Whitepaper: ReadyNAS FlexRAID Volume Optimization Guide

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WHITEPAPER

Optimizing your

ReadyNAS

OS Flex-RAID

Volumes

Summary of content (26 pages)

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WHITEPAPER Optimizing your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes Contents 1. Introduction ��3 2. RAID Groups and RAID Levels Explained ��4 3. How We Tested ��4 4.
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes 11. Configure a ReadyNAS �� 14 11.1. Default Volumes �� 15 11.2. The Volume Wizard �� 16 11.3.
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes 1. Introduction When you create a ReadyNAS OS Flex-RAID volume, you can optimize the volume for your specific requirements, and you can combine the price and capacity advantages of hard drives with the performance advantages of SSDs by using ReadyTIER. When you create a volume, you choose the number of drives, set the RAID levels, and the number of RAID groups. Those parameters determine the capacity, basic performance, and reliability.
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes 2. RAID Groups and RAID Levels Explained RAID is short for redundant array of independent disks. RAID is a storage technology that balances data protection, system performance, and storage space by determining how the storage system distributes data. Different ways of distributing data are standardized into various RAID levels. Each RAID level offers a tradeoff of data protection, system performance, and storage space.
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes 4. iSCSI RAID Performance We ran the following tests: • Random read and write performance • Sequential read and write performance 4.1. Random Read and Write Performance on iSCSI Volumes The figure below shows that a RAID 50 volume provides the highest performance for random read operations, while RAID 5 provides the highest random write performance. In this test all RAID configurations provided good performance. Figure 4.
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes 4.2. Sequential Read and Write Performance on iSCSI Volumes The figure below shows that a RAID 6 volume provides the highest sequential write performance, while RAID 10 has a slight advantage in sequential read performance. In this test all RAID configurations provided good performance. Figure 4.2: Volume Performance and Configuration on ReadyNAS Platforms 5.
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes 5.1. Drag and Drop Performance on SMB Volumes The figure below shows that a RAID 10 volume provides, by a small amount, the best overall drag and drop performance, while RAID 10 has a slight advantage in sequential read performance. In this test all RAID configurations provided good performance. Figure 5.1: Volume Performance and Configuration on ReadyNAS Platforms 5.2.
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes 5.3. Sequential Read and Write Performance on SMB Volumes In the sequential read and write test, RAID 6 performs best for sequential reads, while RAID 60 has the best balance of read and write performance. Figure 5.3: Volume Performance and Configuration on ReadyNAS Platform 6. Overview of ReadyTIER Using ReadyTIER, you can create a higher performing RAID group consisting of SSD drives in collaboration with spindle hard drives.
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes 7. iSCSI ReadyTIER RAID Performance We repeated the following tests, but with ReadyTIER added: • Random read and write performance • Sequential read and write performance 7.1. Random Read and Write Performance on iSCSI Volumes The figure below shows that the ReadyTIER volume outperforms RAID volumes in the random read and write tests. Figure 7.1: Volume Performance and Configuration on ReadyNAS Platform 7.2.
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes 8. SMB ReadyTIER RAID Performance We repeated the following tests, but with ReadyTIER added: • Drag and drop performance • Random read and write performance • Sequential read and write performance The figures compare the performance with and without ReadyTIER. 8.1. Drag and Drop Performance on SMB Volumes The figure below shows that RAID 6 and RAID 60 volumes outperform the volumes with ReadyTIER added. Figure 8.
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes 8.2. Random Read and Write Performance on SMB Volumes The figure below shows that volumes using ReadyTIER greatly outperform volumes without ReadyTIER for random reads and writes. Figure 8.
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes 8.3. Sequential Read and Write Performance on SMB Volumes The figure below shows that the performance of RAID 6 on sequential read operations is strong on all volumes, while RAID 60 produced the best sequential write performance and the best balanced read and write performance. In this test, ReadyTIER performance was similar to both RAID 6 and RAID 60. Figure 8.3: Volume Performance and Configuration on ReadyNAS Platform 9.
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes 9.1. Random Read Performance on iSCSI Volumes The following figure shows that the high tier volume provides a slightly higher random read performance than the low tier volume. Figure 9.1: Volume Performance and Configuration on ReadyNAS Platform 9.2. Sequential Read Performance on iSCSI Volumes The figure below shows that both high tier and low tier ReadyTIER configurations provide an equal input and output during sequential reads. Figure 9.
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes 10. High Tier and Low Tier RAID Performance on SMB This section compares performance between operations to the high-performance tier and the low-performance tier. 10.1. Drag and Drop Performance on SMB Volumes The figure below compares the performance of a high tier to that of a low tier for drag and drop operations. Figure 10.1: Volume Performance and Configuration on ReadyNAS Platform 10.2.
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes 10.3. Sequential Read Performance on SMB Volumes The sequential read performance of ReadyTIER on the low tier volume makes this configuration the best overall performer for sequential operations. Figure 10.3: Volume Performance and Configuration on ReadyNAS Platform 11. Configure a ReadyNAS This section provides some information on configuring a ReadyNAS system.
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes # of disks RAID Comments 1 JBOD The ReadyNAS will create a single nonredundant volume. You will need to add disks to provide redundancy. 2 1 Best read performance, minimum capacity, best redundancy. <6 5 Better performance, maximum capacity, moderate redundancy. <=14 3x RAID group (of x drives) RAID 5+0 with Global Spares Highest performance, medium capacity, moderate redundancy.
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes 11.3. Creating a New Volume Out of the box when you first setup the ReadyNAS, it automatically creates a volume that is optimized for the number of available drives you currently have installed in the ReadyNAS. However, after initial setup is complete, you can elect to delete this current volume and create new volumes based on your own settings.
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes In the next step, optionally select whether you want to set quotas and/or encrypt your volume. If there is no requirement to use quotas with this volume, leave it unchecked as enabling quotas may impact performance. Finally, click Create. 11.4. Adding Parity Adding Parity allows you to increase the redundancy of your volume.
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes Volume Operation Available? Resulting RAID Level Add Parity RAID 6 RAID 6 Expand RAID 5 RAID 5 Striped RAID 50 Concatenated RAID 5 Concatenated Add Parity No n/a Expand Yes RAID 6 Striped RAID 60 5 Add Group 6 Add Group Concatenated RAID 6 Concatenated Add Parity No n/a Expand Yes (6.8.
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes Requirements for ReadyTIER: 1. The ReadyNAS is running 6.9.0 and above. 2. The ReadyNAS must be in Flex-RAID mode and not X-RAID. 3. If there is more than one RAID group in the volume, then the volume must be a concatenated volume. (You cannot add a tier to a striped volume) 4. The number of SSDs for the SSD tier should be equal to the number of drives in the RAID group.
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes ReadyTIER assembles the SSDs into their own RAID configuration. That configuration depends on both the number of SSDs and the RAID configuration of the volume. The following table shows what those combinations are.
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes 12. Measured Performance Numbers These tables list the measured values for the performance tests. For more information about the performance numbers in these tables, see the figures in sections 4 through 10.
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes RAID 6, RAID 60, and ReadyTIER RAID Performance on SMB RAID Type RAID 6 ReadyTIER (from Highest Tier) Operations Performance SATA Disks D&D Reads 2367 MBps D&D Write 1741 MBps 4K Random Reads 2664 IOPS 4K Random Write 1741 IOPS 4K Sequential Reads 78500 IOPS 4K Sequential Write 59700 IOPS D&D Reads 1695 MBps D&D Write 1010 MBps 4K Random Reads 32200 IOPS 4K Random Write 27400 IOPS 4K Sequential Reads 34100 IOPS 4K Sequent
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes RAID Performance on iSCSI RAID Type RAID 5 RAID 6 RAID 10 RAID 50 RAID 60 Operations Performance SATA Disks 4K Random Write 2683 IOPS 4K Random Read 3197 IOPS 4K Sequential Write 61600 IOPS 4K Sequential Read 48200 IOPS 4K Random Write 2255 IOPS 4K Random Read 2442 IOPS 4K Sequential Write 70800 IOPS 4K Sequential Read 47300 IOPS 4K Random Write 2788 IOPS 4K Random Read 2240 IOPS 4K Sequential Write 65000 IOPS 4K Seque
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Whitepaper: Optimizing Your ReadyNAS® OS Flex-RAID Volumes High Tier and Low Tier RAID Performance on iSCSI RAID Type ReadyTIER (from Highest Tier) ReadyTIER (from Lowest Tier) Operations Performance SATA Disks 4K Random Reads 28600 IOPS 4K Sequential Reads 28600 IOPS 4K Random Reads 27700 IOPS 4K Sequential Reads 28600 IOPS 13. For More Information For a video showing ReadyNAS management, see the Volume Management with RN6.7.