IBM Systems Technical White Paper
IBM FlashSystem accelerates VMware vCloud Benchmark testing confirms more than double application performance Overview Highlights •
Accelerates application performance by up to 2.5x over vCloud environments supported only by hard disk drives.
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Helps drive down costs and minimize complexity while escalating business value.
Contents 1 Overview 2 VMware vCloud Suite 2 IBM FlashSystem 3 Working together 5 VMware vCloud, IBM FlashSystem benchmark test results 7 Conclusion 7 For more information
Hard data is readily available that demonstrates the benefits of application server virtualization when using solutions such as the new VMware vCloud Suite. One source is especially revealing. IBM Flash Centers of Competency (CoC) offer a presales service called data pattern analysis that digs deep into customer server, network and storage performance metrics. Actual customer results from this service prove that virtualized environments utilize their underlying infrastructure resources much more efficiently, which explains why host-side virtualization has swept through data centers so rapidly. But numerous real-world data pattern analyses also show how VMware environments can place extreme demands on their supporting storage systems. For example, the percentage of active data dramatically increases. And instead of simple, predictable, often sequential data streams, vCloud environments produce much less predictable, much more random I/O patterns. Simply stated, these can be disk killers. Now, there is also hard data confirming how much better than disk-based storage IBM® FlashSystem® performs in vCloud environments. The IBM FlashSystem Solutions Engineering lab, part of the IBM Gaithersburg FlashSystem CoC, has conducted extensive tests comparing the performance of both enterprise disk and IBM FlashSystem storage against a representative vCloud online transaction processing application workload. These tests show that IBM FlashSystem can accelerate application performance by up to 2.5x when compared to vCloud environments supported only by hard disk drives. The IBM testing also confirms the interoperability of IBM FlashSystem storage and relevant vCloud components such as vSphere and vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM). Thanks to these test results, enterprises planning to implement vCloud and those with vSphere or other VMware solutions already deployed can add IBM FlashSystem to their storage solution architecture with confidence. This addition can help accelerate application performance, decrease both costs and complexity, and escalate business value.
IBM Systems Technical White Paper
VMware vCloud Suite
vCloud provides:
VMware vCloud Suite helps enterprises bring their products and services to market faster by virtualizing and optimizing information technology (IT) infrastructure, automating IT service delivery, and providing high availability for both traditional and new application types such as big data. This means a business running vCloud Suite can respond faster to customer demands, spend more time on innovation and be ready for the next generation of applications.
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The VMware vCloud Suite is an integrated offering comprised of vSphere, vCenter SRM, vRealize Operations (VCOps), vRealize Automation, and vRealize Business. vCloud is designed to enable enterprises of all sizes and types to build and manage VMware vSphere-based private clouds that can dramatically improve efficiency, agility and control. As illustrated in Figure 1, when used together, the vCloud Suite components provide virtualization, software defined data center services, policy-based storage provisioning, disaster recovery, application management and operations management.
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IBM FlashSystem The IBM FlashSystem family of all-flash storage platforms includes IBM FlashSystem 900 and IBM FlashSystem V9000 arrays. Powered by IBM FlashCore™ technology, FlashSystem 900 delivers the extreme performance, enterprise reliability and operational efficiencies required to gain competitive advantage in today’s dynamic marketplace.
vCloud Suite Build and Manage a vSphere-based Private Cloud Management and Automation vRealize Automation
vRealize Operations
vRealize Business
Compute
Network and Security
vSphere
NSX
Storage and Availability vCenter Site Recovery Manager
Adding to these capabilities, IBM FlashSystem V9000 offers the advantages of software defined storage at the speed of flash. These all-flash storage systems deliver the full capabilities of IBM FlashCore technology’s hardware accelerated architecture, MicroLatency™ modules, and advanced flash management coupled with a rich set of features found in only the most advanced enterprise storage solutions, including IBM Real-time Compression™, virtualization, dynamic tiering, thin provisioning, snapshots, cloning, replication, data copy services and high-availability configurations.
Virtual SAN
vCloud Suite
Powerful server virtualization: Virtualize and support traditional and next-generation applications with the industry-leading x86 server virtualization platform. Disaster recovery automation: Protect applications and simplify disaster recovery with one-click automated orchestration and non-disruptive testing of centralized recovery plans. Automated delivery: Automate provisioning and delivery of infrastructure, applications and custom IT services for vSphere environments through a self-service portal and catalog. Intelligent operations: Manage infrastructure and applications for vSphere environments using predictive analytics and an integrated approach to performance, capacity and configuration management. Business insight: Align IT spending with business priorities, using virtualized infrastructure service costing, usage metering and service pricing for vSphere environments.
Add-on to vCloud Suite
Figure 1: The capabilities of VMware vCloud Suite
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IBM Systems Technical White Paper
Working together IBM and VMware have been working together for years to ensure that enterprises deploying IBM FlashSystem and VMware vCloud-based systems gain the greatest possible value from these solutions. VMware provides an ecosystem in which other companies can integrate their products and provide additional functions for the virtualized infrastructure. Storage partners have the opportunity to integrate with several VMware application programming interfaces (API) to provide additional functions, enhanced performance, and integrated management. For enterprises deploying IBM FlashSystem to accelerate their VMware environment and achieve even greater cost advantages, the operative points of integration include VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) and VMware vSphere APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA). The testing conducted by the IBM Flash CoC in Gaithersburg and highlighted in this white paper included the successful enablement and operation of both these VMware storage integration tools against the backend IBM FlashSystem array.
Figure 2: IBM FlashSystem 900
VMware performance is often limited by traditional storage because disk-based systems struggle with the “I/O blender effect” caused by consolidation and virtualization of mixed application environments. As multiple virtual machines (VMs) run on a single physical server, each with its own demanding storage requirements, disks simply can’t keep up. IBM FlashSystem V9000 can solve many of the storage challenges posed by VMware environments. It handles random I/O patterns with ease, and it offers the capability to virtualize all of your data storage resources and bring them together under one point of control. IBM FlashSystem V9000 provides a comprehensive storage solution that seamlessly and automatically allocates storage resources to address virtually every application demand, including integrating legacy storage to preserve existing storage investments. Combine these capabilities with its ability to free up vSphere from many of its storage management tasks and IBM FlashSystem V9000 helps enterprises realize the full value of VMware.
VAAI and IBM FlashSystem VAAI is a set of APIs available to storage systems that enable certain VMware functions to be delegated to the storage array, which can enhance performance and reduce load on servers and storage area networks (SAN). Enabling VAAI requires no administrative overhead; IBM FlashSystem V9000 volumes are enabled by default. However, administrators can validate that a volume is supported through the vSphere Web Client or the VMware ESX command line interface (CLI). VAAI enables vSphere to offload specific virtual machine and storage management operations to compliant storage hardware, such as IBM FlashSystem. With this storage hardware assistance, vSphere performs faster and consumes less CPU, memory and storage fabric bandwidth. As shown in figure 4, VAAI enables the relevant components of vCloud to discover the capabilities of backend storage. By default, the system will test for the capabilities of any VAAI-enabled storage system unless it is specifically disabled on a per-vSphere host basis. The current implementation of VAAI in vSphere 5.5 includes hardware-accelerated Block Zero, hardware-assisted Locking, and hardware-accelerated Full Copy, all supported by IBM FlashSystem V9000. These functions each relate to and can benefit common VMware operational tasks.
Figure 3: IBM FlashSystem V9000
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IBM Systems Technical White Paper
Hardware-assisted Locking
Figure 4: VAAI integration with IBM FlashSystem
Many vSphere operations, including VM power-on, snapshot creation and deletion, and vMotion, require that a SCSI reservation be placed on the Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) volume from the initiating host. This lock prevents other host servers from accessing the relevant storage volume (LUN). This is a protective measure used to prevent VMs from being modified by more than one vSphere host at a time and to protect the VMFS metadata. However, it can also result in reduced performance when VMFS volumes with a high number of virtual machines are used. The hardware-assisted Locking function eliminates this problem by providing a more granular way to control access to the VMFS metadata. Rather than a lock being placed by a host on the entire LUN, hardware-assisted Locking enables the storage subsystem, such as IBM FlashSystem, to place a lock on a single block of data. This can enhance performance in many ways and significantly increase the scalability of VMFS volumes and vSphere clusters.
Hardware-accelerated Block Zero
VASA and FlashSystem
vStorage APIs for Array Intergration VMware vSphere API
Storage vMotion Provisions VMs from Template Improve Thin Provisioning Disk Performance VMFS Share Storage Pool Scalability
vSphere hosts utilizing IBM FlashSystem V9000 storage can be configured to use hardware-accelerated Block Zero, which offloads the initialization of disk blocks to the IBM FlashSystem V9000 array. This offloaded task initializes large numbers of disk blocks very quickly without transferring data over the SAN or consuming vSphere host resources. The task can enhance: •
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VMware vSphere VASA provides information about IBM storage-centric topology, capabilities, attributes and storage events to the vCenter Server in real time. VASA improves the ability to monitor and automate storage-related operations on VMware platforms. These functional and nonfunctional characteristics are automatically surfaced by IBM FlashSystem V9000 and presented to vCenter to enhance intelligent automation of the storage resource management. VASA interfaces with IBM FlashSystem V9000 through IBM Spectrum Control™ Base, a member of the IBM Spectrum Storage™ family of software defined storage products previously known as Storage Integration Server. Spectrum Control Base runs as a host application under Linux with minimum requirements and a straightforward installation and configuration process. With Spectrum Control Base, VASA can manage all its storage targets, including IBM FlashSystem V9000, from a single management interface, specifically VMware vCenter. This capability includes the ability to set the default multipath policy for that storage array, allowing it to create, map, delete, extend and migrate between storage pools. The storage administrator uses Spectrum Control Base to manage preferred IBM storage systems and identify which storage pools should be available for use in the vSphere environment. The administrator also controls the specific VMware vCenter servers that can use the IBM storage resources.
Cloning operations which include eagerzerodthick .VMDK files Allocating new file blocks for thin-provisioned .VMDK files Initializing previous unwritten file blocks for zeroedthick .VMDK files.
Hardware-accelerated Full Copy
When a new VM is created from cloning a template or VM, data is read from the source VM or template up through the running vSphere host and back down to the destination. Hardware-accelerated Full Copy allows the operations to be run on IBM FlashSystem V9000 and not on the vSphere host. In addition to cloning, Full Copy is also engaged during a Storage vMotion operation. When a task is created to migrate a VM, the operation can run completely on IBM FlashSystem V9000. Full Copy greatly reduces the SAN traffic required for performing cloning and migration operations, as well as saving CPU cycles and Host Bus Adapter (HBA) queue slots on the vSphere hosts. In addition to these efficiencies, cloning and migration tasks using Full Copy with IBM FlashSystem run significantly faster than when using alternative methods. 4
IBM Systems Technical White Paper
VMware vCloud, IBM FlashSystem benchmark test results
IBM/VMware Integration Points
Test environment vCenter
The IBM FlashSystem Solutions Engineering lab conducted integration and performance tests using industry-standard tools and test plans. The test environment included:
C# Web MGMT VASA
VMware
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Thousands of Requests (many repetitive)
IBM Spectrum Control
Common Intergration Point / Orchestration & Automation Requests consolidated and reduced
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IBM 3650 M4 x86 servers configured with: –– Microsoft Windows 2012 with MS SQL Server 2012 –– VMware vSphere 5.5 –– 2 x Intel Xeon E5-2640v2 @ 2.00 GHz processors –– 128 GB RAM –– 2 x 16 Gb Dual port Fiber Channel adapters IBM FlashSystem array with 20 TB usable storage Enterprise disk storage pool consisting of 24 300 GB 15K RPM drives in (2) 8 RAID-5 and (1) RAID-5 disk groups.
The performance benchmarks were generated using HammerDB for MS SQL Server 2012 generating an online transaction processing (OLTP) workload based on the TPC-C specification. The test plan involved:
IBM FlashSystem Figure 5: Increasing efficiency with IBM Spectrum Control Base
1. Installing and configuring MS SQL Server 2012 on Windows Server 2012 with HammerDB as the test harness. 2. Running benchmarks with HammerDB on the MS SQL Server 2012 databases against the bare metal servers. 3. Running synthetic benchmarks on the Windows Server 2012 and RedHat Enterprise Linux 6.5. 4. Using VMware vCenter Converter to migrate the physical servers to VMs residing on the VMware cluster with IBM FlashSystem uncompressed volumes backing them. 5. Running benchmarks with HammerDB on the VMs. 6. Running synthetic benchmarks on Windows Server 2012 VM and RedHat Enterprise Linux 6.5 VM. 7. Using Storage vMotion to migrate the volumes from uncompressed LUNs to compressed LUNs. 8. Running benchmarks with HammerDB on the VMs with compressed volumes. 9. Using Storage vMotion to migrate the volumes from compressed LUNs on the IBM FlashSystem array to a disk-based datastore.
There are many integration points in VMware, including vCenter and vRealize Orchestrator. These VMware entities generate thousands of requests against the storage system to gather the information they need. Moreover, these entities also request the same information from the storage system. This approach, with many redundant requests against the storage system, does not scale well in very large virtualized environments. In these scenarios, as illustrated in Figure 5, the numerous requests cannot be handled regularly in a timely manner. For example, when using the IBM System Storage® plug-in for vCenter in such large environments, the time spent to refresh that agent (plug-in) can be easily 30 minutes or even up to one hour for very large sites. Spectrum Control Base works as an abstraction layer between the VMware environment and IBM FlashSystem V9000, thereby consolidating and reducing the VMware generated requests against the storage system, helping dramatically increase system efficiency and performance.
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IBM Systems Technical White Paper
HammerDB was used to generate TPC-C transactional or OLTP workloads characterized by a database receiving both requests for data and multiple changes to this data from a number of users over time, where these modifications are called transactions. Each database transaction has a defined beginning point, manipulates and modifies the data within the database, and either commits the changes or rolls back the changes to the starting point. Performance and scalability are essential properties of systems designed to process transactional workloads, and the TPC-C benchmark is designed by the Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) to measure the ability of the software and hardware of a relational database system to process OLTP-type workloads.
Transactions per Minute (TPM)
400000 350000 300000 250000 200000 150000 100000 50000
Benchmark results
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Figure 6 provides a consolidated view of the IBM FlashSystem and VMware vCloud test results. The Y axis measures the number of transactions per minute (TPM) that each test case achieved, while the X axis notes the rising number of simulated concurrent users. A performance baseline was first generated by running the TPC-C workloads against a server without vSphere (physical) supported by a conventional enterprise disk storage system. Next, the test environment was migrated to a VM generated by vSphere and supported by the conventional disk-based storage (virtual/disk). Then the TPC-C workloads were run against the vSphere VM pointed at LUNs hosted on a single IBM FlashSystem array without data compression enabled (Virtual – FlashSystem Uncompressed). Finally, to illustrate the performance of IBM Real-time Compression in a vCloud environment, the same tests were repeated with IBM Real-time Compression enabled (Virtual – FlashSystem Compressed).
Number of Concurrent Users
200+
Physical
Virtual (FlashSystem Uncompressed)
Virtual (Disk)
Virtual (FlashSystem Compressed)
Figure 6: VMware and IBM FlashSystem benchmark test results
It’s important to note that these performance results were generated using storage configurations that may or may not closely match a particular real world scenario. For example, many enterprises will have already deployed some solid state drives (SSD) into their disk-based systems, either on the host side as expanded data caches or on the storage side as cache or Tier 1 storage. The possible SSD configurations are too numerous for inclusive testing, but in every case the performance trace would certainly fall somewhere between the physical and the virtual with IBM FlashSystem traces noted above. SSDs will improve performance over pure disk-based storage in vCloud environments. But no SSDs will provide the high level of application performance, consistent microsecond latency, storage density, system reliability, and VAAI/VASA integration benefits offered all in one simple-to-deploy platform: IBM FlashSystem V9000.
The test results make it immediately clear that IBM FlashSystem provides significant performance benefits in the vCloud environment, in the range of a 157 percent improvement over the non-virtualized, disk-based configuration. Interestingly, performance actually increased from the 100,000 TPM achieved in the baseline physical/disk test case to 150,000 TPM when the test server was generated by vSphere but still backed by disk storage. Then note the dramatic leap in performance when the test LUNs were hosted on IBM FlashSystem. System TPM increases by more than double, to nearly 400,000. Perhaps the most important results were generated by the Virtual and Compressed test case. When IBM Real-time Compression was enabled, TPM performance dropped insignificantly.
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IBM Systems Technical White Paper
Conclusion
For more information
Testing conducted by IBM and supported by VMware confirms the interoperability of vCloud and IBM FlashSystem. The two industry-leading products, when working together, provide extraordinary benefits. Data pattern analyses can easily confirm the increased IT infrastructure resource efficiencies and utilization rates produced by vCLoud when compared to non-virtualized environments. When IBM FlashSystem storage is added to the mix–thanks to the synergies between FlashSystem, Spectrum Control Base, and VMware VASA and VAAI, plus the market-leading performance offered by the all-flash storage arrays – overall IT infrastructure performance more than doubled in IBM benchmark testing.
To learn more about accelerating VMware vCloud with IBM FlashSystem, please contact your IBM representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit the following website: ibm.com/systems/storage/flash
With the tight integration and multi-dimensional advantages offered by VMware vCloud and IBM FlashSystem, now enterprises of all types can lower costs and IT complexity, derive much greater value from big data and analytics, and shift significant resources away from managing infrastructure and toward increasing innovation and competitive advantage.
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© Copyright IBM Corporation 2015 IBM Corporation Software Group Route 100 Somers, NY 10589 Produced in the United States of America August 2015 IBM, ibm.com, the IBM logo, IBM FlashSystem, IBM FlashCore, MicroLatency, Real-time Compression, IBM Spectrum Control, IBM Spectrum Storage, and System Storage are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Other product and service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at “Copyright and trademark information” at www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml. Microsoft and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. Intel is a trademark or registered trademark of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. This document is current as of the initial date of publication and may be changed by IBM at any time. Not all offerings are available in every country in which IBM operates. THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND ANY WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF NON-INFRINGEMENT. IBM products are warranted according to the terms and conditions of the agreements under which they are provided. Please Recycle
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