Conference 7.286::fddi

1526.0. "Announcing the FVS Conference" by APACHE::LINNELL () Thu Dec 08 1994 10:09

                     <<< DSA0:[NOTES$LIBRARY]FVS.NOTE;2 >>>
                  -< Welcome to the FVS Product Conference! >-
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Note 1.0                 Welcome to the FVS Conference                No replies
APACHE::LINNELL                                      62 lines   7-DEC-1994 21:37
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                     Welcome to the FVS Product Conference.

    
    The FVS (Fiber highVolume Storageserver) family of storage servers is 
    designed for Very high capacity and Very high performance storage.  It is 
    based on AlphaServer technology.  This allows for the base platform to 
    migrate not only with changing network technology, but also with changing 
    operating system environments.  The first in the family is the FVS30 which 
    is based on the DEC3000-900 AXP with 100 MByte/second Turbochannel.  Future
    FVS products will be based on AlphaServers with multiple PCI buses and PCI 
    options.

    For customers who desire FDDI or other fiber networks because of their high 
    performance and their ability to support long distances, an FVS allows for 
    storage devices to be served in both a VMScluster environment and in a 
    network environment.  An FVS can MSCP block serve a VMScluster node at the 
    same time as it NFS serves files to an OSF/1 or UNIX[tm] client.  It can 
    also serve NT networked clients.

    The FVS can provide a complete storage solution.  It not only can attach
    various magnetic and optical disks and tapes, but it can run various storage
    management software in the box such as HSM and Backup.

    An FVS supports both FNS (Fast Narrow Single-ended) for SCSI-2 connection of
    up to 7 devices or FWD (Fast Wide Differential) for SCSI-2 connection of up
    to 14 devices. Since an FVS supports disk, tape, and optical devices, as 
    well as storage management software such as HSM, it provides a total 
    storage solution.  It can backup its own disks or disks elsewhere in the 
    VMScluster.  It supports robotic tape libraries such as the TL820. It can 
    even serve a XEROX production printer. 

    An FVS allows for customers to purchase servers that can migrate with their
    changing data center.  An FVS will allow for FDDI connections today and is
    ready to add other fiber connections in the future.  FDDI and CI, for 
    example, may co-exist in a VMScluster.  In addition, since all components 
    are selected on their ability to operate in both an OpenVMS and an OSF/1 
    environment, the FVS may itself migrate from executing OpenVMS to OSF/1.

    The purpose of this conference is to provide open two-way communication 
    between the FVS Development Team and other groups within Digital on topics 
    related to formally released versions of FVS hardware and firmware.

    This conference may be used to:

    o Ask questions about features, capabilities, operation, installation, etc.
    o Communicate product improvement suggestions
    o Learn about known problems
    o Report new problems encountered

    
    This conference may NOT be used to discuss future product features or
    strategies. Any note containing requests for such information will be set 
    HIDDEN and the initiator will be advised of the proper method for obtaining
    the information.

                               NOTE

       All information discussed in this conference is classified
       DIGITAL INTERNAL USE ONLY and must be treated accordingly.
     
        
    

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 | d | i | g | i | t | a | l |  I N T E R O F F I C E   M E M O R A N D U M
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  TO: Nancy Vail                              DATE: 9 June 1995
      Jim Satko                               FROM: Andrew Linnell
      Brian Keaveny                           DEPT: CSS Storage Engineering 
                                              EXT: 264-0311 (603) 884-0311
                                              FAX: 264-3163 (603) 884-3163
                                              LOC/MAIL STOP: MKO1-2/B6

  SUBJ: Performance Summary for FVS30 


DATA SERVER PERFORMANCE

A Single FVS30 with HSZ40s and dual FDDI ports was shown to  be  able,  without
use of cache, to sustain MSCP service to a VMScluster at:

                above 18.5 MB/sec or

                above 3500 IO/sec.

MTI's StingRay FD and CMD's Trident both claim 3000  IO/sec  with  the  use  of
cache  for  a  maximum  request  per  second  rate.   Neither  has  published a
throughput (MB/sec) rate.

The tests were run using IOX running on client nodes in the cluster without any
cache  in the FVS30.  All QIOs went to disk and were delivered over the FDDI to
the client node in the cluster.  CPU utilization  approached  100%  during  the
tests  so  these  numbers are for boundary setting and for comparison purposes.
Actual performance in  a  VMScluster  will  be  slightly  less  with  the  same
configuration.

Incomplete testing was done with RAXCO's PERFECTcache as the read cache in  the
FVS30.   These  tests showed in excess of 4500 IO/sec but since the IOX request
stream did not continue to make cache hits, the rate does not reflect the  peak
rate that would be used in comparison to other vendor's claims.



BACKUP SERVER PERFORMANCE

The FVS30 can, locally, backup eight simultaneous streams each above 1.25MB/sec
for an aggregate above 10 MB/sec.  A single stream backup can sustain 1.9MB/sec
with /NORECORD /NOVERIFY  /NOCRC  and  /BLOCKSIZE=32768.   These  results  were
obtained  using  a  customer supplied 1.26 megablock (0.63MByte) file copied to
eight disks and a  customer  supplied  backup  procedure.   The  procedure  was
standard VMS Backup fare.  No special tuning for backup was done.  In addition,
no special tuning for the configuration or for the FVS30 was done.  The maximum
configuration available had up to (only) 8 tape drives.
    

    
    Andrew,
    
    	A few questions:
    
    	1. Which CPU hit 100? The FVS30 CPU or the requester CPU?
    
    	2. Which FDDI line cards did you use?
    
    	3. Which Alpha CPU is the FVS30 based on?
    
    Thanks,
    Ted