Eliminating the I/O Blender

Realizing “World Class” Storage Performance in Virtual Server Environments

Welcome and Introduction

• Storage has been the Achilles Heel of Server Virtualization for many years

• Many techniques have been tried to minimize the problem

• A successful approach must address the root cause: the I/O Blender

Where It All Began

Less HW to Manage

DynamicProvisioning

Fewer Staff Required

Improved Resource

Utilization

Lower IT Costs

Lower Energy

Bills

More Up-Time

Fun at Parties!

Early Challenges

Applications vary in terms ofresource and performancerequirements…

So, server configurations differ.

StorageLAN

The Highest Common Denominator

To realize the benefits touted by the hypervisor vendors (VMotion, automaticserver failover, migration for efficiency),EVERY potential host must be enabledwith connectivity required by the most demanding application…

Increasing complexity, cost and energy consumption…

NIC

sH

BA

s

Maybe It’s The Storage Itself…or Not

SER

VER

SSTO

RA

GE

High CPUProcessingCycles..

ShortStorage I/O Queues…

Workarounds

• 2010: vStorage API for Array Integration (VAAI) introduced in vSphere 4 – 9 non-standard primitives enabling unapproved SCSI commands to offload storage chores from inefficient ESX servers

• 2011: “Enhanced” and Reissued in vSphere 5, expanding support for thin provisioning and NAS

• 2011: VMware vSphere Storage Appliance – neither a SAN nor NAS, but a repository for VMDK

• 2014: Virtual SAN

VirtualServers

NAS/iSCSI

FC/SASSANs

Enter the I/O Blender Effect

STORAGE I/OOkay.

RAW I/O Problem mustbe ahead of disk storageinterconnect

I/O Blender in a Nutshell

A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6

RANDOM WRITES

TRADITIONAL I/O PATH

APP -> SERVER -> HBA -> DISK

I/O Blender in a Nutshell

RANDOM WRITES

VIRTUAL SERVER I/O PATH

VMs -> HYPERVISOR -> DISK

A1

A2A3

C1B1 B3

B4

C1

A2

C2

B2

C3

B5 C4HP

ERV

ISO

R

A1

B1B2

B3

C3

C2 A3

C1

A2

A1

B1B2

B3

C3

C2 A3

Simple Flash Caching Not a Fix

RANDOM WRITES

ADD FLASH

VMs -> HYPERVISOR -> FLASH CACHE <-> DISK

A1

A2A3

C1B1 B3

B4

C2

B2

C3

B5 C4HP

ERV

ISO

R

Smart Caching Provides an Answer

RANDOM WRITES

ADD FLASH

VMs -> HYPERVISOR -> SMART CACHE <-> DISK

HP

ERV

ISO

R

LSFS

A1B3A2C1

A4B1C2B2

SEQUENTIALWRITE

StarWind Software LSFS Paves the Way

DAS DASDAS

Direct AttachedStorage

Direct AttachedStorage

Direct AttachedStorage

NO

DES

HypervisorAgnostic

Write AnywhereFile Layyour (WAFL)& RAID DP

Cache Accelerated Sequential Layout (CASL™)& RAID 6

Log-StructuredFile System (LSFS)& Virtual SANAny RAID LevelAny hardware

Key Benefits

• StarWind Software’s Log-Structured File System brings unique features and functionality to any primary VM-centric storage system

– Significant performance boost and elimination of the hypervisor I/O bottleneck

– Support for all RAID parity and striping schemes

– Improved functionality for data protection

– Flash friendly

Without Further Ado..

• Let’s talk to the folks who invented theStarWind Log Structured File System (LSFS)

– Get the fine points of the StarWind approach

– Explore the way that StarWind LSFS integrates with the hypervisor stack

– Learn why it is better to be “complementary” than competitive with the leading hypervisor vendor…

Let’s Talk to StarWind Software

Jon ToigoManaging Partner

Toigo Partners InternationalChairman, Data Management Institute

Max KolomyeytsevProduct Manager

StarWind Software

StarWind Software Background

• Founded: 2003

• Users: 30,000+, including Fortune 500

• Headquarters: Wakefield, MA, USA

• Office Locations: 2 - North America and Europe

• Channel Partners: 270+

• Technology Partners: Microsoft, VMware, HP, IBM, Dell

What Is a Log-Structured File System

Implementing LSFS in Virtual Server Environment

slow fast

Implementing LSFS in Virtual Server Environment

Complimentary not Competitive

Any trade offs?

• Disk space overhead is necessary - 1 TB used is not always 1 TB consumed

• RAM use is higher - LSFS uses RAM as its clerk to maintain the Log structure

• Sequential reads can get slower – sequential read is not what it used to be

Q&A

Jon ToigoManaging Partner

Toigo Partners InternationalChairman, Data Management Institute

Max KolomyeytsevProduct Manager

StarWind Software

Thank you.

• And for more information

– www.starwindsoftware.com

– info@starwindsoftware.com

– https://twitter.com/starwindsan

– https://www.facebook.com/StarWind.Software

– Get StarWind Virtual SAN trial here:

– http://www.starwindsoftware.com/registration-starwind-virtual-san