#compromisenothing facts & fiction of flash storage for virtualization chris tsilipounidakis...

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Facts & Fiction of Flash Storage for Virtualization

Chris TsilipounidakisManager, Products

2 #compromisenothing©Copyright 2015 Tegile Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Company Confidential

What You'll Learn:

Neutralizing the “I/O Blender” effect

Pros and cons for different flash-based systems

Considerations for flash-based storage arrays

Real-life examples


IT Trends

DataVirtualization


IT Trends

DataVirtualization

As always… We must do more with less.


Technology Trends

Storage has not kept with other IT infrastructure.

CPU performance Memory densities Network & I/O bandwidth Disk capacities

Disk performance


The I/O Blender

I/O tuned for each app Predictable

performance

Pre-Virtualization

Hypervisor “blends” I/O across VMs

I/O to storage array highly randomized

Unpredictable performance

Post-Virtualization

Virtualization needs storage that can deliver high IOPS

Options?1. Overprovision HDDs 2. Deploy Flash Storage


Ways Flash Storage Can Be Deployed

Legacy Approach

Retrofit legacy arrays with SSDs Tiering s/w for passive migration Expensive & inefficient

SERVER

Server-Side Flash

Flash storage in server High performance VMs in server islands No shared storage No HA

SERVER

SERVER

SERVER

SERVER

Scale-Out

Clustered DAS servers SSD & HDD DAS Inconsistent performance CPU & memory shared

across apps & storage tasks

All-Flash Arrays

High performance Cost prohibitive for all

workloads

Hybrid Arrays

SSD for perf HDD for capacity Perf-capacity-cost

balance

Interim Band-Aid Solution Limited Use Cases Best for ROBOs For High-Perf Workloads For Most Workloads

Beware of options that only address a limited number of use cases.

All Flash & Hybrid storage addresses a broader set of workloads.


Flash-Based Storage Landscape

Legacy Storage Bolt-on flash to old architectures Expensive & inefficient

Server-Side Flash For extreme IOPS workloads Expensive niche solution

All-Flash Arrays For very high IOPS workloads Useful for a subset of workloads

Hybrid Storage Intelligent use of flash storage Balance performance & cost For a broad set of workloads


Not All Flash-Based Arrays Are Created Equal

Periodic data migration across tiers Policy-based or ad-hoc migration Admin mediated Coarse level of granularity for migration

Legacy “Bolt-on” Tiered Storage Next-Generation Flash Storage

Intelligent Caching Real-time Fine-grained

Performance Layer

CapacityLayer

Implementation Differences

Type of SSD Most arrays use lower-end cMLC – endurance concerns

Caching Most arrays use flash only for caching reads Optimizing metadata access is important

Data Reduction Some arrays only provide compression – no dedupe Some arrays only dedupe data in SSDs, not HDDs


What Type of Flash Is Best?

All-Flash or Hybrid? All-flash sacrifices capacity for extreme

performance

Hybrid offers flash performance plus low-cost capacity of HDD

In both configurations, capacity can be stretched with compression and deduplication

SSD


The COST Difference

$/GB $/IOPS $/GB $/IOPS

$$$$ $$$ General Storage $ $

$$$$ $$ Server Virtualization $$ $$

$$$$ $ VDI $$ $$

All-Flash

It really depends on your workload.

Hybrid


Drive Down Storage Costs with Data Reduction

Inline compression and deduplication can shrink storage footprint up to 90%

Redundant OS images are reduced to a single instance and stored in flash

Save on rack space, power/cooling, storage sprawl


Not All Flash-Based Arrays Are Created Equal

The best hybrid arrays use enterprise quality flash, accelerate metadata, and provide comprehensive data footprint reduction.


Deployment Considerations

Storage Protocols Fibre Channel may make your deployment too expensive

iSCSI and NAS may not meet your IOPS needs

An array providing SMB\CIFS enables you to consolidate storage


Automate Provisioning, Fewer Errors

Application-aware provisioning can simplify, expedite storage provisioning

Consider storage that offers a wizard that guides you through provisioning storage Block size LUN size Default snapshot policy Compression type Deduplication On/Off Primary cache size Secondary cache size


Ask for Integration

vCenter and Microsoft System Center VM Manager Simplifies management

vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) Offloads storage operations from the host to the array Minimizes I/O on the network and host

RESTful APIs Script and automate storage tasks


VAAI Primitives

OFFICIAL NAME AKA DESCRIPTION BLOCK NFS

Atomic Test & Set (ATS) Hardware Assisted Locking Enables granular locking of block storage devices, accelerating performance Y -

Cloning Blocks Full Copy, Extended Copy Commands the array to make a mirror of a LUN (Clone, VMotion) Y -

Zeroing File Blocks Block Zeroing Communication mechanism for thin provisioning arrays Y -

Out of Space Condition Thin Provisioning Stun “Pause” a running VM when capacity is exhausted Y Y

UNMAP Space Reclamation Allow thin arrays to clear unused VMFS space Y -

Quota Exceeded Behavior TP Soft Threshold Allows vSphere to react before out-of-space condition Y -

TP LUN Reporting Report Thin Capacity Enables vSphere to determine LUN TP status Y Y

NFS Full File Clone Hardware Snap Like Full Copy for NFS - Y

NFS Space Reservation Zeroedthick Files Creates non-thin files on NFS - Y

NFS Extended Stat Extended Status vSphere can query file size, etc - Y

NFS Space Reclaim Space Reclamation Similar to block UNMAP, unlinks files - Y

NFS Fast File Clone Linked Clone Offload Allows View (only) to offload creation of linked clones - Y


VM-Level Reporting

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Real-Life Examples


BYU – Hawaii: Their IT Challenges

99% virtualized environment

Slow performance Retrieving student records from Oracle took too long Webpage load times, video services, email also slow

University expects to expand enrollment from 3,000 to 5,000 students in the next 3-5 years

Wanted to the flexibility to use both Fibre Channel and NFS


BYU – Hawaii: Requirements

Increase throughput

Increase available storage space

Modernize storage and backups

Scale to accommodate future expansion while delivering consistently high performance

Easily managed by small IT staff

✓✓✓


More of the Same?

Retrofitting old disk-based architectures with flash is inefficient

Adding spindles for performance wasn’t sustainable Costs 5-7x what newer, more innovative solutions

charge for same performance

In higher education, money is tight!


BYU – Hawaii: Topology

WWWVideo ServicesEmailStudent Records

2 x Tegile Hybrid Arrays (2U each)

1 x Tegile Hybrid Array (3U)

WAN

Off-Island Replication

4 days of snapshots for DR

ERP Active Directory


BYU – Hawaii: The Results of Flash

Replaced IBM storage TB for TB Gained 100 - 120 TBs of useable disk space

25 - 40x improvement in throughput for critical applications

Improved end-user experience. They noticed!

Moved from NFS-mounted drives to virtual mounted drives Can now load-balance across blades with no problems

Due to capacity and cost savings, the university was able to purchase 3rd array for DR


Mizuno USA: Their IT Challenges

Aging SAN infrastructure wasn’t efficient and wouldn’t scale to meet future demand

Array-based snapshots and replication were not space-efficient

Poor SQL Server performance had become an issue

Had outgrown its offsite backup solution, which was slow and difficult to manage

Full backup jobs were running for longer than an entire weekend

Cost was too high to implement an effective DR strategy


Mizuno USA: Topology

Backup Server

Primary DC #1(32TB Capacity)

Primary DC #2(32TB Capacity)

Local Backups(Data is compressed/deduped globally by Tegile)

Snapshots are space-efficient and VM-awareReplication is WAN-optimized

Snapshots are replicated across WAN

Disaster Recovery


Mizuno USA: The Results of Flash

No longer sees performance issues with business-critical applications like SQL Server

Substantial reduction in backup failures and a reduction in the backup window

Sufficient storage capabilities—for now and the foreseeable future

Ability to replicate and snapshot data on a continual basis for full site recovery

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Thank You

www.tegile.com510.791.7900


Leupold & Stevens: Challenges

NetApp shop for nearly 10 years

Virtualization and consolidation hurting storage performance

Applications began suffering; business velocity was slowing

Oracle application performance directly impacts business performance


Leupold & Stevens: Requirements

Consistently high IOPs at low latency

Support Oracle database performance

Mixed workload with additional SQL, Exchange, misc. VMs

Multiprotocol support

Looking for a better mousetrap


Leupold & Stevens: Solution & Results

Hybrid flash storage array

Sustained 117,000 IOPs demonstrated

65% data reduction rate

17-hour BI jobs reduced by 76% to just 4 hours

Multiprotocol support for diverse set of applications

#compromisenothing facts & fiction of flash storage for virtualization chris tsilipounidakis...

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