Adaptec Hybrid RAID Whitepaper
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1. The document discusses hybrid RAID solutions that combine SSDs and HDDs to provide both high performance from SSDs and high capacity from HDDs. 2. A hybrid RAID deployment places read operations on faster SSDs and writes data to both SSDs and HDDs for redundancy. This improves IOPS and reduces latency over HDD-only solutions. 3. Examples show how hybrid RAID can maximize storage capacity while improving performance for tasks like booting and database operations in servers and workstations.
Adaptec Hybrid RAID Whitepaper
- 1. HYBRID RAID WHITEPAPER Adaptec Hybrid RAID Solutions Combining SSDs and HDDs for Maximum Performance and Reliability Introduction must first be erased before new data can be written – even if only a few bytes are changed. Not only does this process negatively As user demand for speed grows and applications become more impact write performance, it can cause uneven wear on the surface and more robust, data centers face a constant battle to increase of the flash medium and lead to premature failure of the drive. their infrastructure performance accordingly. Some components offer a relatively straightforward upgrade path: CPUs continue To combat uneven wear, many SSDs employ wear leveling to to get more powerful, networking speeds increase, disk drive distribute erasures and rewrites evenly across the medium surface. capacities grow, and so on. But these advances mean little if the Wear leveling extends the life of the drive but, over time, also rate at which I/O operations can be performed doesn’t keep pace. further degrades write performance. For example, an online transaction processing system is often SSDs are also much more expensive than HDDs, especially when limited by the rate at which database updates can occur. The measured using the traditional “cost per GB of capacity” metric. performance of a search algorithm may depend on how quickly In most environments it is simply impractical to replace every various data structures can be read from disk. The number of users HDD with an SSD, regardless of the potential benefits. that can successfully access a website depends on how quickly the web pages can be served. However, a hybrid approach that combines HDDs and SSDs can be extremely cost efficient, especially when measured in terms of Growth in the number of end-users compounds the problem the “cost per I/O operation” or the more Green-oriented “power by cause longer response times and increasing latency. consumption per I/O operation”. According to Equation Research: 1 • 78% of site visitors have gone to a competitor’s site due What is Hybrid RAID? to poor performance during peak times. Approx. 400 IOPS / up to 150 MB/s Hybrid RAID is a redundant storage solution that combines high- 50% READ • 88% are less likely to return to a site after a poor user Read performance on SSD capacity, low-cost SATA or higher-performance SAS HDDs with experience. limited as 50% of all requests go to the HDD low latency, high IOPs SSDs and an SSD-aware RAID controller card (Figure 1). • 47% left with a less positive perception of the company. WRITE To boost system performance, data centers will sometimes add SATA or WRITE very fast hard disk drives (HDDs) — for example 15,000 RPM SAS drives Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) drives — and “short stroke” them, which means that applications use only the outermost tracks on Approx. 400 IOPs / up to 150 MB/s 1. 50% READ the disks where the performance is best. Or, they may add new servers, even if the existing servers have the storage capacity for RAID controller SSD more users. Either method, however, results in low storage capacity utilization. On top of that, adding more servers leads to an increase in capital Figure 1. Hybrid RAID Deployment WRITE and operating expenses — namely maintenance, power and cooling costs — as well as physical space requirements. WRITE In Hybrid RAID, read operations are done from the faster SSD and write operations happen on both SSD and HDD for redundancy The proliferation of Solid State Drives (SSDs) alleviates many of Approx. 25K IOPs / up to 300 MB/s purposes. 100%these READ problems, and is changing the way data centers think about their storage architecture. Hybrid RAID is ideal for applications with low levels of data, such as an Internet gateway, file server or virtual machine. SSDs: Performance in a Flash Fig 4 SSDs offer several advantages over HDDs, including higher read What Are the Benefits of Hybrid RAID? bandwidth, higher IOPs, better mechanical reliability, and higher Hybrid RAID arrays offer tremendous performance gains over resistance to shock and vibrations. However, the same features (i.e., standard HDD RAID arrays at a much lower cost than SSD-only flash) that provide these advantages also come with some inherent 600 RAID arrays. Compared to HDD-only RAID arrays, Hybrid arrays limitations compared to HDDs, such as limited capacity and lower accelerate IOPs and reduce latency, allowing data center and cloud • Controller : Adaptec RAID 6805 streaming write bandwidth. 500 computing environmentsFirmware:more users and perform more • Controller to host 18623 Another limitation of SSDs is that they cannot directly overwrite transactions perWindows on each server, which reduces the number • second Driver Version: 18646 data like an HDD can. Instead, the entire destination data block of servers required to support any given workload. • HDD Hitachi 3TB SATA HUA723020ALA640 400 • SSD: OCZ-Vertex3 MaxIOPS 1 “When more Website visitors hurt your business: Are you ready for peak traffic?,” Equation Research 2010 300
- 2. HYBRID RAID WHITEPAPER Hybrid RAID 2 Not only does the reduction in servers lead to reduced server 3. The unused disk space on each disk can be utilized in another footprint requirements within the data center, there is the array if required. additional financial benefit of reducing the capital expenses 4. In the above scenario, a 500GB RAID 5 disk could be created required to purchase additional servers, as well as the operating across the six unused disk segments. scenario 1 scenario 2 expenses associated with power, cooling, and maintenance. Scenario 2: Workstation Hybrid RAID Examples 100GB In this scenario, the workstation Incorporating Hybrid RAIDSSD a storage solution opens up a into 160GB user wants a fast-booting, fast 300GB 500GB wide range of possibilities for maximizing capacity, boot times, SSD application-loading system and SSD HDD and overall performance, as shown in the following examples. doesn’t want the hassle of having RAID 1 to rebuild the workstation if a drive Scenario 1: Large-Capacity Servers fails. Usable capacity is 300GB High-speed workstation In this scenario, the customer wants to make the maximum use of space in a large capacity, 8-bay server, while still gaining a Figure 4. Workstation Hybrid RAID Solution fast-booting server. The customer is conservative and wants to 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD from data (OS in mirror and data in RAID 5 for 3TB HDD The advantages of 3TB HDD keep OS away 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD the Hybrid solution (Figure 4) include: scenario 1 scenario 1 scenario 2 AID 5 maximum capacity). RAID 5 1. All reads are directed from the SSD, so read speed of the hard drive (15TB) Usable capacity is 6 x 2.9TB (17.4TB) workstation is dramatically improved over that of a standard System The server boots faster than the traditional server 1 x 160 SSD single HDD. 250GB 250GB 100GB HDD HDD 1 x 2.8 300GB 500GB 2. Write speed is the same as a standard workstation, but due SSD HDD to the cache on the controller card, it will be faster than a RAID 1 standard HDD connected to an on-board disk controller. Usable capacity is 300 High-speed workstation 3. Data is not lost if either drive fails. When the failed drive is replaced, the array will rebuild onto the replacement drive, 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD putting the system HDD 3TB HDDway HDD 3TB before the drive failure. 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB back the 3TB it was HDD 3TB HDD RAID 5 RAID 5 Usable storage capacity is 5 x 3TB hard drive (15TB) Note that it is not recommended to use this unused 200GB Usable capacity is 6 x 2.9TB (17.4TB) The server boots faster than the traditional server capacity on the 500GB HDD due to the fact that this data is not Figure 2. Large-Capacity Server, Traditional HDD-Only Method redundant, and failure of the HDD would result in data loss. The problem with an HDD-only method (Figure 2) is that it wastes Scenario 3: Small Business Server two bays in the server to the OS boot drives, and therefore limits capacity to six drives in RAID 5. Additionally, the server does not Many small business servers require at least some high- boot particularly quickly as it is booting from standard HDD in performance storage component to handle accounting software, mirror, which is not a particularly1fast form of RAID. scenario industry-specific small databases3 and even mail servers. Along scenario 2 scenario scenario 4 with that performance is always the requirement for capacity. Even small business can easily generate several TB of data in 100GB SSD scenario 1 the form 2 documents, photos, video etc. 160GB scenario of 160GB scenario 3 scenario 4 160GB 300GB 500GB SSD SSD SSD SSD HDD RAID 1 100GB SSD Usable capacity is 300GB 160GB 160GB 160GB 300GB 500GB High-speed workstation SSD SSD SSD SSD HDD RAID 1 S 2 Usable capacity is 300GB 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD High-speed workstation RAID 5 RAID 1 RAID 1 Usable capacity is 6 x 2.9TB (17.4TB) System has two volumes System has two volumes The server boots faster than the traditional server 1 x 160GB mirror (high speed) 2 x 160GB mirror (high speed) 1 x 2.8TB mirror (high capacity) 1 x 2.8TB mirror (high capacity) DD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD Figure 3. Large-Capacity Server, Hybrid RAID Solution RAID 5 RAID 1 RAID 1 Usable capacity is 6 x 2.9TB (17.4TB) System has two volumes System has two volumes The Hybrid solution (Figure 3) offers several benefits: The server boots faster than the traditional server 1 x 160GB mirror (high speed) 2 x 160GB mirror (high speed) 1 x 2.8TB mirror (high capacity) 1 x 2.8TB mirror (high capacity) 1. Total server capacity is six times the usable capacity of each drive in a RAID 5. Figure 5. Small Business Server, Hybrid RAID Solution 2. The server will boot quickly as it is reading from an SSD during the boot process
- 3. HYBRID RAID WHITEPAPER Hybrid RAID 3 scenario 2 scenario 3 scenario 4 scenario 5 The advantages of this Hybrid solution are: 1. The 160GB disk is big enough to create a boot volume for 600GB 300GB the OS while still leaving enough space for a 100GB volume 500GB 160GB 160GB 160GB SSD SSD SSD SSD SSD HDD for database function. 600GB RAID 1 2. Because the 160GB hybrid mirror reads directly from the SSD SSD, both OS boot time and database function will be Usable capacity is 300GB High-speed workstation greatly improved over a standard mirror of two HDDs. 2TB HDD 160GB is lost from the capacity of the data mirror, but that is a System has two volumes small percentage of capacity loss on the 3TB drives, and does not 2 x 600GB mirror (high speed) significantly impact on the 3TB usable capacity of the server. 3TB HDD 3TB HDD HDD 3TB HDD Figure 7. Small Business Server, High-Speed, Small Capacity RAID 1 RAID 1 Hybrid RAID Solution Scenario 4: Small Businessvolumes System has two Server System has two volumes The previous configuration requires at least a 4-port RAID160GB mirror (high speed) it would be possible in this configuration to add a third 1 x 160GB mirror (high speed) 2 x card, Note that 1 x 2.8TB mirror (high capacity) 1 x 2.8TB mirror (high capacity) but the fourth port is unused. Extending the server to utilize all SSD (using the fourth port on the RAID card), to give three hybrid four ports is simply a matter of purchasing a second 160GB SSD mirrors on a total of three SSDs and one HDD. to mirror to the unused spacescenariothe previous example.scenario 5 scenario 3 from 4 Building a Hybrid Solution From a hardware perspective, building a Hybrid RAID solution is 160GB 160GB 160GB 600GB fairly straightforward as any capacity of SSDs and HDDs can be SSD SSD SSD SSD used (though an equal number of SSDs and HDDs must be used). 600GB SSD If the RAID array is built from different-sized drives, the drive segment size is the size of the smaller disk drive. For example, 2TB a RAID 1 created with one 128GB SSD and one 2TB HDD will HDD System has two volumes make a 128GB logical device. A RAID 10 created with two 2 x 600GB mirror (high speed) 128GB SSDs and two 2TB HDDs will make a 256GB logical 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD 3TB HDD device. The remaining HDD capacity can be used for storage. RAID 1 RAID 1 From an application perspective, though, it’s not quite as simple System has two volumes System has two volumes 1 x 160GB mirror (high speed) 2 x 160GB mirror (high speed) since most software was not created to be aware of the possibility 1 x 2.8TB mirror (high capacity) 1 x 2.8TB mirror (high capacity) of having two types of storage with such different characteristics. Figure 6. Small Business Server, Hybrid RAID Solution In order to take full advantage of a Hybrid RAID setup, an SSD- aware RAID controller with intelligent storage processing must It might seem more sensible to mirror the two SSDs, and then be deployed. mirror the two HDDs in what would seem a more conventional server. However, there is good reason to do the above: Adaptec Hybrid RAID Solutions 1. The write speed of lower-spec SSDs is not much faster than Fortunately, reaping the rewards of Hybrid RAID technology can that of HDDs, so there is little to be gained by mirroring the be as simple as installing updated firmware onto any Adaptec two SSDs. Series 6, Series 5Z, Series 5, Series 2 or Series Q controller. The 2. Since the read speed of the SSD is so quick, putting them in a controller takes care of the rest by automatically creating a Hybrid mirror will not result in much improvement over a single SSD. RAID array whenever one or more SSDs are combined with the same number of HDDs in a RAID 1 or RAID 10 array. The Hybrid 3. Since the focus is on read speed, having two Hybrid RAID RAID is completely transparent to the operating system and all arrays now gives 320GB of SSD read speed to the server, while running applications. still protecting the data on each SSD in the form of a mirror. 4. The HDD capacity of the server is not sacrificed from the Additionally, Adaptec controllers deliver maximum Hybrid array previous example. performance by writing to both HDD and SSD, and reading from SSD 100% of the time (Figure 8). By contrast, other controllers Scenario 5: Small Business Server, High-Speed, Small Capacity write and read from HDD and SSD (Figure 9). Since server I/O If performance is more important than capacity, then the user can of an SSD can be up to 100 times faster than HDD, competitive install two 600GB SSDs and mirror them to the HDD, thus gaining Hybrid RAID solutions typically deliver lower I/O performance. 1.2TB of SSD capacity (Figure 7).
- 4. • SSD: OCZ-Vertex3 MaxIOPS WRITE 300 WRITE HDD 200 HYBRID RAID WHITEPAPER SSD Hybrid fig 3 Approx. 400 IOPs / up to 150 MB/s 100 1. 50% READ Hybrid RAID 0 4 100% Seq. 100% Seq. 100% Ran. 100% Ran. Read 512K Write 512K Read 512K Write 512K RAID controller Some applications even see a slight performance benefit from Adaptec Hybrid RAID and are faster on a Hybrid RAID 1 than Fig 5 on a single SSD (Figure 11). WRITE • Controller : Adaptec RAID 6805 WRITE 300 • Controller Firmware: 18623 • Windows Driver Version: 18646 250 • HDD Hitachi 3TB SATA HUA723020ALA640 Approx. 25K IOPs / up to 300 MB/s • SSD: OCZ-Vertex3 MaxIOPS fig 2 100% READ 200 • AS SSD Benchmark v1.6.4237.30508 Figure 8. Adaptec Hybrid RAID Solution 150 HDD 100 SSD Approx. 400 IOPS / up to 150 MB/s Fig 4 Hybrid MB/s 50% READ 50 Read performance on SSD limited as 50% of all requests go to the HDD 0 ISO Image Applications Games TE TE 600 Processing SATA or WRITE SAS drives MB/s 1. • Controller : A Figure 11. AS SSD Application Performance WRITE 500 • Controller Fi RAID controller SSD As such, Adaptec Hybrid RAID offers better performance andWindows Dri • lower cost/GB, and lower cost and power consumption per I/O fig 3 Approx. 400 IOPs / up to 150 MB/s 1. • HDD Hitachi 50% READ 400 than competing Hybrid RAID solutions. TE • SSD: OCZ-Ve TE Figure 9. Competitive Hybrid RAID Solution Conclusion RAID controller MB/s 300 Adaptec Hybrid RAID arrays deliver a higher number of read Data centers face never-ending pressure to accommodate operations per second than standard HDD arrays with no more users and more traffic. In the face of tightening degradation of write I/O performance (Figure 10). Fig 4 200 budgets, however, the days of simply adding more servers WRITE are coming to an end. 600 WRITE Hybrid RAID arrays of SSDs and HDDs offer significantly 100 • Controller : Adaptec RAID 6805 better performance than standard HDD RAID arrays at a 500 • Controller Firmware: 18623 Approx. 25K IOPs / up to 300 MB/s lower cost than SSD-only arrays. • Windows Driver Version: 18646 400 fig 2 100% READ • HDD Hitachi 3TB SATA HUA723020ALA640 Adaptec Series 6, Series 5Z, Series 5, Series 2 and Series Q • SSD: OCZ-Vertex3 MaxIOPS 0 controllers with the latest firmware updates can auto- 300 100% Seq. create a100% Seq. matically seamless Hybrid RAID array whenever100% Ran. 100% Ran. Read 512K SSDs are combined with Read 512K one or more Write 512K the same number Write 512K HDD 200 SSD of HDDs in a RAID 1 or RAID 10 array. Unlike Hybrid Fig 4 competing RAID controller cards that read from the 100 HDD 50% of the time, Adaptec cards deliver maximum system performance by reading only from the SSD. 0 100% Seq. Read 512K 100% Seq. Write 512K 100% Ran. Read 512K 100% Ran. Write 512K 600 Compared to HDD-only arrays, Adaptec Hybrid arrays deliver a higher number of read operations per second with no degradation of write I/O performance, and • Controller : A Figure 10. IOMeter Raw Performance 500 Fig 5 complete transparency to the operating system and all • Controller Fir running applications. Compared to SDD-only arrays, • •Windows Driv Controller : Adaptec Hybrid arrays offer the lowest cost/GB and 300 lowest cost and power consumption per I/O. • •HDD HitachiF Controller 300 400 • Controller : Adaptec RAID 6805 • Controller Firmware: 18623 • •SSD: OCZ-Ve Windows D PMC-Sierra, Inc. • Windows Driver Version: 18646 1380 Bordeaux Dr. 250 World Wide Web: www.adaptec.com3TB SATA HUA723020ALA640 • HDD Hitachi • HDD Hitach 250 Sunnyvale, CA 94089 USA Tel: +1 (408) 239-8000 300 Pre-Sales Support: USSSD: OCZ-Vertex3 (800) 442-7274 or (408) 957-7274 or adaptecsales@pmc-sierra.com • and Canada: 1 MaxIOPS UK: +44 1276 854 528 or uk_sales@pmc-sierra.com • AS SSD Benchmark v1.6.4237.30508 • SSD: OCZ-V 200 Australia: +61-2-90116787 • AS SSD Be Singapore: +65-92351044 200 150 Copyright PMC-Sierra, Inc. 2012. All rights reserved. PMC, PMC-SIERRA and Adaptec are registered trademarks of PMC-Sierra, Inc. “Adaptec by PMC” is a trademark of PMC-Sierra, Inc. © 200 Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. For a complete list of PMC-Sierra trademarks, see www.pmc-sierra.com/legal. HDD 100WP_HYBRIDRAID_030112_US Information subject to change without notice. SSD 150 Hybrid 50 100