Tag: NVMe

Power Efficiency Measurement – Our Experts Make It Clear – Part 4

Eden Kim, Keith Orsak and Chuck Paradon Leave a comment

Measuring power efficiency in datacenter storage is a complex endeavor. A number of factors play a role in assessing individual storage devices or system-level logical storage for power efficiency. Luckily, our SNIA experts make the measuring easier!

In this SNIA Experts on Data blog series, our experts in the SNIA Solid State Storage Technical Work Group and the SNIA Green Storage Initiative explore factors to consider in power efficiency measurement, including the nature of application workloads, IO streams, and access patterns; the choice of storage products (SSDs, HDDs, cloud storage, and more); the impact of hardware and software components (host bus adapters, drivers, OS layers); and access to read and write caches, CPU and GPU usage, and DRAM utilization.

Join us on our final installment on the  journey to better power efficiency – Part 4: Impact of Storage Architectures on Power Efficiency Measurement.

And if you missed our earlier segments, click on the titles to read them:  Part 1: Key Issues in Power Efficiency Measurement,  Part 2: Impact of Workloads on Power Efficiency Measurement, and Part 3: Traditional Differences in Power Consumption: Hard Disk Drives vs Solid State Drives.  Bookmark this blog series and explore the topic further in the SNIA Green Storage Knowledge Center.

Impact of Storage Architectures on Power Efficiency Measurement

Ultimately, the interplay between hardware and software storage architectures can have a substantial impact on power consumption. Optimizing these architectures based on workload characteristics and performance requirements can lead to better power efficiency and overall system performance.

Different hardware and software storage architectures can lead to varying levels of power efficiency. Here’s how they impact power consumption.

Hardware Storage Architectures

  1. HDDs v SSDs:
    Solid State Drives (SSDs) are generally more power-efficient than Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) due to their lack of moving parts and faster access times. SSDs consume less power during both idle and active states.
  2. NVMe® v SATA SSDs:
    NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) SSDs often have better power efficiency compared to SATA SSDs. NVMe’s direct connection to the PCIe bus allows for faster data transfers, reducing the time components need to be active and consuming power. NVMe SSDs are also performance optimized for different power states.
  3. Tiered Storage:
    Systems that incorporate tiered storage with a combination of SSDs and HDDs optimize power consumption by placing frequently accessed data on SSDs for quicker retrieval and minimizing the power-hungry spinning of HDDs.
  4. RAID Configurations:
    Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) setups can affect power efficiency. RAID levels like 0 (striping) and 1 (mirroring) may have different power profiles due to how data is distributed and mirrored across drives.

Software Storage Architectures

  1. Compression and Deduplication:
    Storage systems using compression and deduplication techniques can affect power consumption. Compressing data before storage can reduce the amount of data that needs to be read and written, potentially saving power.
  2. Caching:
    Caching mechanisms store frequently accessed data in faster storage layers, such as SSDs. This reduces the need to access power-hungry HDDs or higher-latency storage devices, contributing to better power efficiency.
  3. Data Tiering:
    Similar to caching, data tiering involves moving data between different storage tiers based on access patterns. Hot data (frequently accessed) is placed on more power-efficient storage layers.
  4. Virtualization
    Virtualized environments can lead to resource contention and inefficiencies that impact power consumption. Proper resource allocation and management are crucial to optimizing power efficiency.
  5. Load Balancing:
    In storage clusters, load balancing ensures even distribution of data and workloads. Efficient load balancing prevents overutilization of certain components, helping to distribute power consumption evenly
  6. Thin Provisioning:
    Allocating storage on-demand rather than pre-allocating can lead to more efficient use of storage resources, which indirectly affects power efficiency

Innovating File System Architectures with NVMe

Marty Foltyn Leave a comment

It’s exciting to see the recent formation of the Solid State Drive Special Interest Group (SIG) here in the SNIA Solid State Storage Initiative.  After all, everyone appreciates the ability to totally geek out about the latest drive technology and software for file systems.  Right? Hey, where’s everyone going? We have vacation pictures with the dog we stored that we want to show…

Solid state storage has long found its place with those seeking greater performance in systems, especially where smaller or more random block/file transfers are prevalent.  Single-system opportunity with NVMe drives is broad, and pretty much unquestioned by those building systems for the modern IT environments. Cloud, likewise, has found use of the technology where single-node performance makes a broader deployment relevant.

There have been many efforts to build the case for solid state in networked storage.  Where storage and computation combine — for instance in a large map/reduce application — there’s been significant advantage, especially in the area of sustained data reads.  This has usually comes at a scalar cost, where additional systems are needed for capacity. Nonetheless, finding cases where non-volatile memory enhances infrastructure deployment for storage or analytics.  Yes, analytics is infrastructure these days, deal with it.

Seemingly independent of the hardware trends, the development of new file systems has provided significant innovation.  Notably, heavily parallel file systems have the ability to serve a variety of network users in specialized applications or appliances.  Much of the work has focused on development of the software or base technology rather than delivering a broader view of either performance or applicability.  Therefore, a paper such as this one on building a Lustre file system using NVMe drives is a welcome addition to the case for both solid state storage and revolutionary file systems that move from specific applications to more general availability.

The paper shows how to build a small (half-rack) cluster of storage to support the Lustre file system, and it also adds the Dell VFlex OS implemented as a software defined storage solution.  This has the potential to take an HPC-focused product like Lustre and drive a broader market availability for a high-performance solution. The combination of read/write performance, easy adoption to the broad enterprise, and relatively small footprint shows new promise for innovation.

The opportunity for widespread delivery of solid state storage using NVMe and software innovation in the storage space is ready to move the datacenter to new and more ambitious levels.  The SNIA 2019 Storage Developer Conference  is currently open for submissions from storage professionals willing to share knowledge and experience.  Innovative solutions such as this one are always welcome for consideration.

It’s “All About M.2 SSDs” In a New SSSI Webcast June 10

Marty Foltyn Leave a comment

Interested in M.2, the new SSD card form factor?

The SNIA Solid State Storage Initiative is partnering with SATA-IO and NVM Express to give you the latest information on M.2, the new SSD card form factor.  Join us “live” on Tuesday, June 10, at 10:00 am Pacific time/1:00 pm Eastern time.

Hear from a panel of experts, including Tom Coughlin of Coughlin Associates, Jim Handy of Objective Analysis, Jon Tanguy of Micron, Jaren May of TE Connectivity, David Akerson of Intel, and Eden Kim of Calypso Systems.  You will leave this webinar with an understanding of the M.2 market, M.2 cards and connection schemes, NVM Express, and M.2 performance. You’ll also be able to ask questions of the experts.

You can access this webcast via the internet.  Click here, or visit http://snia.org/news_events/multimedia#webcasts