InfiniBox: Storage That Learns - Enterprise Data & Cloud ... · After a data center disaster, InfiniSync can transmit up to 1.6 GB/sec of data using wired, Wi-Fi wireless or 4G-LTE

InfiniBox: Storage That

Learns SilvertonConsulting,Inc.StorInt™Briefing

INFINIBOX: STORAGE THAT LEARNS PAGE 2 OF 10

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Introduction Foundedin2011bydistinguishedengineeringtalentfromothermajorstoragevendorssuchasEMCandIBM,INFINIDATisarelativenewcomertoenterprisestorage.Theirapproachtostoragehasbeenextremelyinnovative,andtheirhigh-availability,multi-parallelismstoragearchitecturehasgonewellbeyondothervendorsolutions.Moreover,theirstate-of-the-artcachingalgorithmsprovide

memoryaccessspeedsusingflashandhigh-capacitydisk.

ThesectionsbelowintroducetheINFINIDATproductportfolio,highlightINFINIDATInfiniBoxenterprise-classstorageanditsperformancecapabilitiesandprovideareal-worldexampleofthesecapabilities.

INFINIDAT product portfolio INFINIDAT’sproductportfolioincludesInfiniBoxenterprise-classstorage;InfiniGuarddataprotection/backupstorageappliance;InfiniSyncsurvivable,zero-secondRPO(RecoveryPointObjective)replicationsolution;andNeutrixCloud,amulticloud-adjacent,storage-asa-service/disasterrecovery(DR)-as-a-servicesolution.

InfiniBox enterprise-class storage INFINIDAT’sInfiniBoxprovidesPB-scalestoragethatmeets21stcenturyenterpriseneeds.TheInfiniBoxproductfamilyincludesthefollowingstoragesystemsseries:

F2000Series F4000Series F6000SeriesBasecapacity 499TB 1.4PB 4.1PB

Effectivecapacity 998TB 2.7PB 8.3PBDRAMCache 768GB 2.3TB 3.1TBFlashCache 103TB 103TB 207TB

IOPS 500K 750K 1MThroughput 7GB/sec 10GB/sec 12.5GB/sec

InfiniBoxhostconnectivityoptionsinclude24x8GbpsFCand12x10GbpsEthernetports.

InfiniBoxstoragealsosupportssevennines(99.99999%)dataavailability(<3secondsofdowntimeperyear),builtontopofthree-controllerstorageandpatentedInfiniRAID™dataprotection.Toourknowledge,nootherstoragevendorachievesInfiniBox’sdataavailabilitylevels.Infact,INFINIDAThasjustannouncedtheirAlwaysOnavailabilityguaranteeforInfiniBoxstorage



TheInfiniBoxthree-waycontrollerarchitecture,connectedoverInfiniBandfabric,isuniqueintheindustry.Thisarchitectureisusedinanactive-active-activeconfiguration.Thatis,InfiniBoxsoftwarehasbeendesignedsothatallfunctionalityrunsonalloperatingcontrollersatalltimes.Otherindustryarchitecturesrundualcontrollersinactive-passiveoratbestactive-activemode,whereeachcontrollerservicesIOforonlyhalftheLUNs.

InfiniBox’sthree-controllerarchitecturealsoincreasescomputepower.Asaresult,InfiniBoxcanoffermoresophisticatedcachingalgorithmsthatcanoutperformall-flasharray(AFA)storagesolutions.Further,theInfiniBoxsystemslistedaboveprovideanaveragesub-millisecondIOresponsetimeattheirspecifiedIOPrates.

Inaddition,InfiniBoxstorageoffersunifiedFC-iSCSIblockandNFSv3filestorage.NFSv3storageisavailableinthebaseproductfunctionalitywithouttheneedforanyadditionalfileprotocolhardwareorsoftware.Asaresult,fileandblockstorageisconfigured,monitoredandoperatedallwithinthesamemanagementframework.

Furthermore,InfiniBoxstorageprovidesadvanced,enterprise-classstoragecapabilities,suchasspace-efficient,highperforming,read-writeablesnapshots,synchronousandasynchronous(<4secRPO)replication,IOqualityofserviceanddatacompression-thinprovisioning,aswellasHTML5GUI,CLIandRESTfulAPImanagementinterfaces.WithInfiniBoxsnapshots,customerscantakenearlyinfinitepoint-in-timecopiesoflivedatafordev,test,QAandotherpurposes.

AlltheabovesoftwareandhardwarefunctionalityintegrateswellwithOpenStack,VMware®vSphere®hypervisor,Linux®,Unix®andMicrosoft®WindowsServer®operatingsystems,alongwithCommvault®andVeritas™dataprotectionsoftware,SAP®applications,andOracle®databasesolutions.InfiniBox’sVMwareintegrationincludesavCenter®plugin,aswellassupportforVMwareSiteRecoveryManager™(SRM)andVASAandVAAIvSphereAPIs.Further,InfiniBoxstoragealsosupportsHostPowerToolswithextensiveconfigurationvalidationtoensureproperdeploymentandtomaximizeIOperformanceincustomerdatacenterenvironments.

Finally,bysupplyingDRAMIOspeed,InfiniBoxoffersPB-scalestorageataprice($/GB)thatfew,ifany,AFAsystemscanmatch.BecauseInfiniBoxusesspace-efficientsnapshots,thinprovisioning,datacompression,andlargedisks,capacitycaneasilycostlessthandeduplicatingAFAstorageandespeciallyso,ifapplication



encryptionisactiveinacustomerenvironment.Moreover,inmostcases,suchaswhenoperatingwith100sofVMsandmultipledatabases,InfiniBoxoutperformsAFAstorage.

InfiniGuard data protection/backup storage appliance TheInfiniGuardistier1,InfiniBoxstoragereconfiguredwithmultipledatadeduplicationenginesandforhighthroughputIOworkloadstosupplythebestperforming,highestavailablebackupstorageinthemarkettoday.Itincludesdatadeduplication,compressionandencryptiontoreducethestoragefootprintfordatacenterbackups.INFINIDAT’sInfiniGuardB4260Nbackupappliancesupportsupto20+PBandtheB4212Nsupportsupto40+PBofeffectivebackupcapacityinasingle42Urack.BothInifiniGuardsystemsuseinline,variable-lengthdedupeanddatacompression.Capableofupto74TB/hourdatathroughputwithNetBoostacceleration,InfiniGuardsystemscansupportmostanyenterprisedatabackup/restoreneed.Moreover,InfiniGuardsupportsVTL(FC),NFSv3,CIFS(SMB1),OSTandOracle®RMANbackupprotocols,meaningitworkswithmostbackupsoftwareandmostdatabaseapplicationsusedtoday.InfiniGuardalsooffersbandwidth-optimized,encrypteddatareplicationin1to1(dual-siteredundancy),1to2(three-siteredundancy)orNto1(centralsiterepositoryforremote/branchoffice)configurations.Thesereplicationconfigurationscanbeusedtosupportbusinesscontinuity(BC)/DRforsiteoutages.

InfiniSync synchronous RPO zero replication over unlimited distance Synchronousreplicationusuallyincurswriteperformancepenaltieswhentransmittingdatatoremotesites,whileasynchronousreplicationdoesn’tofferzeroRPO.Toprovidesynchronousreplicationwithnoperformancepenalty,INFINIDAToffersInfiniSync,anoimpact,zeroRPOInfiniBoxreplicationsolutionthatusesanearbysynchronousreplicationInfiniBoxstoragetailoredtosupportDRfordatacentercatastrophes.



InfiniSyncisdesignedtosurvivemostanydisaster–extremefires,floodsandbuildingcollapses–whilestillprotectingcustomerdatawithoutimpactingIOperformance.InfiniSync’s“blackbox”,anearlyinvulnerablestoragereplicationappliance,islocatedonsitenearprimaryInfiniBoxstorageinordertoeliminateperformancepenalties.Afteradatacenterdisaster,InfiniSynccantransmitupto1.6GB/secofdatausingwired,Wi-Fiwirelessor4G-LTEcellularprotocolstoanyinternet-connectedlocation,anywhereintheworld.Thesystemcomesequippedwithaninternalbatteryfor36hoursofcontinuedoperationafteradisasterhappens.InfiniSyncisuniqueintheindustry,asnothingsimilarisofferedbyanyothermajorstoragevendor.Othersurvivablestoragesolutionsappeartobelittlemorethanhardenedcasessurroundingbasicblockstorage,that’snotfullyintegratedwithprimarystoragereplicationservicesandwithoutanyinternal,multi-technologydatatransmissioncapabilitiesfordatacenterdisasters.

Neutrix Cloud, cloud-adjacent high availability, high performing storage INFINIDATNeutrixCloudisInfiniBoxstorage,that’slocatednear-to(cloud-adjacent)andwithhigh-speedaccesstopubliccloudcomputeservices.Itisavailableonapay-as-you-gomodelandusedtosupportmulti-cloudandcloud-nativeapplicationdatarequirements.NeutrixCloudstorageislocatedinINFINIDATsovereigndatacenterswithstorageownedandoperatedbyINFINIDATandwithdirect,fast-pathconnectionstoAWS,MicrosoftAzureandGoogleCloudPlatform.ApplicationsexecutingoncomputeresourcesinanyofthosepubliccloudscanaccessandrunwithiSCSIblockstorageresidingonInfiniBox,enterprise-classstorage.Inaddition,applicationsemployingfilesystemsforstoragecanbedeployedtomultiplecloudsandsimultaneouslyaccesstheNeutrixCloudfilesystem.



NeutrixCloudstoragecanalsobeusedasatargetforoffsite,asynchronousreplicationtosupplyDRasaserviceforotherInfiniBoxstoragelocatedinprimarydatacenters.AswithallInfiniBoxstorage,NeutrixCloudsupplieshigh-performing,sevennine’sdataavailabilitystoragebutinthiscase,availabletosupportcloud-nativeandmulti-cloudapplicationdatarequirements.

InfiniBox innovative performance capabilities INFINIDATcallstheircachingmanagementalgorithmtheNeuralCache.NeuralCachetakesadvantageofinnovationsintheInfiniBoxarchitecture,includingthefollowing:

• InfiniRAID–InfiniBoxusesasoftware-definedRAIDscheme,thatpreventshotspotsbyusingthousandsofvirtualRAIDgroupstospreaduserdataacrossalldrives.

• Logstructurefiledisklayout–InfiniBoxhasabackendlayoutthattransformsrandomwritesandsendsthemtothebackend(destagedtodisk)assequentialstreamsofdata.Hotdatacanbeoverwrittenmultipletimes,butatsomepoint,itisdestagedtodiskaswell.Dependingonaccessfrequency,somedataisalsowrittentoflashcache.

• Destageddatainperformanceorder–InfiniBoxdestagesdatainperformanceordersothatfrequentlyaccesseddataiswrittentodiskincontinuoussegmentsthatcanbereadbackviaasinglerequest.

• Largercache–InfiniBoxsupportsupto3TBofDRAMcachewhichallowsdatatoberetainedinmemorymuchlonger(5minutes)thanothervendorsystemsthatusemediaforperformance.

Asdiscussedabove,InfiniBox’sthree-controllerarchitectureenablesalldataservicestoruninallnodes,providingmorecomputepowertospeedupcachingandmoreIOparallelismtostage/pre-fetchdatathat’stypicallyserializedonothersystems.Dataispre-fetchedintoDRAMcache,inordertobeinmemorywhenanapplicationrequestsit.Thekeytobetterrandomreadcachehitratesistopre-fetchtherightdataintocachebeforeitsneeded.Further,withthemassiveparallelismavailablefromthethree-controllersystem,highspeedclusterinterconnectfromInfiniBand,andwidestripingfromInfiniRAID,diskreadsexecuteveryquickly.

Read Rates and Response Times AnotherkeytoInfiniBox’sstrongperformanceliesinhowitmanagesthememoryhierarchy,whichconsistsofDRAM,flashanddiskstorage.ForInfiniBox,flashisjustanothercacheusedtosatisfyIOrequestsandaccommodateworkloadchanges.InfiniBoxoutperformsAFAstoragebecausemorethan90%ofitsreadstypicallycomeoutofDRAMratherthanflashordisk.



InfiniBoxalsomaintainsperformancemetadata,whichtellsthesystemwhattopre-fetchintoDRAMcachewhendataisread.AllNeuralCachemetadataiskeptinmemory,whichallowsforquickeraccess.NeuralCachemetadataisconstructedasaTriestructure,whichusesaLUNblockaddressasanindexandsuppliesperformanceandotherinformationattheleavesoftheTrie.Asaresult,InfiniBoxcanmaintaininformationonbillionsofobjects,accessingandupdatingthatmetadatainmicroseconds.Further,foreachdatasegmentorchunk,InfiniBoxmaintainsspatialperformancemetadata(otherdatablocksaccessed)andtemporalperformancemetadata(timesofmostrecentaccesses).Usingthisinformation,theNeuralCachecanpre-fetchdatabasedonadjacentdataaccessedwhenaspecificblockwaslastaccessedaswellasonthetimeoftheblock’slastfewaccesses.Asaresult,InfiniBox’sNeuralCachecanensurethatreferenceddataisalreadyincachewhenneededratherthanhavingtowaitforittobestagedfromdisk.OntherareoccasionwhendataisnotinmemorywhenanIOrequestsit,there’sahighlikelihoodthatthedataisintheprocessofbeingpre-fetchedfromdiskorisavailabledirectlyfromflash.Similarlogicappliestoflashcache,withtheexceptionthatit’ssignificantlylargerandisloadedprimarilyfrommemoryduringdestageactivity.NeuralCachemetadatahelpsthesystemdecidewhethertojustdestagedatatodiskortoalsocopyittoflash.DatareaddirectlyoutofflashcanbeusedtoquicklysupportIOactivitywhiletherestofthedataispre-fetchedintoDRAM.ThisNeuralCacheintelligenceenablescustomerstotypicallyachieveacombinedDRAMandflashcachereadhitrateof97-100%andanaverageresponsetimeinthesub-millisecondrange.

Constant Learning and Improved Performance Inaddition,NeuralCacheisconstantlylearninghowtoperformbetter.InfiniBoxusesTriemetadatatoaccessandupdatespatialandtemporaldatablockinformationasdataisbeingreferencedduringcustomerworkloadactivity.AshostIOpatternschange,NeuralCachemetadataisupdatedtoreflectthisnewactivity.Thenexttimeadatablockisreferenced,pre-fetchactivityisbasedonthespatialandtemporalaspectsofthemostrecentaccess.Inthisfashion,DRAMcacheisalwayspopulatedwithdatahavingthehighestprobabilityofbeingrequestedbyanotherIO.Asaresult,InfiniBoxNeuralCacheiscontinuouslylearningthebestwaytocachecustomerworkloads.Inadditiontoon-premNeuralCachelearning,InfiniBoxprovidestelemetrydatabacktoINFINIDATHQ.ThisdataisusedtopinpointwheretheNeuralCachemissed



opportunitiestopre-fetchtherightdatainordertotweakcachingalgorithmsandimprovesubsequentcodeupdates.

InfiniBox Neural Cache field performance Let’slookatanexampleoftheabilityofNeuralCachetolearnacustomerworkload.Figure1showsonelargefinancialservicescompany’sresultswhenrunningacomplex,lengthyRDBMSonlinetransactionprocessing(OLTP)reportqueryagainsttheirdatabaseserverusingInfiniBoxstorage.[Thecompanysuppliespayrollprocessing,humanresourceservices,accountingandfinancialservices,aportfolioofHumanCapitalManagement(HCM)offeringsandHCMoutsourcingservices.]

Asseeninthesefirstrunresults,thepointdisplayed(detailedalongtherightsideandhighlightedattheleft)showsthatInfiniBoxisproviding28.2KreadIOPSand13.3KwriteIOPSforatotalof41.5KIOPS,withreadthroughputof220.4MB/secandwritethroughputof103.8MB/secatanaverageresponsetimeof1.79msec.

Figure1HCMcustomerrunninganRDBMSOLTPreportbeforeNeuralCacheoptimization



Figure2showsthesameworkloadrunasecondtime,24hourslaterwithsignificantlyimprovedIOperformanceresultingfromtheNeuralCachelearning.Inthesecondrun,InfiniBoxdelivered32.7KreadIOPSand15.3KwriteIOPSforatotalof48.0KIOPS,withreadthroughputof255.7MB/secandwritethroughputof119.6MB/secatanaverageresponsetimeof0.90msec.Theelapsedtimetoproducethereportalsodecreasedfrom~58minutesto~46minutes.OnjustabouteveryIOmetric,InfiniBoxIOperformanceimprovedby~15%,thesystem’saverageresponsetimewascutinhalffromtheoriginalrun(~1.8msecto0.9msec)andapplicationelapsedtimewasreducedbyover20%.Theseimprovementsresultedfromjusttworunsofthesameapplicationonedayapart,suggestingevengreaterimprovementswithIOworkloadsovertime.

Figure2HCMCustomerrunninganRDBMSOLTPreportafterNeuralCacheoptimization



Summary INFINIDAThastakenaninnovativeapproachtoenterprise-classstorage.InfiniBoxsuppliestripleredundancywhereasotherproductsofferdualredundancy,andInfiniBoxoffershybridstorageatfasterthanAFAperformance,foralower$/GBwhileotherproductshavemovedtoallflash.Inaddition,InfiniBoxhasdevelopedstrongcachealgorithmstotakeadvantageofauniquearchitecturaldesignthatprovidesDRAMperformancewithhybridstorage.Moreover,thissameadvancedtechnologypermeatesthroughoutINFINIDAT’sportfolio,improvingperformancefordataprotectionstorage,BC/DRsurvivablestorage,andstorage-as-a-serviceformulti-cloudapplicationenvironments.Inaddition,InfiniBoxNeuralCachelearnsfromdailyIOactivitytooptimizecacheloadingandimprovestorageperformanceforreal-worldcustomerworkloadsovertime.Whiletheseactivitiesrequiremoreintelligenceandprocessingpower,InfiniBox’sinnovativearchitecturegivesitalltheintelligenceandpowerneededtoensurethatcustomerdataisinmemorywhenIOrequestsoccur.Assuch,InfiniBoxdeliversPB-scalestorageatamoreeconomicalpricethanothervendorsolutionsandoutperformsAFAstoragesolutions.

Silverton Consulting, Inc., is a U.S.-based Storage, Strategy & Systems consulting firm offering products and services to the data storage community.

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InfiniBox: Storage That Learns - Enterprise Data & Cloud ... · After a data center disaster, InfiniSync can transmit up to 1.6 GB/sec of data using wired, Wi-Fi wireless or 4G-LTE