h4. [Configuring Systems for High Bandwidth I/O !Main^download.gif!|http://mapping.sun.com/profile/offer.jsp?id=352]
*by Kevin Colwell and Carolyn Bumatay{*}{excerpt}
May 2009{excerpt}
This Sun BluePrints™ article describes a recipe for configuring systems to support the very high bandwidth I/O capabilities needed by data-intensive applications which have extreme performance requirements. Sustained transfer rates—such as writing data from a server to disk storage at a rate of 10 Gb/sec for a sustained period of time, and simultaneously reading the data from disk storage to another server at 10 Gb/sec—are needed by many of these applications. These rates simulate, at a high level, the I/O requirements for applications that must capture data to disk on a storage area network (SAN) at a sustained, high bandwidth, and immediately make that data available to consumers.
h4. Contents
* Introduction
** Sustained performance demands
** Proof-of-concept approach
* The Sun Solution
** Solution components
*** Sun Fire servers with CoolThreads™ technology
*** Sun SPARC Enterprise M5000 servers
*** Sun StorageTek™ 6540 controller modules with CSM200 disk arrays
*** Sun Storage 6780 controller module with CSM200 disk arrays
*** Solaris™ 10 Operating System
*** Cisco MDS 9124 Fibre Channel switches
*** QLogic QLE2462 host bus adapters
*** Sun™ QFS Shared File System
** Technology considerations
*** Server and storage selection
*** Fibre Channel versus InfiniBand or Ethernet technology
*** HBA and driver selection: QLA failover versus Sun StorageTek Traffic Manager
*** Network I/O capabilities and impacts
** Tuning the Solaris™ Operating System storage I/O stack
* Setup and Configuration
** Operating system
** QLogic HBA installation
** Storage array configuration
*** Sun StorageTek™ Common Array Manager software
*** Volume creation
** Fibre Channel switch configuration
** Sun QFS Shared File System
** QLogic HBA configuration
*** Enable failover configuration
*** Selecting primary and alternate paths
*** Primary path
*** Alternate paths
*** Reconfiguration
** Disk partitioning
* Validating the Sun Solution
** Unit testing
*** I/O test software
*** HBA and path throughput tests
*** Controller throughput: unit tests to cache
*** Per-controller storage throughput: unit tests to disk
** Workload testing
*** Sun QFS Shared File System configuration
*** Performance testing with the Sun QFS Shared File System
*** Performance monitoring and validation
** Path failover
* Proof-of-Concept Findings
** 10 Gb/sec SAN results summary
** Scalability testing results summary
** Lessons learned
* For More Information
** About the authors
** Acknowledgments
** References
** Ordering Sun documents
** Accessing Sun documentation online
* Glossary
{panel:title=About the Authors|borderStyle=solid|titleBGColor=#F8D583|bgColor=white}
Kevin Colwell is a Solutions Architect in Sun Professional Services. He actively supports Sun Federal customer projects in which high-performance data access and management are keys to success. Prior to joining Sun Professional Services, Kevin was a Systems Engineer supporting business development opportunities with benchmarking, proof-of-concepts, and proposal development. In addition to high bandwidth applications, he also is experienced in application optimization, large data warehouse solutions, and multipetabyte data management.
Carolyn Bumatay has been working with UNIX systems and cross-platform software for over twenty years. Prior to Sun, her experience focused on software architecture and development, datacenter operations, and Information Technology project management. She has been a Systems Engineer at Sun for the past 10 years, working with both commercial customers and those in the federal government space. Carolyn supports a variety of activities including performance benchmarking, datacenter optimization initiatives, and architecture proof-of-concept efforts using Sun hardware and software platforms.
{panel}
{panel:title=Acknowledgements|borderStyle=solid|titleBGColor=#F8D583|bgColor=white}
The authors would like to recognize the following individuals and organizations for their contributions to this article:
• Gregg Ferguson, Systems Engineer, Sun Microsystems Federal, Inc.
• Ray Garley, Benchmark Engineer, Sun Solution Center
• Evans Harrigan, Principal Field Technologist, Sun Federal Professional Services
• Daniel Haynesworth, Account Manager, Sun Microsystems Federal, Inc.
• Dimitri Kravtchuk, Principal Benchmark Engineer, Sun Solution Center
• Anita Newman, Account Manager, Sun Microsystems Federal, Inc.
• Shirley Penman, Benchmark Engineer, Sun Solution Center
• Huon Sok, Benchmark Engineer, Sun Solution Center
• Paul Stansel, Systems Engineering Manager, Sun Microsystems Federal, Inc.
• Sun Solution Center, Hillsboro, Oregon
• Sun Solution Center, Menlo Park, California
• Cisco Systems, Inc.
• Tim Waller, Sr.Business Development Executive, Storage Division, LSI Corporation
• QLogic Corporation
{panel}
{vote:Rate this blueprint}
Great
Good
Fair
Poor
{vote}
*by Kevin Colwell and Carolyn Bumatay{*}{excerpt}
May 2009{excerpt}
This Sun BluePrints™ article describes a recipe for configuring systems to support the very high bandwidth I/O capabilities needed by data-intensive applications which have extreme performance requirements. Sustained transfer rates—such as writing data from a server to disk storage at a rate of 10 Gb/sec for a sustained period of time, and simultaneously reading the data from disk storage to another server at 10 Gb/sec—are needed by many of these applications. These rates simulate, at a high level, the I/O requirements for applications that must capture data to disk on a storage area network (SAN) at a sustained, high bandwidth, and immediately make that data available to consumers.
h4. Contents
* Introduction
** Sustained performance demands
** Proof-of-concept approach
* The Sun Solution
** Solution components
*** Sun Fire servers with CoolThreads™ technology
*** Sun SPARC Enterprise M5000 servers
*** Sun StorageTek™ 6540 controller modules with CSM200 disk arrays
*** Sun Storage 6780 controller module with CSM200 disk arrays
*** Solaris™ 10 Operating System
*** Cisco MDS 9124 Fibre Channel switches
*** QLogic QLE2462 host bus adapters
*** Sun™ QFS Shared File System
** Technology considerations
*** Server and storage selection
*** Fibre Channel versus InfiniBand or Ethernet technology
*** HBA and driver selection: QLA failover versus Sun StorageTek Traffic Manager
*** Network I/O capabilities and impacts
** Tuning the Solaris™ Operating System storage I/O stack
* Setup and Configuration
** Operating system
** QLogic HBA installation
** Storage array configuration
*** Sun StorageTek™ Common Array Manager software
*** Volume creation
** Fibre Channel switch configuration
** Sun QFS Shared File System
** QLogic HBA configuration
*** Enable failover configuration
*** Selecting primary and alternate paths
*** Primary path
*** Alternate paths
*** Reconfiguration
** Disk partitioning
* Validating the Sun Solution
** Unit testing
*** I/O test software
*** HBA and path throughput tests
*** Controller throughput: unit tests to cache
*** Per-controller storage throughput: unit tests to disk
** Workload testing
*** Sun QFS Shared File System configuration
*** Performance testing with the Sun QFS Shared File System
*** Performance monitoring and validation
** Path failover
* Proof-of-Concept Findings
** 10 Gb/sec SAN results summary
** Scalability testing results summary
** Lessons learned
* For More Information
** About the authors
** Acknowledgments
** References
** Ordering Sun documents
** Accessing Sun documentation online
* Glossary
{panel:title=About the Authors|borderStyle=solid|titleBGColor=#F8D583|bgColor=white}
Kevin Colwell is a Solutions Architect in Sun Professional Services. He actively supports Sun Federal customer projects in which high-performance data access and management are keys to success. Prior to joining Sun Professional Services, Kevin was a Systems Engineer supporting business development opportunities with benchmarking, proof-of-concepts, and proposal development. In addition to high bandwidth applications, he also is experienced in application optimization, large data warehouse solutions, and multipetabyte data management.
Carolyn Bumatay has been working with UNIX systems and cross-platform software for over twenty years. Prior to Sun, her experience focused on software architecture and development, datacenter operations, and Information Technology project management. She has been a Systems Engineer at Sun for the past 10 years, working with both commercial customers and those in the federal government space. Carolyn supports a variety of activities including performance benchmarking, datacenter optimization initiatives, and architecture proof-of-concept efforts using Sun hardware and software platforms.
{panel}
{panel:title=Acknowledgements|borderStyle=solid|titleBGColor=#F8D583|bgColor=white}
The authors would like to recognize the following individuals and organizations for their contributions to this article:
• Gregg Ferguson, Systems Engineer, Sun Microsystems Federal, Inc.
• Ray Garley, Benchmark Engineer, Sun Solution Center
• Evans Harrigan, Principal Field Technologist, Sun Federal Professional Services
• Daniel Haynesworth, Account Manager, Sun Microsystems Federal, Inc.
• Dimitri Kravtchuk, Principal Benchmark Engineer, Sun Solution Center
• Anita Newman, Account Manager, Sun Microsystems Federal, Inc.
• Shirley Penman, Benchmark Engineer, Sun Solution Center
• Huon Sok, Benchmark Engineer, Sun Solution Center
• Paul Stansel, Systems Engineering Manager, Sun Microsystems Federal, Inc.
• Sun Solution Center, Hillsboro, Oregon
• Sun Solution Center, Menlo Park, California
• Cisco Systems, Inc.
• Tim Waller, Sr.Business Development Executive, Storage Division, LSI Corporation
• QLogic Corporation
{panel}
{vote:Rate this blueprint}
Great
Good
Fair
Poor
{vote}