StoreVirtual Storage
1748227 Members
4521 Online
108759 Solutions
New Discussion

Re: IOPS for the p4300G2 StoreVirtual and 1 Gb/sec network

 
A.W.R
Frequent Advisor

IOPS for the p4300G2 StoreVirtual and 1 Gb/sec network

Hi,

 

I am trying to get an idea of how many IOPS are possible using the HP P4300G2 16TB SAN Starter kit (i.e. 2 P4300G2 nodes each with 8 by 1TB drives in a RAID 5 configuration with network RAID 1 providing 6.2TB of usable stroage). Each node has 2 by 1Gb/sec bonded network ports.

 

We have are now looking at deploying 3 by StoreVirtual P4330 nodes. Each node has 8 by 1TB HDD configured iin RAID 5, and 4 by 1Gb/sec network ports. We will be using Network RAID 5 between the nodes.

 

Can anyone advise how many IOps are possible in the first configuration? If the second configuration is faster (how many IOPS), how much improvement can we expect? Is the network a limiting factor?

 

Thanks

Andrew

7 REPLIES 7
oikjn
Honored Contributor

Re: IOPS for the p4300G2 StoreVirtual and 1 Gb/sec network

its an impossible question to ask because you don't specify your IO size or Read/Write distribution or if its random/consecutive.

 

That said, the general rule of thumb is something like 50 IOPS for SATA, 75 IOPS for SAS7.2k, 100 IOPS for SAS10k, and 150 IOPS for SAS15k.  The 50/75/100/150 might be off, it might be 75/100/150/200 or something else, I can't remember exactly and haven't needed it in a while.

 

You could read up on IO costs for raid levels and IO capacity of disks and figure out what the raw disk capacity you are dealing with on that starter san, but given the way you asked your question, that is a LOT to learn real quick and I would suggest you just go to an HP sales rep and ask them.  The SAN isn't a cheap purchase and they are generally more than happy to walk through anything you need to make you feel more comfortable with the purchase.  If you aren't gettting the response you want from HP driect, go to someone like cdw and they will be more than happy to help you.

 

BTW, if the sales person doesn't want to setup some monitoring on your current systems to determine your actual load, find another sales person.

AmanaLiving
Advisor

Re: IOPS for the p4300G2 StoreVirtual and 1 Gb/sec network

One thing I did notice when comparing the P4300 G2's and the newer P4330, was the SAS in the 4300's were 15k RPM where as the 4330 were only 10k RPM.

They 4330 uses 2.5 inch disks so technically it should be similar on the seek times. I have posted here before asking how people would integrate the newer 4330's into an existing 4300 cluster but got no reply.

Another thing the 4300's go EOL very shortly, if not already. We have just ordered our SANs yesterday and hopefully there are still some P4300's in stock.
oikjn
Honored Contributor

Re: IOPS for the p4300G2 StoreVirtual and 1 Gb/sec network

think of adding nodes to your san like adding HDDs to a raid group.  If you plan on putting the new nodes in the same cluster as your existing nodes, you really should get identical new nodes or you are either going to waste capacity or speed.  Remember, just like traditional raid, your capacity is limited by the smallest HDD (or node in this case) and your speed is limited by the slowest HDD (or node in this case).

 

I don't know the difference in specs of those nodes you mentioned offhand, but if they aren't very closely similar, I would avoid adding them to the same cluter.  If you just need SAN space and don't need it as a single cluster, then get the new node types since they are not EOL and just make a new cluster for them.

A.W.R
Frequent Advisor

Re: IOPS for the p4300G2 StoreVirtual and 1 Gb/sec network

Hi,

 

It is a standard configuration using the default parameters,

Random Mix 8K: Read 60 / Write 40

 

Is there an industry expected IOPS for a 1Gb/sec networking taken into account that the iSCSI protocol is used?

 

Thanks

Andrew

oikjn
Honored Contributor

Re: IOPS for the p4300G2 StoreVirtual and 1 Gb/sec network

not that I'm aware of.  The theorecial max 8K IOPS for 1Gb is something like 14.2KIOP assuming you are using jumbo frames that handle the entire cluster in one packet.

 

You are more likely going to be limited by the HDD spindle speeds unless you are using SSDs which would then most likely be limited by the CPU speed. 

 

You seem very concerned about these numbers.  If you are serious about making a purchase, you really should talk with a sales engineer and determine your actual usage profile.

Emilo
Trusted Contributor

Re: IOPS for the p4300G2 StoreVirtual and 1 Gb/sec network

Keep in mind these are only estimates

 

RAID 5 /900 IOPS

RAID 6 /700 IOPS

RAID 10 /1200 IOPS

 

These numbers are for the pair and assume HW RAID-5

 

 

ryan_1212
Advisor

Re: IOPS for the p4300G2 StoreVirtual and 1 Gb/sec network

under my workload, on a P4300G2 4 node NR10 cluster, the CMC typically reports a max of about 1200IOPs, and 50MB/s throughput.  If I use the snmp data returned by each node for the mib called "lefthand raid IOPs" on each node and add them together, it averages 1,300 IOPs and peaks at 2,800 IOPs.  The CMC and smnp data have never agreed... the lefthand cluster iops mib also reveals a completely different number than the sum of raid IOPs and the cluster iops in the CMC.

 

Very hard to measure, but it is at least something to help with planning and monitoring. btw cacti is an amazing tool for this!