Intel Network Storage Performance Toolkit

NAS Measurements Developers can Use and Customers can Understand

Home Data/Storage Changing

More GBytes More Media More sharing More systems/home More Laptops NVM based storage
Home storage changes leading to new NAS role
Cumulative Home Data
Home Data Size (GB)
2500
Total GB

Total Files

Home Data Files (#)

300000
250000

2000

200000

1500

150000

1000 100000 500

50000

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Diffusion Group 05, Intel estimates

Home NAS Role is Changing

NAS

Time Background Backup Runtime File Storage Realtime Media Access

NAS performance increasingly impacting end user

Agenda
Home NAS usage Intel NAS Performance Toolkit Case study Home NAS performance survey

NAS Usage: Backup and Restore

User Wait Time (Storage Rd/Wr)
(30GB image, 5GB compressed)

Restore

3x slower

Backup

Restore
Backup
4x slower

FastNAS SlowNAS

10 Minutes

15

20

Source: NASPT measurements Actual performance may vary.

Some NAS devices make the user wait and wait and wait

NAS Usage: Digital Photos

User Wait Time (Storage Rd)
(10 Min Fetch of 100+ Photos)

Photo Reads

PhotoAlbum

LocalHDD FastNAS SlowNAS

5x slower than LocalHDD, 2x slower than FastNAS

2 Minutes

Source: NASPT measurements

Some NAS devices make the user wait and wait and wait

NAS Usage: Video Source

Streaming Application Throughput
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Max Throughput (MB/sec)

20 15 10 5 0

SlowestNAS FastestNAS

Video Rd/Wr

1080i Video

Number of Video Streams

Source: NASPT measurements

Many NAS devices dont support reasonable media workloads

Home NAS Performance Matters, but is Tough to Measure

The bad part about NAS devices is that they're typically fairly expensive and slow.
Solving the network storage dilemma - George Ou May 9th 2007
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30035/75/1/1/

performance that doesnt live up to the promise of its gigabit Ethernet port performance that fails to impress
Smallnetbuilder NAS reviews
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com

The most difficult part of this article was developing the benchmarks
http://www.anandtech.com/IT/showdoc.aspx?i=2881

SMB NAS Roundup AnandTech Dec 5th 2006 - Ross Whitehead, Jason Clark, Dave Muysson

Intel NAS Performance Toolkit enables measurement and analysis for current & emerging workloads

Intel NAS Performance Toolkit

Wireless Trace Replay Ethernet HomePlug A/V

Library of traces representing home usage Replays each trace to target devices Traces response and measures performance achieved Visualizer for dissecting resulting traces

Delivers home user relevant measurements

Application Based Workloads

Test HD Video Play 2HD Video Play 3HD Video Play 4HD Video Play HD Video Record HD Video Play & Record 2HD Video Play & Record Directory Copy From NAS Directory Copy To NAS File Copy From NAS File Copy To NAS Photo Album Office Productivity Content Creation Backup Restore HD Play with Office Apps HD Play with Backup # files 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 126 126 1 1 169 607 99 1 1 608 2 % seq. Description 99.5% 720p HD stream from Windows Media Player* 256kB reads 18.1% 2x playback 6.6% 3x playback 9.6% 4x playback 99.9% 720p HD stream, 256kB writes 17.8% 1 playback, 1 record simultaneously 3.0% 2x playback, 2x record 91.9% 64kB reads 52.49% Predominantly 64kB writes, wide scattering under 16kB 99.9% 4GB file copy, 64kB reads 100% 64kB writes 80% All reads wide distribution of sizes 81.3% Reads & writes; small, 1kB & 4kB reads; Mostly 1kB writes 39.1% 95% writes; 1k, 4k & little reads; Writes up to 64kB 99.9% 30GB backup using Windows* built-in utility; 8kB writes 99.6% 30GB restore from above backup, 1MB reads 53.2% Playback concurrent with office productivity 65.3% Playback concurrent with backup

More realistic workloads than synthetic tests

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Intel NAS Performance Toolkit Requirements End User Relevant

Usage derived Test Cases Easy to Understand Measurements

Easy to Use

Minimal Learning Curve Easily configured and run No special test hardware

Accurate

Minimize test client impact Reproducible measurements Comparable across NAS devices

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Toolkit Exerciser Overview

Intel NAS Performance Toolkit

Uses workloads

home users will care about Records system response Organizes results Various options for controlling traffic generation

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Exerciser Results Dialog

Simple statistics
Throughput Bytes Transferred Transfer sizes Service times

Average Maximums Recorded in log files

Execute multiple runs to verify results

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For Best Results

Capture all measurements on a single, high performance client Use a large, otherwise empty disk in the target device Use a single network cable, avoid hubs and switches Minimize independent variables wherever possible

identical hard drives identical network configurations perform multiple test runs

Be aware that file buffering and prefetching are active.

Minimum Client Installation Requirements Intel Pentium 4 Processor or later Microsoft Windows XP* or Windows Vista* 1GB DRAM

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Toolkit Analyzer Overview

Full trace listing Statistics Histograms Queue depth Throughput Visual map of file

system activity over time

Analyzer provides users with detailed insight into test results

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Case Study: NAS PC

OS DATA Client PC running Windows XP Gigabit Ethernet NAS PC

Engineer configures a PC to act as a NAS device Experiment: Measure performance of identical

hardware running both Linux* and Windows* XP

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Throughput (MB/s)

15

25 20

30

35

40

45

50

10 5
Linux Windows XP

Backup backup2 Restore restore2 Video Playback HD_vidplay

2x Video Playback 2HD_vidplay

3x Video Playback 3HD_vidplay 4x Video Playback 4HD_vidplay
HD_vidrecord Video Record HD_vidplay_vidrecord Video Playback & Record

Playback & Record 2x Video 2HD_vidplay_vidrecord

ContentCreation Content Creation OfficeProductivity Office Productivity

Copy To NAS FileFileCopyToNAS Copy From NAS File FileCopyFromNAS

PhotoAlbum Photo Album HDvidplay_backup Video Playback & Backup HDvidplay_office Video Playback & Office

Case Study: Experimental Results

Source: NASPT measurements

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User is surprised by differences between Windows XP and Linux Tests with sequential WinXP-unloaded Openfiler-ext3writes seem alright Tests with many opens compare favorably Tests with sequential reads did poorly 1x, 2x, 3x, and 4x video playback tests dont seem right

Case Study: Histograms

Source: NASPT measurements

Windows* shows a very narrow distribution and predictable service time Linux* has a much wider distribution with a very long tail - very unexpected for a sequentially accessed file

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Case Study: Throughput

55 50 45

Throughput (MB/s)

40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Time (seconds) 45 50 55 60 65 70

Windows Reads Linux

Source: NASPT measurements

Windows* throughput is very steady, as expected for reading a large, sequential file Linux* throughput is all over the place What is getting in the way?

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Case Study: Access Patterns

Intel NAS Performance Toolkit

Access map shows

file accesses over time Zooming in, we find Windows* returns data at a very regular cadence Linux* pattern is a mixture of quick and slow cycles Perhaps file isnt as sequential as it should be

Source: NASPT measurements

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Case Study: Epilog

Hardware disk tracer confirms discontiguous file
layout in Linux* future offsets

Windows* clients issue 1-byte writes to 128kbyte

Setting Samba strict allocate flag fixed the issue

Intel NAS Performance Toolkit provided needed
clues. Full solution required further investigation.

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Survey Shows Big NAS Performance Delta

35

Throughput (MB/s)

30 25 20 15 10 5 0

320% 350% 160% 120% 230% 130% 280%

Slowest NAS B NAS C NAS D NAS E NAS F Fastest

Be a NAS performance leader Users will notice

o_ o_ 4P 2P la y la D y_ ire 2R ct ec or yC or d op yF ro m NA S Ph ot oA H D lb Vi um de o_ 1R ec Fi or le d Co py To N AS
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Vi de D H H

Vi de

Vi de

o_ 1P la y

Source: NASPT measurements

And NAS is much slower than local disk

70

Throughput (MB/s)

60 50 40 30 20 10 0
ec or d AS ec or d ay ay bu m de o_ 1P l de o_ 4P l N ro m 2R oA l 1R To N AS

Slowest NAS B NAS C NAS D NAS E NAS F Fastest LocalHDD

op yF

Ph ot

ay _

de o_

Vi

Vi

de o_ 2P l

Vi

or y

ct

Strive for local-like performance Users will notice

ire

Vi

23

Fi
Source: NASPT measurements

le

op y

And often slower than USB HDDs

Relative Performance
LocalHDD USB 2 FastestNAS USB 1 NAS F NAS E NAS D NAS C NAS B SlowestNAS
Source: NASPT measurements

A Home NAS Challenge: Meet or beat USB Drives

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Summary
The role of NAS in the home is changing
Exposing NAS Performance to PC users And bringing a performance opportunity to NAS vendors

Intel NAS Performance Toolkit measures End User

Visible Home NAS performance
It is easy to use and understand Tune your NAS (HW and SW) Select a high performing NAS

Use NASPT (http://www.intel.com/software/NASPT) to:

Use NAS Performance Toolkit to be a NAS Performance Leader Users Will Notice

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Risk Factors
This presentation contains forward-looking statements. All statements made that are not historical facts are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. Please refer to our most recent Earnings Release and our most recent Form 10-Q or 10-K filing available on our website for more information on the risk factors that could cause actual results to differ.

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Legal Disclaimer

INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH INTEL PRODUCTS. NO LICENSE, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, BY ESTOPPEL OR OTHERWISE, TO ANY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IS GRANTED BY THIS DOCUMENT. EXCEPT AS PROVIDED IN INTELS TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF SALE FOR SUCH PRODUCTS, INTEL ASSUMES NO LIABILITY WHATSOEVER, AND INTEL DISCLAIMS ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY, RELATING TO SALE AND/OR USE OF INTEL PRODUCTS INCLUDING LIABILITY OR WARRANTIES RELATING TO FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, MERCHANTABILITY, OR INFRINGEMENT OF ANY PATENT, COPYRIGHT OR OTHER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHT. INTEL PRODUCTS ARE NOT INTENDED FOR USE IN MEDICAL, LIFE SAVING, OR LIFE SUSTAINING APPLICATIONS. Intel may make changes to specifications and product descriptions at any time, without notice. All products, dates, and figures specified are preliminary based on current expectations, and are subject to change without notice. Intel, processors, chipsets, and desktop boards may contain design defects or errors known as errata, which may cause the product to deviate from published specifications. Current characterized errata are available on request. Performance tests and ratings are measured using specific computer systems and/or components and reflect the approximate performance of Intel products as measured by those tests. Any difference in system hardware or software design or configuration may affect actual performance. Intel, Intel Inside, and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. Copyright 2007 Intel Corporation.

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