NetApp - Storage Nuts & Bolts

Virtual Desktop Ask the Expert Session

Given the strong trend towards returning to thin computing by leveraging various Virtual Desktop technologies, NetApp will be hosting a weeklong "VDI Ask the Expert" discussion in our community forums.

We have identified several internal and well known external experts and bloggers with large scale Virtual Desktop implementation deployment experience that will help answer technical and non-technical questions around Virtual Desktop. If you follow the server virtualization blog-o-sphere, you will know these folks. If you don't, then here's your chance to meet them and ask questions...virtually.

We'll also have a commitment from Citrix and we're in talks with VMware to secure their highly respected resource(s) as well.

Registration

There is no registration for the event and all content can be viewed by logging in as a "guest". However, for those who would like to actively participate by asking specific questions you will need to use your NOW login. If you don't have a NOW login you can request one by following the instructions below. 

Viewing Content using as a Guest

Navigate to the Community page below. By default you will have Guest access be able to view all contents in the forum. http://communities.netapp.com/community/technet/ask_the_expert

For Active Participants

For those of you that would like to actively participate, and ask questions, you will need to use you NOW account, if you have one. If you don't, we ask that you obtain one. NOW accounts are available to anyone.

How do I get a NOW account?

Follow the above link and click on "Login" listed in the Upper Left corner of the screen.  You will then be prompted to enter your NOW account Credentials or Register for a new NOW account. 

Hope to see you there!!

Technorati Tags: VDI Best Practices,Virtual Desktop NetApp,VMware VDI,Citrix VDI,NetApp,Vmware,XenServer

SPEC SFS 2008: The Benefit of the Performance Acceleration Module

Back in August I posted an entry regarding NetApp's Performance Acceleration Module (PAM). To summarize, the PAM card is a 16GB DRAM based read cache integrated with ONTAP that shipped around the middle of 2008. Depending on the platform, up to 5 modules can be installed for a maximum of 80GB of intelligent read cache.

The caching policies implemented as part of ONTAP in conjunction with the usage of the PAM(s) are designed to discern random from sequential reads and hold on to these blocks in cache in order to minimize back-end disk reads which can add latency.

In that article, I also said that an additional PAM benefit is that it can, potentially, provide significant reduction in terms of  the number of disks and shelves to be deployed in order to support the same application(s), thus reducing costs, while providing great response times.

Today, we announced results using the new SPEC SFS 2008 Benchmark  to test 3 configurations. For more on the Specifics of the SPEC SFS 2008 Benchmark, Mike Eisler has a couple of great posts here and here.

The individual benchmarks results can be be found below:

• FAS3140 + 224 15k RPM FC Disks
• FAS3140 + 112 15k RPM FC Disks + 2 PAM Modules (16GB each)
• FAS3140 + 112 7.2k RPM SATA Disks + 2 PAM Modules (16GB each)

However, thru the good work of a co-league of mine, the results from the 3 configurations have been summarized on the below chart:

 

Based on the specific results the conclusion one can easily arrive to is that:

• SATA is a viable option ,given that it is possible to increase storage capacity by 75%, reduce disks by 50% and still achieve highly acceptable levels of performance. 
• Improve response times, by 35% using FC drives while reducing the number of drives by 50%

Starting with DataONTAP 7.2.6.1, we've provided the ability thru the collection of Predictive Cache Statistics (PCS) to determine whether specific workloads will benefit from the deployment of PAM modules and with what significance.

 

Technorati Tags: Performance Acceleration Module,PAM,NetApp SPEC SFS 2008