EMC VFCache is a Simple Read Cache

I was not pre-briefed on this product, and I’m not all that thrilled at the prospect of attending a launch webinar, so what you read here is based on my own research and reading of the available information as of this morning.

When EMC announced Project Lightning last year, company insiders expressed surprise to me. It seems that many had never heard of the project, and those that had didn’t think it was far enough along to be announced. I didn’t even bother to write about the Project Lightning announcement at the time. But today EMC unveils the production product that came out of Project Lightning.

VFCache is a filter driver that caches writes

EMC VFCache appears to be a simple and straightforward offering:

1. A PCIe SSD from Micron or LSI sits in the server and acts as a read cache to accelerate performance
2. EMC software also runs on the server, snooping on I/O and filling the cache with relevant data

There’s not a lot more to the product than that. EMC will sell the PCIe SSD and bundled software as VFCache, and will no doubt market the heck out of this product. Perhaps the only novel twist is the so-called “split-card” mode, which allows the card to act as a write cache. But EMC only supports this for transient “throwaway” data with direct attached storage (DAS) as a backend. There’s no way a conservative, enterprise focused company like EMC would risk sanctioning a writeback cache with no redundancy or data protection features.

VFCache uses a filter driver installed in the VM guest

Perhaps the biggest limitation of the initial VFCache offering is its limited applicability to enterprise server virtualization environments. VFCache uses a filter driver installed in each VM guest, and includes no hypervisor drivers though there is a vCenter plug-in. This makes VMware vMotion very tricky, involving scripting to remove and re-add storage. This means VMware SRM will not easily work, and there is no support for clustering, either.

This is no surprise, since VFCache appears to the host as a local storage volume (AKA, a disk drive or LUN) which would disappear if a virtual machine is moved to another server. Virsto solved this problem by virtualizing storage presentation to the hypervisor, and Fusion-io’s ioTurbine software does not interfere with vMotion either. EMC will likely go in this direction in the future, but it’s a big hole in the product for now.

You might also like reading Micron Bursts Into the PCIe SSD Market to learn more about the card EMC is using

The News: EMC Is in the Host-Based Storage Business

The primary use case for this product is server I/O acceleration. This is desperately needed, as applications and servers are rapidly outrunning the capabilities of conventional storage arrays. EMC and other legacy array manufacturers initially tried to address this I/O imbalance with tiered storage and in array caching. Indeed, these technologies are fairly effective at accelerating the performance of conventional disk storage arrays.

But flash manufacturers like Fusion-io (not to mention Micron and LSI) absolutely demolished storage array performance with their in-server offerings. EMC faced the prospect of losing out on the high-performance storage market. EMC simply could not allow their bread-and-butter enterprise customers to look elsewhere for strategic, high-performance storage for high-profile applications.

VFCache gives EMC salespeople a silver bullet when customers demand maximum performance, but this launch may not spell doom for the flash startups. For one thing, it legitimizes host-based flash cards as a viable component of enterprise storage architectures. It also opens the door to comparison between SAN storage and non–SAN alternatives that go well beyond what EMC is currently offering.

Shared Flash Storage Is on Deck: Project Thunder

"Project Thunder" will externalize the PCIe flash cards over a high-performance "Server Area Network"

As part of the VFCache introduction, EMC is also talking about Project Thunder, a shared version of VFCache. At the very least, thunder will allow multiple servers to access a shared pool of flash cache. This should allow VMware vMotion and DRS to function, and could be much more than that.

EMC could build a high-availability, high-performance all-flash storage array that may even use InfiniBand as an interconnect. The new Nimbus Data E-Class storage array matches this description perfectly, and their CEO tells me that performance over InfiniBand is indeed comparable to in-server PCIe flash cards. It seems logical for EMC to enter this market, if only to disrupt the momentum of Fusion-io and the rest of the all-flash storage upstarts.

Read more about the Nimbus E-Class: The First Big, Redundant, All-Flash Enterprise Array

The only fly in the ointment here is the recent consolidation of the InfiniBand market. Mellanox bought Voltaire, and QLogic sold out to Intel, putting that protocol on tenuous grounds. Perhaps 40 or 100 Gb Ethernet will emerge as a viable alternative for high-performance connectivity, or perhaps these products will retrench on shared PCI Express instead. Micron recently purchased Virtensys for just such a product, and Xsigo has been making big waves in the area of converged I/O as well. The market clearly need something better than Fibre Channel for maximum performance storage, even if InfiniBand isn’t it.

Stephen’s Stance

EMC VFCache (née Project Lightning) is a fairly simple offering: A server-based PCIe flash card that acts as a read cache with no integration with storage arrays or hypervisors. But EMC’s entrance into the host-based flash storage market is a powerful demonstration of the wave of disruption caused by flash-based storage and high-performance computing. Although I am not all that impressed with the product itself, I would be distressed if EMC had not introduced it.

VFCache illustrations are copyright EMC Corporation and are used here with permission

More solid, independent VFCache coverage:

• EMC Enters The Market With “Me Too” Flash Products (Chris Evans)
• Cache Splash and Complex is the new Simple (Martin Glassborow)

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2012. | EMC VFCache (aka “Project Lightning”) Is One Small Step, But an Important One
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Gestalt IT, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Today’s announcement of the E-Class storage array is an important milestone for Nimbus Data and solid-state storage in the enterprise. Until now, most solid-state storage arrays have been fairly small-scale, focused on point performance rather than enterprise-wide capacity. But the E-Class, which scales to 500 TB and sports a redundant, multi-protocol interface, is the first all-flash array to go toe to toe at the top of the market.

The State of Solid

No one would deny that solid-state storage is making a huge impact on the market. With mind-bending performance and reduced power requirements, flash memory matches up nicely with modern data center requirements. But the one missing element has always been capacity: NAND flash is more expensive than magnetic disks on a gigabyte by gigabyte basis.

Check out my 4 Horsemen series for more on the issues of disk!

The solid-state enterprise storage market started with point products targeted at specific needs within the data center. Companies like Texas Memory Systems and Violin have long supported the most challenging database applications with their external arrays, while Fusion-io, Virident, Micron and others stashed flash within the server. These companies were able to sell expensive storage into performance-hungry niches, but have found it difficult to address the capacity needs of the broader storage market.

Technology has the answer to this challenge, as demonstrated by Pure Storage, Nimbus, SolidFire, and others. Thin provisioning makes up much of the difference in cost, and deduplication or compression can even bring parity on a per-capacity cost basis. And even with these features turned on, solid-state storage arrays absolutely murder spinning disks in terms of random I/O performance.

Accumulating Nimbus

Unlike Whiptail, Pure Storage, Kaminario, SolidFire, and the rest of the startup crowd, Nimbus Data is not a new company. Founded by former TrueSAN wunderkind, Thomas Isakovich, Nimbus began as a disk storage startup before transitioning to an all-flash lineup two years ago. The company has steadily improved its product line over the years, adding NFS and SMB for a unified storage experience as well as InfiniBand for extreme performance.

Unlike most other companies in the space, Nimbus builds their own flash memory modules from raw NAND. This allows the company to avoid some of the tricky engineering required to qualify and adapt to the peculiarities of existing consumer or enterprise SSD modules. It also gives the company greater control and better flexibility to launch new capacity points when they are ready, rather than when their suppliers give the go-ahead.

Nimbus is rolling out a dual-PCB SSD module which doubles performance and capacity

The E-Class includes a new dual-PCB module which stripes data internally for better performance and capacity. This bumps each Nimbus E2000X enclosure to 20 TB, twice the capacity previously achieved, in just two rack units. And each of these enclosures draws as little as 100 W, allowing them to be stacked tall without exceeding the power capacity of typical datacenters.

E Is for Enterprise

The real innovation in the Nimbus E-Class is a brand-new “dual active” redundant controller architecture. Most previous solid-state arrays had a single controller, requiring users to mirror two entire arrays for high-availability. In contrast, most enterprise storage systems feature multiple active controllers with no single point of failure.

Read Multipath: Active/Passive, Dual Active, and Active/Active to understand what I’m on about here!

The E-Class introduces a new controller architecture for Nimbus. Each controller services all access to a LUN or volume until a failure is detected, in which case the alternate controller immediately comes online. But both controllers can have active storage at once, in what I call a “dual active” scenario. Although not truly “active/active”, the E-Class is in a different league from older single controller arrays.

Interestingly, the performance of Nimbus’ solid-state enclosures is high enough that the controllers do not need to mirror internal cache or hash tables. They simply write them out to SSD to be picked up in the event of a failure. This simplifies engineering for a dual controller system, and may lead to additional controllers added in the future.

Straightforward Pricing

Solid-state storage provides much more performance per dollar than spinning disk, but most customers still pay on a raw capacity basis. Rather than rocking the boat with alternative pricing models, Nimbus sticks to a straightforward method: $25,000 per controller, plus $100,000 per 10 TB enclosure. A minimum E-Class configuration includes two controllers and one enclosure for $150,000 with no extra cost for software licensing or features.

This seems fairly expensive for 10 TB of storage, but is actually quite competitive even with disk-based storage systems in the high-end, high-feature enterprise market. Thin provisioning increases the usable capacity of the E-Class, and the all SSD architecture means performance will not suffer. Unlike PCIe solutions, the E-Class is a shared, networked device and can be used by many servers at once.

Features and More Features

Speaking of features, Nimbus includes just about anything you could ask for in a storage array:

• In-line thin provisioning and deduplication
• Snapshots and synchronous or asynchronous replication
• 10 Gb NFS (2, 3, and 4) as well as SMB (CIFS/SMB1 and, SMB2)
• 10 Gb iSCSI
• 8 Gb Fibre Channel
• 40 Gb QDR InfiniBand

Although it has not yet been announced, Nimbus has added VMware VAAI support to the HALO operating system found in the S- and E-Class arrays. The company will support the major block storage components for vSphere 5: Block zeroing, atomic test and set, and full copy. Tom told me that Nimbus found the T10 interfaces fairly straightforward to implement but are still working on the NFS primitives. Although Nimbus does not yet have a vCenter plug-in, I expect that one is in the works.

Tom also tells me Nimbus is a “hypervisor hugger“, in that they intend to support features there rather than try to add them to the array. This is a smart choice for a smaller company, and I am glad to see Nimbus embracing the server virtualization market. I imagine an array like the E-Class would totally demolish any competing disk-based array in a virtual infrastructure deployment!

Stephen’s Stance

Nimbus has always been an interesting company, with a longer history in the storage world than most startups. Their switch to all-flash architecture was perfectly timed with the market shift, and the new E-Class comes just at the right moment. Boasting 500 TB of maximum capacity, a fully redundant “dual active” controller architecture, massive performance (even InfiniBand), and complete feature set (once VAAI is released), Nimbus may have hit on their hands.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2012. | Nimbus E-Class: The First Big, Redundant, All-Flash Enterprise Array
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Gestalt IT, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

The Micron P400e is a mainstream SSD for enterprise server use

Solid-state drives (SSD’s) have been around for a while, but they have never been a mainstream alternative for enterprise server booting and applications. SSD’s were positioned as high-performance storage for special use cases and were too expensive for mainstream adoption. But that might change with the latest generation of SSD’s, as exemplified by the new Micron P400e that recently landed on my front doorstep.

“Just Right” For the Mainstream

When Ford introduced the midsized Taurus automobile in 1986, many predicted that it would be a failure. The large front wheel drive car with futuristic “jellybean” styling was just too different from existing Ford models. But the car became a huge success in the United States, selling over 2,000,000 examples in that first generation in becoming the standard for American families and business people.

The magic of the Ford Taurus was its “just right” nature: it was big enough for a family but not so big they could not easily be driven; it was luxurious enough for a businessman but not overly expensive or ostentatious; it was forward-looking but approachable. From a design standpoint, the Taurus was radically different in that it was engineered by a single team inside and out and based on up-to-date yet mature technology.

The new Micron P400e SSD is a lot like the Ford Taurus: it’s roomy enough for everyone, fast yet affordable, and up-to-date if not cutting-edge. Like the Taurus, I expect major server builders to buy P400e SSD’s by the handful. In the early 1990′s, HP bought a Taurus for every mobile worker. Today, I could definitely see a company like HP equipping every server with the “just right” P400e SSD.

Solid Performance and Capacity

The Micron P400e and C300 have nearly-identical performance characteristics

The P400e combines Micron’s proven 6 Gb/s SATA SSD controller with MLC flash but adds enterprise features like hot plug support and full data path protection. Unlike earlier enterprise SSD’s, which focused on performance with expensive SLC flash chips, the P400e “makes do” with mainstream components. Micron SSD’s have a solid history of reliability (I’ve bought two myself) and the P400e enhances this with enterprise class software.

Micron sent me a P400e SSD to test, and I have been pounding on it for over a month now. Installed in my Sandy Bridge test rig, the P400e boots quickly, performs smoothly, and is much quieter than any hard disk drive (HDD). I connected it to the 6 Gb/s SATA port on my ASUS P8H67–M Pro motherboard.

For comparison purposes, I also attached and tested a Micron C300 SSD. Both Micron SSD’s were large capacity models that should perform better than smaller, cheaper versions. Although the P400e is available in 50, 100, and 200 GB sizes, Micron provided me with the 400 GB model. My C300 tester is a 256 GB example.

For testing, I used ATTO Disk Benchmark under Windows 8 Server Developer Preview, set to overlapped I/O and a queue depth of 4. Both drives performed nearly identically in this test, leveling off at between 200 and 250 MB/s with 128 kB writes and reads. This translates into over 20,000 IOPS for smaller (512 byte to 4 kB) read and write operations.

The Micron P400e SSD is a solid performer if not a speed demon

Stephen’s Stance

The time has come for an affordable enterprise grade SSD, and Micron has delivered this with the P400e. Although OEM only, this excellent SSD should find its way into end-user hands as server vendors decide to switch their mainstream offerings from spinning hard disk drives to SSD’s. With an excellent combination of performance, features, and low-cost (less than $2 per gigabyte), the P400e really is the mainstream choice.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Micron Builds a Ford Taurus: The P400e SSD Hands-On Review
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Everything, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Many enterprise SSD makers are familiar to storage folks like myself, including Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, Imation, Intel, Samsung, Seagate, and Toshiba. Readers of my blog may also recognize Fusion-io, LSI, Micron, OCZ Technology, Texas Memory Systems, and Viridant from my recent coverage, and may have heard of Solid Access Systems, Anobit, Pliant (now part of SanDisk), and others. But some names remain unfamiliar, at least for now. And others, notably Nimbus Data and Violin Memory, are puzzlingly missing from the StorageNewsletter list.

So here’s my rundown of the enterprise SSD makers to keep an eye on in the coming year!

For fun, I am grouping these by how much contact I had with them over the previous year. Although obviously not the most scientific measure of their impact on the storage world, perhaps this will help highlight those that are reaching out to independent bloggers like myself.

Well-Known SSD Players

See also Micron Bursts Into the PCIe SSD Market

First up is a group of companies that I’m quite familiar with, having recently been briefed on their SSD plans and products.

1. LSI
2. Micron
3. Nimbus Data
4. Texas Memory Systems

Next is a list of companies that, although I have contacts of one sort or another, I eagerly anticipate future briefings regarding SSD technology.

1. Anobit
2. Intel
3. Fusion-io
4. Hitachi GST
5. Seagate Technology
6. Stec
7. Violin Memory

SSD Contenders

See also Toshiba Offers “Blade” SSDs (Like Apple’s MacBook Air)

I have spotted the following companies at conferences, in industry publications, and on the web and feel that I am somewhat familiar with their SSD plans. But I welcome any opportunity to get to know them better, and encourage them to contact me via e-mail or by telephone.

1. OCZ Technology
2. Imation
3. Samsung
4. SanDisk / Pliant Technology
5. Solid Access
6. Toshiba
7. Viking Modular Solutions
8. Virident Systems

Who?!?

I was surprised to see this set of companies listed in the StorageNewsletter article, and more surprised when I went to their website and found that they were working on genuine and interesting enterprise SSD products. I would love to get in contact with folks at these companies so I can learn more about what they are up to!

1. BiTMICRO Networks
2. Foremay
3. Macrotron Systems
4. pureSilicon
5. RunCore
6. Smart Modular Technologies
7. Super Talent

Stephen’s Stance

In all, I located 25 companies that build solid-state storage devices for the enterprise market. My quick examination of their websites (or previous knowledge of the companies) reveals a wonderful and vibrant culture of innovation around solid-state storage technology. Watch this space over the next year, since I intend to cover the SSD space in detail!

I would like to thank Jean-Jacques Maleval for spurring my research into these enterprise SSD companies. He is really doing a great job over at StorageNewsletter, and I recommend that you subscribe!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | My Incomplete, Subjective List of Enterprise SSD Companies
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Personal, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

The Micron RealSSD P320h is more than a new form-factor for the company; it also introduces their RAIN technology

This morning, Micron announced their “RealSSD” P320h SSD, bringing them into the PCIe storage market for the first time. Already a leading supplier of both consumer and enterprise SATA SSDs, as well as the world’s leading supplier of NAND flash in partnership with Intel, this move puts Micron in direct competition with existing suppliers like media darling Fusion IO.

Introducing the RealSSD P320h

The RealSSD P320h SSD can be seen as a PCIe companion to the existing P300 series of enterprise SSDs, but it is much more than that. Micron brands their entire SSD line “RealSSD”, from the consumer grade C300 and C400 (which Crucial sells as the M4) to the enterprise P300. All include Micron’s own SSD controller ASICs and flash memory modules, offering greater levels of integration and profitability for the company.

The P320h seems similar to the recently introduced P300 in terms of componentry, but the PCIe interface puts it into a different realm of performance. Although Micron’s RealSSD line is lauded for its 6 Gb SATA interface, an internal PCI express card like that P320h blows the doors off any disk interface. Micron’s presentations show the P320h delivering over many times the IOPS of their already speedy P300! As demonstrated already by numerous competitors, there is no substitute to the low latency I/O performance of a PCIe card.

The RealSSD P320h will initially be offered in two models, both in the full-height half-length PCIe form factor. The 350 GB model offers slightly lower random write performance than its 700 GB big brother, but both boast massive performance numbers. Both use 34 nm SLC flash chips and are built on a 32-channel design.

Massive Performance

The P320h delivers astonishing performance, at least in Micron’s PowerPoint illustrations. My own C300 can push 250 MB per second of sequential writes, and the enterprise class P300 is maybe a bit faster. But the P320h is rated at 2 GB per second sustained sequential write performance, nearly an order of magnitude faster. It would be difficult find an application, let alone a server, that could sustain this kind of throughput for long.

Micron boasts industry-beating throughput

Even more important than throughput is I/O performance. SSDs like my C300 excel at servicing I/O requests, and are rated at 30,000 to 45,000 random 4K write IOPS. Again, the P300 is able to match this level of performance while providing five-year reliability for enterprise applications. But the P320h delivers nearly 350,000 4K write IOPS, besting the fastest and most expensive enterprise storage arrays in existence.

Micron's IOPS claims are astonishing

Note that all numbers in these charts are from the manufacturers’ own specification sheets: Micron P320h, Fusion I/O ioDRIVE DUO, TMS RamSan-70, LSI WarpDrive SLP-300, OCZ Z-Drive R2 e88, Virident tachIOn. I have included two of Micron’s RealSSD SATA drives for comparison purposes: Micron P300, Micron/Crucial C300.

Benchmarks should always be taken with a grain of salt, and manufacturer spec-sheet claims are doubly dubious. But Micron makes these claims, and it won’t be long before these devices are independently benchmarked.

Digging Deeper Into the Hardware: RAIN Reliability

The P320h is a first for Micron in a number of ways. Along with being their first PCIe card, it also is the first SSD to feature Micron’s so-called RAIN architecture and RealSSD Manager software. The P320h includes optimized drivers for Windows and Linux to further improve performance, but Micron is leaving it to partners to integrate the SSD with operating systems, hypervisors, or applications.

RAIN is Micron’s answer to concerns about SSD reliability in the enterprise. Although already using ultra-reliable SLC chips, the P320h introduces a raid like technology Micron calls Redundant Array of Independent NAND, or RAIN for short. Reminiscent of SandForce’s Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements (RAISE), RAIN arranges flash memory chips in a 7+1 arrangement to improve reliability and recoverability in the event of a failure.

Micron claims that this combination of intelligent controllers, RAIN, and SLC memory chips delivers top-notch reliability. The company measures reliability in terms of the number of full drive fills that can be sustained per day for five years. They claim that enterprise customers demand SSDs that can sustain 30 fills per day for five years, or an incredible 54,750 drive fills. That’s 25 PB of data written for 350 gig unit or 50 PB for the big 750 GB P320h!

Putting things another way, if the 700 GB P320h was pounded with sequential data at its rated maximum of 2 GB per second, it would take over nine months to wear out this drive. Just in case the customer expects to hammer on the drive constantly, they may use the RealSSD Manager software to throttle performance and ensure reliability to a given date.

Stephen’s Stance

PCIe SSDs like Micron’s new P320h offer mindbending performance and enterprise class reliability. Although expensive, these devices are in an entirely different league from any other storage option. Micron promises to bring the PCIe P320h to market at nearly $15 per gigabyte, a substantial discount over other PCIe SSD competitors. But the card will still cost more than $5000, making it an expensive add-on for most servers.

The challenge in enterprise storage is not delivering absolute capacity or performance any longer. Today’s challenge is making that capacity and performance available to applications and, ultimately, and users in the form of improved satisfaction or profitability. Micron is moving the ball forward on the hardware front, but my focus remains on software providers that will deliver this performance in a usable form for applications, hypervisors, and operating systems.

And what’s next from Micron? I expect a SAS HDD-form factor SSD shortly, and perhaps a line of PCI Express Mini Cards or “Blade” SSDs might follow.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Micron Bursts Into the PCIe SSD Market
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Gestalt IT, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

The Iomega StorCenter PX4 is both an evolution of the older IX4 and the start of a new line of business-focused devices

Iomega today announced a new line of small desktop and rackmount storage devices. The PX Series addresses many of the limitations of the IX line, bringing high-performance CPUs, SSD, “bring your own drive” options, and “personal cloud” data protection. But the PX will not replace the recently-refreshed IX; instead, it segments the market between home office (IX) and small business (PX).

A Look Back At the IX

I have been ambivalent about Iomega’s IX line of StorCenter devices since they appeared in 2009. Although they bring impressive features like iSCSI and multimedia at a low cost, devices like the ix4-200d in my lab left me wanting more. This was especially true in the area of performance, where the 4-drive ix4 delivered a mediocre 25-30 MB/s of iSCSI throughput in my testing.

The core issue for the ix4 was its reliance of an under-powered embedded CPU and modest 512 MB of integrated DRAM. It was nice to have a sub-$1000 iSCSI array for VMware ESX and Microsoft Windows Server testing, but there was no way I would deploy it in a production business environment. The performance issue was addressed with the ix12-200r, but it came at a steeper price and that rack-mount device was not intended for use outside the data center.

Another concern about the IX was its dizzying set of features. One got the feeling that EMC’s engineers were given free rein when adding features to the StorCenter’s “LifeLine” platform, and the result was something of a mess. This improved with each successive release, but the IX feels like a servant of too many masters: Is it a home multimedia device, a security server, an office file server, or an iSCSI target for virtualization?

PX: A New Level of Performance?

The PX changes everything, or appears to at least. Clearly aimed at the small business and remote office market, the PX promises an enterprise feature set and the horsepower needed to deliver serious performance.

		PX4-300d	PX6-300d	PX4-300r
Form Factor		Desktop		Rack-Mount
Disk Slots		4	6	4
CPU		Intel Atom D525		Intel Celeron
RAM		2 GB SO-DIMM

Let’s start with the brain. All StorCenter PX devices include a dual-core Intel CPU: An Atom D525 in the PX4 and PX6 desktop models and a Celeron multi-core in the rack-mount PX4. All three models also feature 2 GB of RAM, and SSD can be used for high-performance applications. The StorCenter operating system should perform much better on this platform, which is reminiscent of the existing ix12 array. Expect that device to be refreshed shortly with SSD support and perhaps a Sandy Bridge CPU.

The new devices have been completely redesigned mechanically. The PX4 is similar in total volume to the IX4, though it appears smaller since it is taller and skinnier. The PX6 is a veritable tower, while the rack-mount PX4 has a conventional look but adds an optional swappable power supply and redundant fans for datacenter use.

Flexible Drive Options

Iomega has added "bring your own drive" capability to the PX line

There are three firsts in terms of drive support:

1. Iomega has added a “bring your own drive” (BYOD) option, allowing end users to buy an empty or partially-populated PX device and add supported drives in the future. The software does not support dissimilar drives as flexibly as some competitors, but this lowers the price point substantially.
2. The PX Series supports solid state drives (SSDs), as we will discuss in a moment.
3. Finally, the included drive carriers now support 2.5-inch drives, though capacity and price points make this less interesting except when it comes to SSDs.

This is a big step forward for Iomega, who has long required their own drives to be used in these devices. Iomega will ship 1, 2, and 3 TB Hitachi 7200 rpm Deskstar drives at first, but may add other options in the future. I expect a low-power “green” drive from Seagate or Western Digital.

The PX Series approved vendor list (AVL) includes many popular options, including the Hitachi Deskstar, Seagate Barracuda (including the LP line) and Western Digital Caviar and Green. The company has created an area in their support forums for customers to discuss other drive options, though only AVL-listed drives are supported. Since many of these drives are 4K natively, the PX Series should have no trouble with the shift to Advanced Format.

SSD Ahoy!

The introduction of solid state disk (SSD) storage is a major step forward. Iomega will use the excellent Micron C400 (aka Crucial M4) SSD in 128 or 256 GB capacity points. These  are installed in pairs and will typically be used as a RAID 1 mirror for performance-sensitive data. The best application for the SSD, therefore, is the 6-bay PX6-300d, along with a 4-disk RAID 5 set.

There is no automated storage tiering or SSD caching in the Iomega PX series. Administrators simply create RAID sets, LUNs, and shares on SSD or HDD and manually place data there based on need. It is possible to leverage the StorCenter’s included “copy job” functionality to create a rudimentary tiering system, but it seems likely that most users will rely on manual data placement.

It will be interesting to see what the combination of the dual-core 1.8 GHz Atom CPU and C400 SSD will offer in terms of performance. This represents a “maximum speed” configuration for the Iomega device and will likely set a new benchmark in the segment. Although just two Gigabit Ethernet ports are available for connectivity (no 10 GbE or USB 3.0), iSCSI and NFS performance should be very respectable. Iomega tells me they will be demonstrating a VMware VDI “boot storm” scenario using a PX6 with SSDs at EMC World next week.

Updated Software

Beyond the hardware, Iomega has revved the LifeLine software stack for performance, features, and integration. Iomega previewed many of these updates in the “Cloud Edition” versions of the IX2 and IX2 products earlier this year. This includes a cleaner interface as well as “Personal Cloud” software for SOHO or small business users.

The Personal Cloud is pretty clever, allowing different devices (StorCenter, IX Cloud, PX, PC and Mac) to share data using a peer-to-peer architecture. Desktop users experience Personal Cloud similar to Dropbox, using Explorer or Finder to mount a volume for drag and drop copies. This Iomega technology can be accessed remotely or scripted for data distribution between locations.

Owners of older Iomega IX devices can’t officially upgrade to Personal Cloud, but I’m told it is possible. Call the support team and ask for help. Sadly, this upgrade is destructive to data, so back up first!

One important change (necessitated by the BYOD option) is that the LifeLine operating system image is stored in (and executed from) flash rather than on the disks. The iSCSI stack finally supports SCSI-3 persistent reservations and trusted domains for clustering, and Iomega also promise that the updated iSCSI target software performs better with simultaneous file and block traffic.

Pricing and Availability

The PX Series is shipping to resellers now, and will be in end-user hands next week. Pricing is up from previous offerings, but still reasonable, especially in BYOD configurations. CDW has an exclusive on the pre-populated models, but others will sell BYOD versions (and the pre-populated arrays after 30 days).

Iomega will continue to sell the IX lineup for SOHO users but will focus on the PX for business and server use cases.

Stephen’s Stance

The StorCenter PX line is a major step forward for Iomega. The BYOD option is welcome, as is SSD performance and improved specs. With official Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Windows Server, and VMware ESX support, the PX is finally up to the task of business computing. We look forward to putting these new devices through their paces in the future!

Strategically, it makes sense for Iomega to segment their “network storage” offerings into the home/home office-oriented IX line and business-focused PX series. I would prefer even stronger differentiation and perhaps the elimination of home media features from the PX line. It pains me to mention it, but perhaps the IX no longer needs iSCSI support, since it was so woefully underpowered and unable to deliver on the promise of block storage. At least these features should be de-emphasized since they don’t appeal to the intended audience of the products.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Iomega StorCenter PX Series Preview
This post was categorized as Apple, Enterprise storage, Features, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

"So it is down to you, and it is down to me."

Seagate and Western Digital appear to have locked up the majority of the hard disk drive (HDD) market with their respective acquisitions of Samsung and Hitachi’s business. Leaving Toshiba with just a sliver, the American companies will soon become giants, each with more than 40% of the total HDD share and a full line of products. Despite the noise made by solid-state disk (SSD) lovers, the HDD market is likely to continue to rake in profits for decades, and these two giants will battle it out for the foreseeable future.

Western Digital Looks To The Enterprise

Originally maker of integrated circuit chips, Western Digital entered the storage market in the early 1980s, producing hard disk drive controllers. It wasn’t until 1988 that Western Digital produced its first hard disk drive, after acquiring Tandon. These were decidedly low-end products, competing in the desktop PC business with the likes of Quantum and Maxtor, two companies that would later merge and sell to arch-rival Seagate.

Western Digital moved steadily upmarket after the year 2000, expanding buffer cache and platter speeds. This culminated in the Raptor line, the first 10,000 rpm serial ATA (SATA) hard disk drive, and Western Digital is still known as a purveyor of high-performance desktop hard disk drives today. The VelociRaptor, for example, is popular among gamers for its small low-latency platters and high spindle speed.

Although Western Digital sells a wide variety of hard disk drives, they’re not a familiar face in the enterprise storage market. They’ve produced a number of raid storage devices but have never been able to break in the high-end, and have similarly been left out of many OEM contracts.

All this will change shortly, as Western Digital will soon acquire Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST). Formed as a merger of the hard disk drive businesses of IBM and Hitachi, HGST is a formidable competitor in many OEM areas, including enterprise storage. The combined company will control nearly half the storage market, offering products in every niche.

Toshiba looks mighty tiny next to Seagate/Samsung and Western Digital/HGST!

Seagate Expands In Asia

In contrast to Western Digital, Seagate is a familiar name in much of the storage market. Founded by a group of industry legends, including Al Shugart and Finis Conner, Seagate move rapidly from the personal computer space into the enterprise. By the late 1990s, Seagate was prime supplier for enterprise storage companies, competing with IBM and Hitachi.

Although formerly dominant, Seagate was surpassed in market share by Western Digital even before they acquired HGST. The new Western Digital would have dwarfed Seagate, whose 30% market share left them in a distant second place. It is perhaps easier to understand Western Digital’s moves that Seagate’s, but there is much logic in acquiring the hard disk drive assets of Samsung.

First, the transaction, worth 1 1/3 billion dollars, bring Seagate back within spitting distance of the new Western Digital. It also opens up the vast Asian OEM market, where Samsung has had much success, and guarantees a market for Seagate hard disk drives in Samsung products. But the relationship between these two companies goes much further: Samsung and Seagate are now related companies, just as Hitachi and Western Digital will be once the acquisition is complete. In both cases, the new companies will have a strong East-West alliance.

The NAND Angle

Although much of the attention in both transactions has revolved around a hard disk drive business, one should not overlook the solid-state implications. Samsung is the world’s largest supplier of NAND flash memory, and Seagate will gain an important relationship with the company. This may be the furthest reaching aspect of the transaction, since Seagate will be able to leverage this relationship as high-performance storage transitions to flash memory.

HGST had already been working with Intel to develop high-performance flash-based storage, and their combination with Western Digital will continue and expand this relationship. Intel, partnered with Micron as IMFT, is another leading supplier of flash memory chips, and the collaboration with HGST looked promising in the enterprise space. Therefore, both companies gain access to key flash memory technology thanks to these transactions.

Stephen’s Stance

Both Seagate and Western Digital have much to gain from these transactions. Western Digital becomes a full line giant of the industry, a credible competitor, and a successful supplier to OEMs. Seagate also retains its credibility in the market, but also gains access to Samsung, one of the strongest electronics companies in the world. Time will tell which of these companies got the better deal.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Seagate Versus Western Digital: The Hard Disk Drive Battle Lines Are Drawn
This post was categorized as Computer History, Enterprise storage, Everything. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Note: This didn’t happen. It was merely a rumor.

The stock market was alive with rumors that Seagate might be bought by an unnamed Chinese company, as reported in the New York Times, among others. This comes after a week of insider whispers about a possible tieup between Seagate and memory-makers, Micron or SanDisk, itself a Seagate spin-off. It seems that the hot disk drive and flash memory markets are shaking as sales heat up and margins thin out. Note that this is far from a done-deal. Rather, Seagate CEO, William Watkins, was merely noting in an interview that there was such an inquiry.

To my eyes, a Seagate buy-out would be little different from the sale of IBM’s disk drive operations to Hitachi back in 2002 or their sale of the PC group to Lenovo two years later. Seagate is a component maker, and although it is a critical piece of the storage industry it is not really a strategic entity. Certainly, the company’s contributions to standards like SATA, SAS, and (yes) hybrid drives are worthwhile, but apart from evault, the company contributes little to the value-added services landscape.

Still, if a buy-out softened scrappy Seagate I would miss the healthy contribution between them, Western Digital, Hitachi, and the other disk vendors. And it would be an end of an era, with Alan Shugart‘s old company going the way of MG Rover and the rest.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2007. | Seagate Going to China?
This post was categorized as Computer History, Enterprise storage, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Tom’s Hardware, one of my favorite nests of geeks, tested a pair of these 32 GB SanDisk drives and came out with some interesting findings. Notable among their findings is the fact that the pathetic random write throughput makes SSDs totally unsuitable to server (read enterprise storage) applications. How does 40 I/O operations per second strike you? Yes, that’s 40, and it’s due to the inherent nature of NAND flash memory and its organization in SSDs. RAID helps some and hurts some – it spreads the load, improving performance, but makes sequential writes even less likely.

But these drive mechanisms aren’t meant for this kind of load – they’re meant for laptops and gamer PCs which heavily lean toward random reads, an area in which solid state disks excel. “Boot Windows in half the time!” (unless you’re comparing the SSD to an actual high-performance disk)

There’s also a little issue of reliability. Well, actually, let’s say longevity. You see, a NAND flash cell is still good for only about 10,000 writes before it becomes a lump. This isn’t much of a problem in a thumb drive or iPod since these don’t actually get written to all that much. Plus, all current SSDs include “wear leveling”, a strategy that maximizes write longevity by moving blocks (on write) to less-used flash cells. So a bigger flash device actually lasts much longer than a smaller one under the same I/O profile because all those extra cells can give their little lives to save your data.

This longevity issue isn’t just academic. Ask anyone with an Unslung NSLU2 booting from a flash drive (yeah, including me) and you’ll hear about failed thumb drives after a year or two of use. No big deal when you’re talking about a $15 item, but what about enterprise storage? I guess EMC and IBM wouldn’t mind forcing you to replace your enterprise storage media every year or two, but how will you feel about it? And what if the NAND was soldered to your motherboard when it failed? Makes Apple’s sealed iPod/iPhone batteries seem trivial, doesn’t it?

Then there’s the issue of cost. A 32 GB SATA SSD drive runs $400 retail, which is about how much you’d pay for a 300 GB SATA 2.5″ laptop drive (if you didn’t get a good deal). In other words, it costs about 10 times more than a comparable spinning drive on a per-GB basis. Lots of companies are investing in flash (iPod effect, anyone?) but NAND prices are not promising to overtake disks any time soon. So we’re left with an exceptionally flawed product.

Of course these drives have no cache – it’s irrelevant, say the manufacturers, in a solid-state device. But write cache might actually improve random write performance substantially, especially if it was backed by a super-smart algorithm to maximize sequential I/O in the same way that Network Appliance’s WAFL optimizes RAID-4.

And if this software also included the wear-leveling smarts, things would be even better. Imagine optimizing writes to kill a single NAND module quickly, sparing the rest of the array. Think tiered storage for longevity instead of cost – frequent write I/O operations go to the sacrificial cells and longer-lasting ones are destaged to the “permanent” ones. Makes media replacement much more palatable, doesn’t it? Add in some smarts and a sizable write-back cache to keep the really transient writes off the flash entirely and you might have something there.

As for cost, consider Mark Lewis’ recent posting about OLTP versus “web” data. He’s telegraphing EMC’s playbook for SSD – smart tiered storage that places small amounts of OLTP data on smart NAND and everything else on regular disks. Sounds workable to me!

One more point to make. Rumor has it, disk giant Seagate is thinking of snapping up memory specialist, Micron. If this isn’t a sign that solid state tech is becoming important to the storage component industry, I don’t know what it is!

So I’m still not too positive on SSD technology. It’ll always be more costly, and the current offerings are woefully inadequate. But I can see a way to make it work in enterprise storage, and I see signs that the big companies are trying to do just that. Wake me when the train arrives, ok?

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2007. | Commercial SSDs Are Here?
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.