78GB

Software

Windows WindowsServer2008R2

Linux RedHatRelease6.3

VMware vSphereVersion5.0

Oracle Oracle11.2.0.3

BenchmarkFactory Version6.6.1



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IBM SVC with Real-time Compression