Performance Analysis of AoE-SAN Using Bonding Interface over RAID

Tody Ariefianto W, ST., MT Electrical and Communication Faculty

Universitas Telkom Bandung, Indonesia

ariefianto@telkomuniversity.ac.id

Leanna Vidya Yovita, ST., MT Electrical and Communication Faculty

Universitas Telkom Bandung, Indonesia

leanna@telkomuniversity.ac.id

Didin Olviovitha P., ST. Electrical and Communication Faculty

Universitas Telkom Bandung, Indonesia

olviovitha@yahoo.com

Abstract—Storage Area Network (SAN) is a media disk system concentrated on network, that allows server or client to use the media disk, as if use local disk. There are some kind of SAN system network protocol, such as ATA over Ethernet (AoE), Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI). In this research, the focus is to explore the performance of AoE-SAN. SAN is implemented using ATA over Ethernet protocol. ATA over Ethernet (AoE) is an open protocol that enables network to access straight to drive disk by client. AoE added a line supplying method block device storage with exploit the network connectivity. AoE-SAN systems performance also tested using RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and no RAID. RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) is a method that implements the accumulation of data on multiple disks to add fault tolerant to the system disk. From the implementation, the highest writing and reading speed is reached when system run with no RAID. RAID 5 give the lowest writing and reading speed. The highest CPU Utilization is reached when system run using RAID 0, and the result similar for the system with no RAID.

Keywords— AoE SAN; RAID; writing speed; reading speed; CPU Utilization.

I. INTRODUCTION Storage system will always become top priority in

Information Technology because integrity, availability and protection of data are very important. Storage Area Network (SAN) will build an independent network for storage devices, making it possible to add a storage device independently without disturbing the servers and network. SAN provide block-level storage access.One of the main features of SAN technology is the out-of-box ideas, which make it possible to expand the storage capabilities to unlimited without the need to turn off storage server. This feature will provide the flexibility for users.[2]

One of solution to implement SAN is using ATA over Ethernet protocol which is capable in passing the data block level. ATA over Ethernet (AoE) is a network protocol that was developed by Coraid Brantlet Company, which is designed with a simplicityto create high-performance access of SATA devices via an ethernet network. This brings the possibility to build our own SAN with low-cost even though the technology was standard. ATA works at Ethernet layer 2. That makes the

system simpler compared with Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI).

A. Storage Area Network[5] Storage Area Network (SAN) is an high-speed

network capable of providing services up to 10Gb/s. So SAN specially implemented as a dedicated network in the data center. SAN as a dedicated network consists of server and storage integrated each other via fiber channel protocol, Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI), or ATA over Ethernet (AoE) protocol and SAN different from the local area network or wide area network. SAN itself was built with the specific purpose of handling large amounts of data traffic between servers and storage devices without reducing the bandwidth available on a local network. In other words, by using a Storage Area Network, each connected initiator will have facilities to get storage media on the network as if it was their local disk.

B. ATA over Ethernet[2] ATA over Ethernet (AoE) is an open standard protocol

that enables client to access disk drive in the network directly. Client is a host that uses a disk drive that would later be called AoE initiator. Server is the one providing access to the disk block that would later be called the AoE target. AoE protocol is focused on requesting message to the AoE target and the reply message will be sent from the AoE target.

Some messages in the form of ATA commands and any data transmitted is interrelated. Some messages sent are also associated with the config or query contained in the AoE. The format of the message that is sent is very simple and has two forms namely ATA message and Config or Query message. Every sent message are attached with a Common Header.

C. Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks[6] RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive

Disks. This method implements the accumulation of data on multiple disks to add fault tolerant to the system disk. RAID also provide a performance improvement of the Input/Output or I/O on the system disk. RAID is divided into several categories which called RAID level to create

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RAID type classifications so it can be used for a variety purposes.

This research implements AoE-SAN system with no RAID, RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 5. In RAID 0, when data is written and read, I/O request will be divided evenly across all drive.Using RAID 1, the data is written simultaneously to other drive. RAID 5 is similar with RAID 0 but it adds parity for data repair and error checking.

(A)

(B)

(C)

FIGURE I. RAID SCHEME , (A) RAID 0, (B) RAID 1, (C) RAID 5

D. Bonding Interface[6] Bonding Interface is a technology that allows users

to bind or combine multiple interfaces such as ethernet into a single virtual link. Bonding interface also known as link aggregation. Bonding Interface has several utilities that made a network using Interface Bonding system has advantages over a network without it, such as: • To obtain the better data distribution capacity:

because bonding interface combines two or more links into a single link which is increases the capacity of the data distribution.

• Ability to link redundancy: since there is a link monitoring mechanism, if one link is lost then the frame distributioncan be transferred via another link.

• Ability to load balancing: traffic from the mac (media access control) client can be distributed into multiple links in bonding.

One of modes in the mode of Bonding Interface is 802.3ad. This mode is an IEEE standard mode where the frame will be sent through each link with the same data rate and full duplex. If one link is lost then the whole frame will be transmitted through the frame that is still connected.

II. SYSTEM MODELIMPLEMENTATION

A. Network Topology The topology of SAN that is implemented was consist of

one FTP server as an initiator server and one server target or a shared disk. There are two client to access data on the FTP server.

FIGURE II. NETWORK TOPOLOGY

Implementation of SAN using AoE protocol was applied

in different network and isolated from the outside network. It was intended to prevent traffic saturation between AoE traffic with other traffic originating from the LAN network to provide maximum access speed. The basic differences between SAN and LAN networks are the traffic flowing in it.

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On the SAN, the traffic is an I/O between disks in target server and the initiator server, while the LAN traffic is a running application traffic that flows between client and server. The initiator server and client are connected with TP-Link Gigabit Switch.

FIGURE III. STORAGE AREA NETWORK

Configuration of AoE-SAN using RAID could be seen on Figure IV, V, VI, and VII

FIGURE IV. NETWORK CONFIGURATION WITH NO RAID

FIGURE V. NETWORK CONFIGURATION WITH RAID 0

FIGURE VI. NETWORK CONFIGURATION WITH RAID 1

FIGURE VII. NETWORK CONFIGURATION WITH RAID 5

III. EVALUATION MODEL

A. Main Hardware Here below we give hardware specification we used: 1. Target server or shared disk provider server; used to

provide a storage media for the initiator server. Specifications used are: • Operation System : Ubuntu 12.04 • Hardware :

- Intel (R) Core (TM) i3-2310M - RAM2GB DDR3-sodimm, - Harddisk 1 HDD WD NAS 3TB and 1 HDD

NAS 2TB - 2x1000 Mbps Ethernet

2. FTP server; to perform file distribution or file usage to the

client based on FTP. Specifications used are: • Operation System : Ubuntu 12.04 • Hardware

- Intel (R) Core i5-2310 CPU 2,90GHz x 4 - RAM 2GB - 1 HDD kapasitas 500GB - 2x1000 Mbps Ethernet

B. Supporting Software 1. IOZONE

This software is used to perform test on storage media available to the server target. 2. VBLADE

Vblade is a AoE target-based software. Vblade will export local storage blocks for a host or a initiator server

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on the network. Vblade make the AoE initiator possible to access storage over the network. 3. AOETOOLS

The software was installed on each initiator. AoE tools is for finding the AoE device target that performs sharing disks over the network.

IV. EVALUATION In this research, we analyze the effect of RAID on the

performance of AoE-SAN. This scenario run on a system with the following circumstances:

1. Target PC and initiator PC are using MTU 7000. 2. Using the bonding interface with 802.3ad mode. 3. RAID mode used are RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and no RAID 4. The relationship between the target and the initiator is in an ideal circumstances.

Writing speed and reading speed when use RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and no RAID could seeas follows:

FIGURE VIII. WRITING AND READING PERFORMANCE

Graphic shows that to get the best performance, we

should use no RAID or RAID 0 configuration that is capable of providing improved performance approaching the write speed and read speed.It happen because RAID 0 uses striping methodwhich separate data to two hard drives. However, RAID 0 has the disadvantages that if one drive failed then all data will be lost.

In RAID 1, there is a decreasing in performance due to the fact that RAID 1 uses mirroring method. This method copy the contents of the first hard drive to the second hard drive so that gives slower performance of write speed and read speed than RAID 0. However, RAID 1 provides better level of security than RAID 0 because of that method of data backup.

In RAID 5, there is a decreasing in performance compared to RAID 1 and RAID 0. That happens because in

RAID 5 configuration, there are a process ofcalculating and write the parityinto parity blockswhen writing the data. If the redundancy is the main attention, we should use RAID 5 using multipath and jumbo frames because the RAID 5 can provides larger capacity than RAID 1 and also provides redundancy using parity.

CPU Utilization when write and read data using RAID show as follows:

FIGURE IX. CPU UTILIZATION

Graphic shows that the use of RAID 0 produces a value of CPU Utilization when write and read data similar with using no RAID. This can happen due to the fact RAID 0 configuration using stripping mode, where the data will be split across multiple hard drives. RAID 0 will increase its performance as the increasing of storage media used.

The use of RAID 1 and RAID 5 result in decreasing of the CPU utilization because there are bottleneck on a harddisk. In RAID 1, it writes the same data on each hard drive so that the data will be processed on a disk in longer duration . In RAID 5, though data was spread but there are process of forming the parity that also take a time. CPU Utilization when read data using RAID 1 got increased because data is read from only one hardisk because the second harddisk already has the same data content.

V. CONCLUSION 1. From the experiments, it can be concluded that the most

optimal performance of AoE-SAN was obtained with no RAID. The result are write speed of 110,321.566 KB/s and read speed of 120,247.76 KB/s

2. The use of RAID affect the performance of the SAN. Reading and writing speed performance of SAN with RAID 0 almost the same as SAN with no RAID, which write speed is 110,661.63 KB/s and read speed is 113,010.76KB/s.

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VI. REFERENCES

1. Coile, Brantledan Sam Hopkins .The ATA over Ethernet Protocol .CoraidInc . Athens

2. Covington, Michael A. An Overview of Concraid Technology and ATA-over Ethernet (AoE). Coraid , Inc. 2008

3. Lukito, Hendro. Implementasi Storage Area Network (SAN) StudiKasus Data Bank Indonesia. Jakarta. 2010

4. Tate , Jon , FabianoLucchesedan Richard Moore. Introduction to Storage Area Network. IBM. 2006

5. Zhou Cailan ,dan He Cuang . A Performance Analysis of the AoEProtocol . Wuhan University of Technology .Hubai , China. 2009

6. He Chuang ,danRaoWenbi. Modeling ang Performance Evaluation of the AoE Protocol. Wuhan University of Technology. Hubai, China. 2009

7. Stephen Aiken, Dirk Grunwald, dan Andrew R. Plezkun. A Performance Analysis of the iSCSI Protocol. University of Colorado, Boulder. 2003

8. Hopkins S, M. Ennis. SR Performance Analysis. Coraid, Inc. 2007

9. Coraid, Inc. Ten tips for better AoE performance and reliability in linux. support@coraid.com.2008

10. Norcott, D William, dan Don Capps. IozoneFilesystem Benchmark. capps@iozone.org. 2009

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