Ask the Expert: Multicore Optimization (MCx) in the New VNX

This discussion is now open. We look forward to a fun, interactive and informative discussion.

Regards,

Mark

Dedupe is new feature for us and we are excited to bring it to the market.  MCx is a breakthrough as we have literally swapped the engine out of the VNX to enable us to better utilize all the processing power available to us.  Both VNX and VNXe have this new base capability and our components are benefiting from it.  The implementation choice for block dedupe is around time to market and we will continue to improve our offering.

First of all: MCx is great. Second: MCx was inevitable. The old architecture simply was a bottleneck.

My most important question is how to size.

I.e. a VNX5600 sweet spot limits to 50x EFD when their IOPS are fully utilized. What will the limit be if 70% read and all IO's are mirrored by MV/S? And what if they are mirrored with MV/A? And What with RecoverPoint/SE with VNX-splitter?

Are there rules of thumb which indicate a % of 'IOPS-headroom' to reserve for replication? And what the impact is with different flavors of replication?

And what about the impact of RAID5/RAID6/RAID10 on SP utilization with MCx?

Also interesting is the Active-Active dual-lun ownership feature. Is there a whitepaper how this is being done and how cache coherency is maintained?

It's great that MCx now allows active-active LUN assignments.  When do we expect to see Pool LUNs added to this functionality?  Will it be a .X release or will this come in a later full-version upgrade?

Q1. What are the technical items, that demonstrate how the VNX with MCx delivers the performance of flash with the efficiency of tiering when coupled with FLASH ???

Let me get back to you on the sizing questions.  I will address your concerns around the A/A implementation and cache coherency.

There is a whitepaper that is posted on powerlink VNX MCx Multicore Everything and it will be posted on ECN later today.

WRT to impact of RAID algorithms on SP Utilization.  The previous generation of software performed all the RAID functions on a single core and asymmetrically offloaded parity calculations and block checksums.  With MCx each core independently executes the RAID functions, parity calculations, and block checksums.  All cores execute in parallel. 

Core components of MCx have been designed for symmetric active/active access.  This enables the storage processor to make updates without having to redirect a request.  The MCx stack implements shared locking to coordinate exclusive updates between the SPs.  This is done at the Cache and RAID level (MCC and MCR).  This is described in the white paper.

Is there any performance difference between using 8GB FC  VS 10GB iSCSI on Block Storage

Philip Trasatti wrote: Great question! One impressive example is our new VNX-5600 running the Exchange 2013 Jetstress benchmark test suite on Thin LUNs. We measured a 100% improvement in the IOPs / drive between the older VNX-5500 and the new VNX-5600 platforms.

drives count/specs being equal with the only exception this running on 5600 ?

MCx is the foundation of technology change in VNX and VNXe. Pool LUNs do implement Active/Active today but do have a preferred path.  Symmetric A/A access to pool based LUNs will be phased in over time.  The roadmap for this functionality is under development.

Great question! One impressive example is our new VNX-5600 running the Exchange 2013 Jetstress benchmark test suite on Thin LUNs. We measured a 100% improvement in the IOPs / drive between the older VNX-5500 and the new VNX-5600 platforms.

Add a small FAST VP flash tier and the performance per drive jumps by another 50% over a non-flash configuration under the Jetstress workload. This clearly delivers more value and performance while lowering the TCO for VNX customers.

Thanks,

Phil

Correct, only change was the VNX-5600 was swapped in.

Thanks,

Phil

Have the best practices documents been posted already?

that's impressive, but does 5600 have more cache than 5500 (we know it has more cores) ?

When will I be able to get certified on the new VNX? I mean: has the course material already been enhanced and when will the exam be available?