Solution Brief

HGST Ultrastar™ enterprise-class

solid state drives (SSDs) connected

to LSI® MegaRAID® 6Gb/s SAS+SATA

RAID controller cards deliver un-

compromised acceleration to low

latency solutions, and help drive

down operating costs and capital

expenditures.

It can be a daunting challenge to provide access to high-performance storage for continuously

growing volumes of data. While CPU performance has continued to increase, improvements to

hard disk drive (HDD) speed have not kept pace resulting in an “I/O bottleneck”. Modern data

centers need storage solutions that can provide applications such as databases and on-line

transaction processing (OLTP) with the high-performance data access that they require while

managing costs and return on investment (ROI).

Historically, the way to increase the overall IOPS performance and capacity of a storage array

is to increase the number of disks in the array. Each drive in the array is capable of reading and

writing a given amount of data per second. The more drives that are in the overall array, the

more aggregate data that can be written to or read from the array. However, the problems

with this solution are significant. First, even though more drives offer better performance and

greater capacity, more drives also mean more complexity and increased management costs.

Second, the potential for failure increases, as additional system components are added.

Short stroking is a method that has been used in HDDs to achieve higher performance in

high I/O and random access environments. HDDs have lower performance in random access

environments because of the time required to physically re-position the read/write heads

during use. Short stroking is a method by which data is only stored on one area of the platter

to limit the distance the head must move. While this can certainly improve random I/O

performance it also significantly reduces the available capacity of the drive. Capacity loss of 90

percent is not uncommon in short-stroke environments.

It turns out a better way to increase performance in the enterprise is not to add more HDDs or

to short stroke the ones that are there. A good solution is to add SSDs.

SSDs offer significant improvements over traditional HDDs in terms of potential per-disk

throughput, power consumption and IOPS. A single SSD can deliver the performance of

multiple HDDs and can reduce power consumption by up to 90 percent on a per drive basis.

SSDs can be used to create complete high-throughput arrays or they can be added as cache

to existing HDD-based arrays to increase overall performance. Still, as fast and efficient as SSDs

may be, deploying them successfully requires that the appropriate type of SSD be chosen and

used correctly in each operating environment.

Choosing the Right SSDs

There are a great number of SSDs available on the market today. These SSDs have been

engineered using different types of flash technology to provide a number of unique features

and benefits to each particular market segment. When choosing enterprise-class SSDs for

LSI and HGST accelerate database applications with Enterprise RAID and Solid State Drives

Solution Brief

HGST Solution Brief | 2

highly transactional applications, it is imperative to choose the right type of drive to meet

performance, endurance, and reliability expectations. Key features to look at when choosing

SSDs are write endurance and the type of cell technology used.

With SSDs, write endurance is used to identify the number of write operations that a specific

drive can support. Unlike rotating disk media, flash memory (NAND) has a set limit to the

number of writes that can be performed. Once that write limit has been met, information can

no longer be written to the flash NAND. It should be noted that although the flash NAND will

not accept new writes, information can still be read from it.

SSDs are built using a type of NAND flash technology known as single level cell (SLC) or multi-

level cell (MLC) technology. Technically, the difference between these two types of flash has to

do with the number of bits that can be written to a cell, which is the smallest unit of measure

for flash memory. SLC flash will allow for a single bit to be written to a given cell, while MLC

allows two or more bits to be written to a cell. While that may seem like a small difference, from

a practical standpoint, the differences between these two technologies are profound.

When compared to MLC, SLC-based flash allows for substantially higher write performance,

write endurance, and data retention. On average, SLC technology offers 30 percent higher

write performance than MLC. Write endurance for SLC can be 10x that of MLC with twice the

data retention time. In contrast, MLC can come with a cost that is half that of SLC and MLC can

offer as much as twice the capacity.

The result is that given the higher performance and greater cost, SLC technology, is used in

environments with high IOPS and write-intensive workloads. MLC is generally regarded as an

ideal solution for read-intensive applications.

The performance difference among SSDs can be significant. To be able to withstand

demanding enterprise applications and environments, SSDs must be designed to provide

consistent 24x7 performance over the life of the drive. When comparing the performance

specifications of SSDs, it is critical to ensure that the numbers quoted are using steady-state

figures. When SSDs are used for the first time, they exhibit extraordinarily high performance,

but only for a short time. This is known as Fresh-Out-of-the-Box (FOB) performance. After a

period of use, the drives will transition to their steady-state phase in which they will deliver

performance that is representative of what the device will offer for the life of the drive. All

HGST enterprise SSD performance figures are published using steady state figures.

Getting the most out of SSDs

Successfully using flash-based technology in a high-throughput, transactional environment

is not simply a matter of choosing the right SSDs and adding them to an array. To meet

performance and reliability demands of enterprise class applications, the right type of SSDs

not only need to be used, they must also be used in the correct fashion.

There are two effective ways to deploy SSDs. The first is to use SSDs to create a complete

storage array. Using SSDs for the storage array can offer extreme high-performance read and

write data access. Power and cooling requirements for this type of storage can be a fraction

of that required for traditional HDDs resulting in a green solution with significantly improved

ROI. The drawback to this type of solution is that a pure SSD array will offer significantly less

available capacity than a HDD-based array with a comparable number of drives at a given price

point.

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HGST Solution Brief | 3

The second option for adding SSDs to a storage environment is to use them as cache for a

traditional HDD array. This allows for the SSDs to be used for high performance access to

cached data, while still offering the higher capacity of traditional hard drives. Whichever option

is required, LSI has a solution to improve overall performance and reliability.

Fast Path Software

LSI MegaRAID FastPath software is designed to get the best possible performance from

a pure SSD array. This advanced software is a high-performance I/O accelerator for SSDs

connected to select 6Gb/s MegaRAID controllers . This software is an optimized version of

MegaRAID technology that can dramatically boost storage subsystem and overall application

per¬formance — particularly those that demonstrate high random read/write operation

workloads — when deployed with a 6Gb/s MegaRAID SATA+SAS controller.

Ideal for applications with small and random I/O patterns that require high transactional

throughput, such as OLTP, the Fast Path software significantly boosts server application

performance levels for real-world workloads. MegaRAID controllers with Fast Path software

disabled are limited to 80,000 IOPs, while application performance improves by up to 45

percent with Fast Path software enabled

CacheCade Pro 2.0 Software

A hybrid storage solution is not simply a matter of deploying both SSDs and HDDs. It requires

that the right data be stored on the right device, every time. This can be achieved by taking

advantage of the MegaRAID CacheCade® Pro 2.0 software. This advanced software allows IT

administrators to easily combine SSDs and HDDs, while avoiding manual storage management

and in-house application tuning costs for the best possible balance of performance and total

cost of storage ownership.

CacheCade Pro 2.0 is an advanced software option for select 6Gb/s MegaRAID SATA+SAS

controllers that intelligently and dynamically manages frequently-accessed data by migrating

it from HDD volumes to a higher performance layer of SSD cache. Directing the most

accessed data (‘hot spot’) to flash cache relieves the primary HDD array from time-consuming

transactions, which allows for more efficient hard disk operation, reduced latency, and

accelerated read and write speeds. This provides significant improvements to overall system

performance -- two to 12 times that of HDD-only configurations –for a wide variety of server

applications including web, file, online transaction processing (OLTP) database, data mining

and other transaction-intensive applications.

Application Acceleration Across Business Critical Workloads

CacheCade Pro 2.0 software is the industry’s first software solution that offers both read

and write controller-based caching on SSDs, dramati¬cally enhancing the performance

gains achieved by the previous generation CacheCade software. With the addition of write

caching support, read/write-intensive workloads such as Exchange server, high performance

computing (HPC) applications, Web 2.0 and other IO-intensive OLTP database system

workloads, experience dramatic performance improvements.

CacheCade Pro 2.0Cache Pool

Hot Data

Mirror

Cold Data

Solution Brief

HGST Solution Brief | 4

Key Components

LSI MegaRAID Fast Path Software

• Upto150,000I/Oreadspersecondforsmall,randomblock-sizeI/Oactivity

• UptotwotimesfasterthansolutionsnotusingMegaRAIDFastPathsoftware

• LSISSDGuard™preventativefailureprotectionforSSDs

LSI CacheCade Pro 2.0 Software

• OutstandingperformancebyusingSSDsfor“Hot”datainvariousapplications

• Reducedpowerandfootprintrequirementsindatacenters

• Dramaticimprovementinapplicationperformance,includingMicrosoftExchange,

transactional databases and web servers, and hypervisors

HGST Ultrastar SSD400S Solid State Drives

• HighestEndurance:Upto35PBofrandomwritesoverthelifeofthedrive,basedonSLC

NAND technology for demanding Tier 0 write-intensive workloads

• Extremeperformance:41K/21KIOPSRandomR/W,upto100timesfasterthanHDDs

• ConfigurationFlexibility:Choiceof4GbFCALorSAS6Gb/sforinvestmentprotection

• Capacitypointsof100G,200Gand400GSSDdrives

• BestIOPS/WatttoreduceTCOinSLCclassdrives

• AdvancedPower-lossDataManagementtechnology

• T10End-to-endDataProtection

HGST Ultrastar SSD400M Solid State Drives

• HighEndurance:Upto7.3PBofrandomwritesoverthelifeofthedrive,basedon

MLC NAND technology for a cost-effective alternative to SLC in Tier 0 server & storage

environments

• ExtremePerformance:56K/24KIOPSRandomR/W,upto100timesfasterthanHDDs

• OutstandingReliability:SAS6Gb/ssupportsdualportforenhancereliability

• BestIOPS/WattforreducedTCOinMLCclassdrives

• AdvancedPowerlossDataManagementtechnology

• T10End-to-endDataProtection

• SupportTCGself-encryptingmodelsdesignedtoEnterprisespecifications

Solution Brief

HGST Solution Brief | 5

Product Overview – LSI

As storage demands continue to grow, the cost, performance, security and energy efficiency

of your storage components are even more important. With every MegaRAID product, LSI

deliversvalueinourfourcornerstonesofleadership:FeaturesandUsability,DataProtection

and Availability, Performance, and Green.

LSI offers a complete selection of 3Gb/s and 6Gb/s SATA+SAS MegaRAID controllers for direct

attached storage (DAS) connectivity. The 6Gb/s SATA+SAS RAID controllers deliver significant

performance improvements for both 3Gb/s and 6Gb/s systems. The full MegaRAID product

line-up includes entry, value and feature products, ranging from 4 to 28 ports in a variety of

internal and external connector configurations. If you choose to go with the entry line first,

you can more easily migrate to the MegaRAID value or feature line with MegaRAID Storage

Manager™software.

The MegaRAID 9200 series of controllers featuring the LSISAS2108 6Gb/s SAS RAID-on-

Chip (ROC), double the data transfer rates of their 3Gb/s predecessors. The superior read/

write performance makes them well suited for a broad range of application workloads, from

data center applications such as email and database servers to more compute-intensive

applications such as streaming video, OLTP and data archival.

Product Overview – HGST

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST), now a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Digital

Corp., offers a full line of Ultrastar HDD and SSD Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and Fibre Channel

(FC) storage solutions that support the enterprise ecosystem where HDDs and SSDs have to

integrate seamlessly, side-by-side in tiered storage environments.

Leveraging more than 50 years of design and qualification experience, HGST’s enterprise-class

HDDs and SSDs work together, providing simple, scalable and flexible solutions that ensure

system compatibility and ease of integration into new or existing enterprise storage systems

or designs. This synergistic relationship helps IT managers seamlessly build end-to-end

enterprise-class storage solutions that deliver the reliability, compatibility, capacity, cost and

performance needed to help reduce TCO in terms of overall time, resources and investment in

creating tiered storage solutions.

The Ultrastar MLC and SLC SSD family combines HGST’s proven enterprise HDD leadership with

Intel’s extensive capabilities developing high-endurance NAND flash memory and advanced

SSD technology. Through this collaboration, the HGST Ultrastar family brings together

enterprise-grade NAND flash, proprietary endurance firmware and power loss management

techniques to extend the reliability, endurance and sustained performance needed to meet

the most demanding Tier 0 enterprise applications.

HGST is consistently ranked as a leading storage supplier in product quality and reliability by

OEMs around the world, and customers can now benefit from one trusted vendor supplying

both enterprise-class HDDs and SSDs.

LSI, the LSI logo design, MegaRAID, CacheCade and MegaRAID Storage Manager are trademarks or registered trademarks of LSI Corporation. All other brand and product names may be trademarks of their respective companies. Ultrastar is a trademark of HGST, a Western Digital com-pany. Western Digital, WD, and the WD logo are registered trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.

LSI Corporation reserves the right to make changes to any products and services herein at any time without notice. LSI does not assume any responsibility or liability arising out of the application or use of any product or service described herein, except as expressly agreed to in writing by LSI; nor does the purchase, lease, or use of a product or service from LSI convey a license under any patent rights, copyrights, trademark rights, or any other of the intellectual property rights of LSI or of third parties.

One GB is equal to one billion bytes and one TB equals 1,000 GB (one trillion bytes). One PB is equal to 1,000 TB (one quadrillion bytes). Actual capacity will vary depending on operating environment and formatting.

Copyright ©2012 by LSI Corporation and HGST, a Western Digital company. All rights reserved. > 0312

For more information and sales office locations, please visit the LSI web sites at: lsi.com

North American HeadquartersMilpitas, CAT:+1.866.574.5741(withinU.S.)T:+1.408.954.3108(outsideU.S.)

LSI Europe Ltd.European HeadquartersUnited KingdomT:[+44]1344.413200

LSI KK HeadquartersTokyo, JapanTel:[+81]3.5463.7165

Solution Brief

About LSI

LSICorporation(NYSE:LSI)designssemiconductorsandsoftwarethatacceleratestorageand

networking in datacenters and mobile networks. Our technology is the intelligence critical to

enhanced application performance, and is applied in solutions created in collaboration with

our partners. More information is available at www.lsi.com.

About HGST

HGST, a Western Digital company, develops advanced hard disk drives, enterprise-class solid

state drives, innovative external storage solutions and services used to store, preserve and

manage the world’s most valued data. Founded by the pioneers of hard drives, HGST provides

high-value storage for a broad range of market segments, including Enterprise, Desktop,

Mobile Computing, Consumer Electronics and Personal Storage. HGST was established in 2003

and maintains its U.S. headquarters in San Jose, California. For more information, please visit

thecompany’swebsiteathttp://www.hgst.com.