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On-host Flash storage performance: advanced and accelerated

Editorial Type: Technology Focus     Date: 05-2014    Views: 2927   





Scott Harlin of OCZ Storage Solutions discusses server-side storage focused on performance, application acceleration and virtualisation

In contrast to traditional hard disk drive (HDD) storage, on-host flash storage handles random data access effortlessly, making it a superior enabler of today's server and storage environments. A single flash-based SSD that fits directly into a server's PCI Express (PCIe) bus can deliver random IOPs performance equivalent to a large external SAN array deployed with hundreds of HDDs. When flash is inside of the host (known as server-side flash), the solid-state storage technology becomes a local resource with performance comparable to the IOPs of servers and an excellent storage solution for today's enterprise, cloud or virtualised environments.

As more and more enterprises and cloud providers are exposed to the unique power of PCIe flash, OCZ Storage Solutions (a Toshiba Group Company) has developed hardware and software technology that integrate the power of this server-side interface with flash acceleration and sophisticated storage virtualisation. This advanced approach not only moves data onto host-based flash to maximise performance and efficiently utilise host resources, but has significant advantages over disk array SAN storage that occupies more rack space and consumes more power. With this prevalence, leading market research firms predict that PCIe will become the dominant SSD interface within the next 5 years.

To address this market opportunity, OCZ has introduced a PCIe-based SSD series designed specifically for the demanding performance requirements of today's enterprise-class storage and computing applications. The Z-Drive 4500 SSD Series leverages 19 nanometer Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND flash supporting 800GB, 1.6TB and 3.2TB usable capacities and delivers even higher performance when compared to OCZ's previous enterprise PCIe SSD generation.

THE PERFORMANCE APPROACH
The Z-Drive 4500 PCIe SSD Series leverages OCZ's proprietary Virtualised Controller Architecture (VCA) that dynamically reorders storage commands and processes them across eight available processors effectively making them appear and act as one single drive to the host system. By utilising the full processing bandwidth of these eight controllers working in unison, the storage system runs more efficiently while delivering advanced RAID-like performance all within a seamless, easy-to-deploy solution.

With integrated VCA Technology, the Z-Drive 4500 SSD Series delivers leading sustained performance for MLC-based PCIe edge cards based on industry standard tests and benchmarks. This includes maximum read bandwidth of up to 2,900 MB/s, maximum write bandwidth of up to 2,200 MB/s, random 4K block read throughput of up to 252,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS) and random 4K block write throughput of up to 76,000 IOPS. As a result, Z-Drive 4500 models are ideally suited for I/O read and write intensive enterprise applications where high storage capacities coupled with low power NAND flash results in higher bandwidth and IOPS performance per watt.

EXTENDING PERFORMANCE WITH ACCELERATION SOFTWARE
To extend application performance, each model within the Z-Drive 4500 Series is also integrated with OCZ's new Windows Accelerator (WXL) Software - a flash management and caching solution for Microsoft Windows Server applications that enables IT managers to deliver low-latency flash deployable as a local flash volume, a flash cache for HDD volumes or as a combination of both. For smaller files, the data can be efficiently placed on Z-Drive 4500 server-side flash volumes to take advantage of high-speed flash performance. For larger data files that do not fit entirely in flash volumes, OCZ's proprietary cache decision and analysis technology makes intelligent selections of what data to store in flash cache.

WXL Software is designed to dramatically improve the performance and latency of SAN and DAS systems by intelligently caching the most frequently accessed data on flash storage. By caching hot data on a Z-Drive 4500, access times are reduced, applications spend less time waiting for data, and SAN resources are not tied up, increasing application performance while reducing storage costs and latency-related bottlenecks.

When deployed for caching, WXL Software performs statistical 'out-of-band' processing of all data requests to and from the SAN or internal HDDs using application-specific caching policies that reduce external traffic by up to 90%, storing critical data locally on the 4500 PCIe edge card. The caching policies use advanced cache algorithms that detect data hot zones and the most frequently accessed data to be cached while filtering out cold zones so that SSD caching efficiency and endurance can be maximised. WXL Software dynamically distributes Z-Drive 4500 flash resources enabling the cache to be shared with other applications so it is accessible by any accelerated volume on the host.

A cache warm-up and analysis mechanism is also featured enabling important and demanding analytical jobs to be loaded onto the Z-Drive 4500's flash cache in advance to assure that the critical data is available to the application at the exact time it is needed.



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