Industry Brief Storage Performance Takes Off:

With Next Gen Server Adapters

Featuring

QLogic 2600 Series 16Gb Fibre Channel HBAs

QLogic 10000 Series SSD Fibre Channel Adapters

Where IT perceptions are reality

Document # INDUSTRY2013001 v7 January, 2013 Copyright 2012© IT Brand Pulse. All rights reserved.

Document # INDUSTRY2013001 v7, January, 2013 2

Storage Performance Takes Off

The Network Adapter Industry Responds

Since 8Gb Fibre Channel HBAs and 10Gb Converged Network Adapters (CNAs) were introduced in 2008,

storage performance has taken off behind the power of new Romley-based servers and SSD storage. The

networking industry responded in 2012 with a new generation of PCIe CNA/HBAs which support either 16Gb

native Fibre Channel or 10Gb Ethernet NAS, iSCSI and FCoE storage traffic on each port. The industry also

introduced an innovative new class of adapter which merge the function of a non-HA PCIe SSD and a Fibre

Channel HBA into one high availability SSD/HBA.

Intel codename for the powerful Xeon E5 server platform with 2 more

cores, 8MB more of cache, 6 more DIMMs of faster DDR3-1600

memory, and twice as much I/O bandwidth with PCIe 3.0. Romley

Network Adapter Industry Road Map

In 2012 two new types of network adapters were introduced: CNA/HBAs and SSD/HBAs. By 2014 a future generation of Super CNAs

will support native Fibre Channel and Ethernet storage protocols, and provide high-availability, shared SSD cache and SSD storage.

Document # INDUSTRY2013001 v7, January, 2013 3

Best Storage Network Performance

CNA/HBA—A New Class of Network Adapter

Introduced in 2008, CNAs support TCP/IP LAN and NAS storage traffic as well as iSCSI and FCoE SAN storage

traffic over 10Gb Ethernet. With a negligible performance difference between 8Gb Fibre Channel and 10Gb

FCoE, the IT community has maintained a strong preference for native Fibre Channel—effectively deciding to

maintain separate Ethernet and Fibre Channel networks. In 2012, the emergence of 16Gb Fibre Channel

raised the bar for best storage network performance, and the introduction of server adapters functioning as

either a 16Gb Fibre Channel HBA or a 10Gb CNA gives data center managers the best of both worlds—

complete network adapter hardware convergence, and separate Fibre Channel and Ethernet networks.

16GB (128Gb) is effectively double the bandwidth of a PCIe 2.0 bus

and eight times the bandwidth of a 16Gb Fibre Channel network. PCIe 3.0

Anatomy of a PCIe CNA/HBA

PCIe 3.0 x4—for 4GB (32Gb) bandwidth to the processor.

Virtualized— With support for N_Port ID Virtualization or NPIV , the CNA/HBA can be configured as

multiple virtual adapters, each with a different protocol, QoS and security policy.

10Gb CNA—When a port is

configured for Ethernet, it

will support 10Gbe-based

LAN, NAS and (iSCSI and

FCoE) SAN traffic

simultaneously.

16Gb Fibre Channel HBA —

When a port is configured

for Fibre Channel, it is

backwards compatible with

4Gb and 8Gb FC SANs, as

well as new high-

performance 16Gb SANs.

Dual Core ASIC —One chip

provides native Fibre

Channel protocol processing

and Ethernet protocol

processing.

Flexible—Backwards

compatible with legacy

1GbE, 4Gb FC and 8Gb FC

networks. When migrating

to a converged network,

ports are easily changed

from Ethernet to Fibre

Channel, or from Fibre

Channel to Ethernet.

VM VM VM

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Best SSD Performance

SSD/HBA-The First Enterprise-Class PCIe SSDs

By eliminating the need to deploy two types of adapters for Ethernet and Fibre Channel connectivity, the

new class of 10GbE CNA/16Gb FC HBAs represent an evolutionary and very useful change for server

administrators. However, the new class of PCIe SSD/FC HBAs is a revolutionary development for adapter

technology. Using the Fibre Channel network to share SSD SAN metadata, PCIe SSD cache in different servers

can now be shared and replicated for high-availability. PCIe SSD, already the highest bandwidth and lowest

latency storage possible, is now suited for enterprise-class applications.

Anatomy of a PCIe SSD/HBA

PCIe 3.0 x16—for 16GB (128Gb)

bandwidth from the SSD directly to

the server processor.

Virtualized— Virtual CNA/HBAs can be configured with different protocol, QoS and security policies—and each with its

own SSD cache.

Fibre Channel HBA—A port

can be configured as a Fibre

Channel HBA to connect a

server to a SAN.

PCIe SSD —A port can be

connected to the SAN so

the PCIe SSD can serve as a

cache to external disk, and

so that shared cache or

shared SSD storage

metadata can be

maintained on multiple

servers.

Shared Cache—PCIe SSD/

HBAs can be configured to

cache frequently accessed

data on SAN disk arrays.

The adapters can be

installed in separate servers

and the cache pooled into

one cache area network.

VM VM VM

High Availability—SSD cache and storage can be mirrored,

allowing the PCIe SSD/HBA to be deployed in pairs for

enterprise–class redundancy and high-availability.

A 15,000 RPM HDD will deliver approximately 200 I/Os per second (IOPS) of

performance. A single PCIe SSD will deliver about 100,000 IOPS. IOPS

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The Next Wave of Convergence

Its Here

Vastly different LAN and SAN products from Ethernet and Fibre Channel adapter vendors started merged into

one with the introduction of converged network adapters. The emergence of CNAs/HBAs and SSD/HBAs has

created an enterprise storage adapter market with vastly different products again. Today, only QLogic is

offering a full suite of next gen enterprise storage adapters.

The only enterprise storage adapter vendor with a Fibre Channel HBA,

Ethernet CNA and PCIe SSD technology. QLogic

Server Adapter 10GbE CNA

10Gb/16Gb CNA/HBA

Non HA SSD

HA SSD/HBA

Function

Connect servers to 10GbE LANs, NAS, iSCSI SANs and FCoE SANs

Connect servers to 10GbE LANs, NAS, iSCSI SANs and FCoE SANs plus 16Gb FC SANs

Single card, non-shared SSD cache for HDDs or SSD storage

Redundant, shared, SSD cache for HDDs, or SSD storage, and FC HBA

QLogic

Broadcom

Brocade

Cisco

Emulex

Fusion-io

LSI

Micron

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Where New Adapters Fit

SSD/HBAs Are in Class by Themselves

Until the advent of SSD/HBA technology, the performance of a storage systems was defined by the number

of HDDs and the speed of the HDDs and network connection. The pecking order in this scheme ranges from

16Gb Fibre Channel down to 1Gb Ethernet. Now that SSD/HBA products are available, data center architects

will want to factor levels of SSD performance and availability into their application requirements. Architects

who need gigabytes to terabytes of capacity with the lowest latency for clustered applications will configure

PCIe SSD which is closest to the server processor. Architects who need traditional mass storage capacity with

the highest bandwidth will configure SSD SAN arrays with the highest bandwidth (16Gb Fibre Channel) links

to the server.

Enterprise Storage Adapter Quadrant

Application Requirements vs. Infrastructure Capacity

A tier where data is on-line, but unlike Tier 0 SSD storage, the data is

stored on slower but less expensive HDDs. Tier 1

Less-IO-

intensive

workloads

More IO-

intensive

workloads

Takes traffic off the

network and onto low

-latency Tier-0 SSD for

the most IO-intensive

workloads.

Supports highest

bandwidth Tier-1

16Gb FC SAN

storage.

Less Network Bandwidth More Network Bandwidth

Interoperable with FC

infrastructure. Allows LAN/SAN

convergence at 10GbE.

Allows LAN/SAN convergence with cost-

effective iSCSI storage at 1GbE and 10GbE Supports LAN and NAS at 1GbE

and 10GbE

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The Ultimate in Performance

QLogic 100000 SSD Fibre Channel Adapters

On January 8th, 2013, QLogic introduced the

QLE10000, signaling its intention to step into the

SSD market. The QLE10000 is a blend of SSD

technology and Fibre Channel HBA technology

forming the industry’s first SSD/HBA.

The QLE10000 also is the first PCIe SSD product

to offer high-availability shared SAN cache.

Shared cache is the ability of a server to carve up its PCIe SSD into

virtual caches or storage LUNs, and provision the cache or LUNs to

other servers as needed. Shared cache and storage is inherent in

SAN SSD systems, but until now, non-existent for PCIe adapters

spread across multiple servers.

In the old days storage consisted of non-shared direct-attached

storage (DAS) inside of a server, and utilization averaged around

30%. The invention of shared NAS and SAN storage drove the

utilization of storage to 80% and beyond as virtual disk drives were

tailored for each server. The same principal applies to server

virtualization. Before VMware, average non-shared server CPU

utilization hovered around 30%. Now IT pros are loading virtual

machines onto servers until CPU resources are fully utilized.

QLogic is leading the industry from non-shared direct-attached cache

to a high-availability, shared SAN cache architecture. The value of

this capability is intuitive to IT professionals and CFOs because

sharing IT resources to consolidate infrastructure is a basic best

practice, and generates a powerful

return on investment.

Shared, High-Availability, SAN Cache

With direct-attached cache, the cache is accessed by

a single server. The expensive Flash memory

cannot be provisioned to other servers if needed.

Industry

First Shared cache and shared storage is inherent in SAN SSD systems, but until

now, non-existent for PCIe adapters spread across multiple servers.

Cache Captive to Server

With shared cache in a SAN, the utilization of expensive SSD is maximized. The quantity

of cache, server access to the cache, and storage access to the cache is tailored exactly to

the needs of servers on the SAN.

Shared PCIe SSD

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Killer App for SSD/HBA

Breathing Life into Existing Storage

The availability of affordable SSD is allowing data center managers to expand their use of the technology

beyond the most demanding I/O-intensive applications which can justify a much higher cost. One pervasive

example is retro-fitting SSDs into storage environments with older, slower HDDs. A typical data center has

groups of HDDs ganged together in LUNs to harness the aggregate IOPS performance of the HDDs. With an

older 7,200 RPM HDD delivering approximately 100 IOPS of performance, it takes 20 HDDs to form a LUN

providing 2,000 IOPS. Today, when user response time lags because the HDD LUN does not have enough

IOPS, IT organizations are installing PCIe SSDs to cache frequently accessed data on the HDD LUNs. The

results are users are experiencing the dramatic improvement in response time that comes with the 300,000

IOPS performance of an SSD, and expensive HDD upgrades are being deferred.

The storage tier with the fastest access time for frequently accessed data

such as a database index. DRAM and Flash SSD are storage media used for

Tier 0 storage. Tier 0

Performance of SSD vs. Multi-HDD LUNs

Using older 7,200 RPM HDDs to newer 15,000 RPM HDDs

Improve user response time by caching

frequently accessed data stored on HDDs

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Killer App for SSD/HBA

Enterprise-Class Cluster Applications

Until now, enterprise-class cluster applications and server-based SSD were mutually

exclusive because the failure of non-redundant PCIe SSD would cause the cluster to slow,

and because it was impossible to maintain cache coherency between SSDs accessing the

same HDD LUNS on the SAN.

The presence of SSD/HBAs now allows SAN architects to deploy the fastest SSD solution

possible without sacrificing high-availability, or the flexibility of provisioning SAN resources. After installing

an SSD/HBA in the cluster nodes, every SSD cache LUN is accessible to every HDD LUN. In addition, cache

coherency is maintained if an SSD/HBA fails and if cache LUNS are accessing the same HDD LUNs.

The storage tier with the fastest access time for frequently accessed data

such as a database index. DRAM and Flash SSD are storage media used for

Tier 0 storage. Tier 0

4-Node Cluster

For business critical applications running on database platforms such as Oracle RAC, frequently accessed Tempdb, Index and Log files are

cached on high-performance, high-availability SAN SSD. Less frequently accessed data is stored on high-availability SAN disk.

Document # INDUSTRY2013001 v7, January, 2013 10

Storage Performance Takes Off

The Bottom Line

Most data center storage architectures include a design for providing the fastest I/O for the hottest data.

The most common solution is multiple high-RPM HDDs configured in one LUN. Storage architects responsible

for this design welcome the prospect of one light-weight, quiet, low-power and reliable SSD replacing racks

of heavy, noisy, power-hungry, disk-crashing HDDs. As a result, SSD is fast displacing HDDs for Tier-0 storage

of frequently accessed data. The new class of PCIe SSD/HBA adapters will accelerate that momentum by

integrating SSD functions into familiar Fibre Channel HBAs, and by transforming PCIe SSDs into shared, high-

availability, enterprise-class storage.

For straight-forward server connectivity to both Ethernet LANs, NAS and SANs plus native Fibre Channel

SANs, the new class of CNA/HBAs does both. I don’t know why an informed IT professional would use

anything else.

Related Links

To learn more about the companies, technologies, and products mentioned in this report, visit the following web pages: QLogic Corporation

Mt. Rainier Press Release

QLogic 2600 Series 16Gb Fibre Channel HBAs

SSD Buyer Behavior Survey

CDs and HDDs Once Rocked

About the Author

Frank Berry is founder and senior analyst for IT Brand Pulse, a trusted source of data and analysis about IT infrastructure, including servers, storage and networking. As former vice president of product marketing and corporate marketing for QLogic, and vice president of worldwide marketing for the automated tape library (ATL) division of Quantum, Mr. Berry has over 30 years experience in the development and marketing of IT infrastructure. If you have any questions or comments about this report, contact frank.berry@itbrandpulse.com.

Shared PCIe SSD