SPECstorage™ Solution 2020_swbuild Result

Copyright © 2016-2023 Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation

NetApp Inc. SPECstorage Solution 2020_swbuild = 1900 Builds
NetApp 2-node AFF A900 with FlexGroup Overall Response Time = 1.16 msec


Performance

Business
Metric
(Builds)
Average
Latency
(msec)
Builds
Ops/Sec
Builds
MB/Sec
1900.58995003772
3800.5301900071545
5700.5432850102318
7600.6063800133091
9500.5904750173864
11400.6185700184637
13300.6666650215410
15200.8447600156183
17103.2368550106955
19004.9409499737728
Performance Graph


Product and Test Information

NetApp 2-node AFF A900 with FlexGroup
Tested byNetApp Inc.
Hardware AvailableDecember 2021
Software AvailableNovember 2023
Date TestedSeptember 2023
License Number33
Licensee LocationsSunnyvale, CA USA

Designed and built for customers seeking a storage solution for the high demands of enterprise applications, the NetApp high-end flagship all-flash AFF A900 delivers unrivaled performance, superior resilience, and best-in-class data management across the hybrid cloud. With an end-to-end NVMe architecture supporting the latest NVMe SSDs, and both NVMe/FC and NVMe/TCP network protocols, It provides over 50% performance increase over its predecessor with ultra-low latency. Powered by ONTAP data management software, it supports non-disruptive scale-out to a cluster of 24 nodes.

ONTAP is designed for massive scaling in a single namespace to over 20PB with over 400 billion files while evenly spreading the performance across the cluster. This makes the AFF A900 a great system for engineering and design applications as well as DevOps. It is particularly well-suited for chip development and software builds that are typically high file-count environments with high data and meta-data traffic.

Solution Under Test Bill of Materials

Item NoQtyTypeVendorModel/NameDescription
11Storage SystemNetAppAFF A900 Flash System (HA Pair, Active-Active Dual Controller)A single NetApp AFF A900 system is a chassis with 2 controllers. A set of 2 controllers comprises a High-Availability (HA) Pair. The words "controller" and "node" are used interchangeably in this document.
One NS224 disk shelf is cabled to the AFF A900 controllers, with 24 SSDs per disk shelf.

Each AFF A900 HA Pair includes 2048GB of ECC memory, 128GB of NVRAM, 20 PCIe expansion slots and a set of included I/O ports:
* 4 x 40/100 GbE ports, in Slots numbered 4 and 8 in each controller, configured as 100 GbE, 1 port per card used for 100GbE data connectivity to clients.
* 2 x 100 GbE ports, in Slot 2 of each controller, configured as 100GbE; each card has two paths cabled to the disk shelf.

Included CoreBundle, Data Protection Bundle and Security and Compliance bundle which includes All Protocols, SnapRestore, SnapMirror, FlexClone, Autonomous Ransomware Protection, SnapCenter and SnapLock. Only the NFS protocol license is active in the test which is available in the Core Bundle.
24Network Interface CardNetApp2-Port 100GbE RoCE QSFP28 X91153A1 card in slot 4 and 1 card in slot 8 of each controller; 4 cards per HA pair; used for data and cluster connections.
32Network Interface CardNetApp2-Port 100GbE RoCE QSFP28 X91153A1 card in slot 2 of each controller; 2 cards per HA pair; directly attached to disk shelves (without use of a switch)
41Disk ShelfNetAppNS224 (24-SSD Disk Shelf)Disk shelf with capacity to hold up to 24 x 2.5" drives. 2 I/O modules per shelf, each with 2 ports for 100GbE controller connectivity.
524Solid-State DriveNetApp1.92TB NVMe SSD X4016ANVMe Solid-State Drives (NVMe SSDs) installed in NS224 disk shelf, 24 per shelf
62Network Interface CardMellanox TechnologiesConnectX-5 MCX516A-CCAT2-port 100 GbE NIC, one installed per client. lspci output: Mellanox Technologies MT27800 Family [ConnectX-5]
71SwitchCiscoCisco Nexus 9336C-FX2Used for Ethernet data connections between clients and storage systems. Only the ports used for this test are listed in this report. See the 'Transport Configuration - Physical' section for connectivity details.
81SwitchCiscoCisco Nexus 9336C-FX2Used for Ethernet connections of AFF A900 storage cluster network. Only the ports used for this test are listed in this report. See the 'Transport Configuration - Physical' section for connectivity details.
92Fibre Channel Interface CardEmulexQuad Port 32 Gb FC X1135ALocated in Slot 3 of each controller; these cards were not used for this test. They were in place because this is a shared-infrastructure lab environment; no I/O was directed through these cards during this test.
108ClientLenovoLenovo ThinkSystem SR650 V2Lenovo ThinkSystem SR650 V2 clients. System Board machine type is 7Z73CTO1WW, PCIe Riser part number R2SH13N01D7. Each client also contains 2 Intel Xeon Gold 6330 CPU @ 2.00GHz with 28 cores, 8 DDR4 3200MHz 128GB DIMMs, 240GB M.2 SATA SSD part number SSS7A23276, and a 240G M.2 SATA SSD part number SSDSCKJB240G7. All 8 clients are used to generate the workload, 1 is also used as Prime Client.

Configuration Diagrams

  1. NetApp AFF A900 2-Node Cluster with FlexGroup

Component Software

Item NoComponentTypeName and VersionDescription
1LinuxOperating SystemRHEL 8.4 (Kernel 4.18.0-305.el8.x86_64)Operating System (OS) for the 8 clients
2ONTAPStorage OSR9.14.1xN_230918_0000Storage Operating System
3Data SwitchOperating System9.3(3)Cisco switch NX-OS (system software)

Hardware Configuration and Tuning - Physical

Storage
Parameter NameValueDescription
MTU9000Jumbo Frames configured for data ports

Hardware Configuration and Tuning Notes

Data network was set up with MTU of 9000.

Software Configuration and Tuning - Physical

Clients
Parameter NameValueDescription
rsize,wsize65536NFS mount options for data block size
nconnect6NFS mount options for multiple TCP connections per mount
protocoltcpNFS mount options for protocol
nfsvers3NFS mount options for NFS version
nofile102400Maximum number of open files per user
nproc10240Maximum number of processes per user
sunrpc.tcp_slot_table_entries128sets the number of (TCP) RPC entries to pre-allocate for in-flight RPC requests
net.core.wmem_max16777216Maximum socket send buffer size
net.core.wmem_default1048576Default setting in bytes of the socket send buffer
net.core.rmem_max16777216Maximum socket receive buffer size
net.core.rmem_default1048576Default setting in bytes of the socket receive buffer
net.ipv4.tcp_rmem1048576 8388608 33554432Minimum, default and maximum size of the TCP receive buffer
net.ipv4.tcp_wmem1048576 8388608 33554432Minimum, default and maximum size of the TCP send buffer
net.core.optmem_max4194304Maximum ancillary buffer size allowed per socket
net.core.somaxconn65535Maximum tcp backlog an application can request
net.ipv4.tcp_mem4096 89600 8388608Maximum memory in 4096-byte pages across all TCP applications. Contains minimum, pressure and maximum.
net.ipv4.tcp_window_scaling1Enables TCP window scaling
net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps0Turn off timestamps to reduce performance spikes related to timestamp generation
net.ipv4.tcp_no_metrics_save1Prevent TCP from caching connection metrics on closing connections
net.ipv4.route.flush1Flush the routing cache
net.ipv4.tcp_low_latency1Allows TCP to make decisions to prefer lower latency instead of maximizing network throughput
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range1024 65000Defines the local port range that is used by TCP and UDP traffic to choose the local port.
net.ipv4.tcp_slow_start_after_idle0Congestion window will not be timed out after an idle period
net.core.netdev_max_backlog300000Sets maximum number of packets, queued on the input side, when the interface receives packets faster than kernel can process
net.ipv4.tcp_sack0Disable TCP selective acknowledgements
net.ipv4.tcp_dsack0Disable duplicate SACKs
net.ipv4.tcp_fack0Disable forward acknowledgement
vm.dirty_expire_centisecs30000Defines when dirty data is old enough to be eligible for writeout by the kernel flusher threads. Unit is 100ths of a second.
vm.dirty_writeback_centisecs30000Defines a time interval between periodic wake-ups of the kernel threads responsible for writing dirty data to hard-disk.
vm.swappiness0A tunable kernel parameter that controls how much the kernel favors swap over RAM.
vm.vfs_cache_pressure0Controls the tendency of the kernel to reclaim the memory which is used for caching of directory and inode objects.

Software Configuration and Tuning Notes

Tuned the necessary client parameters as shown above, for communication between clients and storage controllers over Ethernet, to optimize data transfer and minimize overhead.

The second M.2 SSD in each client was configured as a dedicated swap space of 224GB.

Service SLA Notes

None

Storage and Filesystems

Item NoDescriptionData ProtectionStable StorageQty
11.92TB NVMe SSDs used for data and storage operating system; used to build three RAID-DP RAID groups per storage controller node in the clusterRAID-DPYes24
21.92TB NVMe M.2 device, 1 per controller; used as boot medianoneYes2
Number of Filesystems1
Total Capacity30TB
Filesystem TypeNetApp FlexGroup

Filesystem Creation Notes

The single FlexGroup consumed all data volumes from all of the aggregates across all of the nodes.

Storage and Filesystem Notes

The storage configuration consisted of 1 AFF A900 HA pair (2 controller nodes total). The two controllers in a HA pair are connected in a SFO (storage failover) configuration. Together, all 2 controllers (configured as an HA pair) comprise the tested AFF A900 HA cluster. Stated in the reverse, the tested AFF A900 HA cluster consists of 1 HA Pair, each of which consists of 2 controllers (also referred to as nodes).

Each storage controller was connected to its own and partner's NVMe drives in a multi-path HA configuration.

All NVMe SSDs were in active use during the test (aside from 1 spare SSD per shelf). In addition to the factory configured RAID Group housing its root aggregate, each storage controller was configured with two 21+2 RAID-DP RAID Groups. There was 1 data aggregate on each node, each of which consumed one of the node's two 21+2 RAID-DP RAID Groups. This is (21+2 RAID-DP + 1 spare per shelf) x 1 shelves = 24 SSDs total. 16x volumes, holding benchmark data, were created within each aggregate. "Root aggregates" hold ONTAP operating system related files. Note that spare (unused) drive partitions are not included in the "storage and filesystems" table because they held no data during the benchmark execution.

A storage virtual machine or "SVM" was created on the cluster, spanning all storage controller nodes. Within the SVM, a single FlexGroup volume was created using the one data aggregate on each controller. A FlexGroup volume is a scale-out NAS single-namespace container that provides high performance along with automatic load distribution and scalability.

Transport Configuration - Physical

Item NoTransport TypeNumber of Ports UsedNotes
1100GbE12For the client-to-storage network, the AFF A900 Cluster used a total of 4x 100 GbE connections from storage to the switch, communicating via NFSv3 over TCP/IP to 8 clients, via 1x 100GbE connection to the switch for each client. MTU=9000 was used for data switch ports.
2100GbE4The Cluster Interconnect network is connected via 100 GbE to a Cisco 9336C-FX2 switch, with 4 connections to each HA pair..

Transport Configuration Notes

Each AFF A900 HA Pair used 4x 100 GbE ports for data transport connectivity to clients (through a Cisco 9336C-FX2 switch), Item 1 above. Each of the clients driving workload used 1x 100GbE ports for data transport. All ports on the Item 1 network utilized MTU=9000. The Cluster Interconnect network, Item 2 above, also utilized MTU=9000. All interfaces associated with dataflow are visible to all other interfaces associated with dataflow.

Switches - Physical

Item NoSwitch NameSwitch TypeTotal Port CountUsed Port CountNotes
1Cisco Nexus 9336C-FX2100GbE36128 client-side 100 GbE data connections, 1 port per client; 4 storage-side 100 GbE data connections, 2 per A900 node. Only the ports on the Cisco Nexus 9336C-FX2 used for the solution under test are included in the total port count.
2Cisco Nexus 9336C-FX2100GbE3642 ports per A900 node, for Cluster Interconnect.

Processing Elements - Physical

Item NoQtyTypeLocationDescriptionProcessing Function
14CPUStorage Controller2.20 GHz Intel Xeon Platinum 8352YNFS, TCP/IP, RAID and Storage Controller functions
216CPUClient2.00 GHz Intel Xeon Gold 6330NFS Client, Linux OS

Processing Element Notes

Each of the 2 NetApp AFF A900 Storage Controllers contains 2 Intel Xeon Platinum 8352Y processors with 32 cores each; 2.20 GHz, hyperthreading disabled. Each client contains 2 Intel Xeon Gold 6330 processors with 28 cores at 2.00 GHz, hyperthreading enabled.

Memory - Physical

DescriptionSize in GiBNumber of InstancesNonvolatileTotal GiB
Main Memory for NetApp AFF A900 HA Pair20481V2048
NVDIMM (NVRAM) Memory for NetApp AFF A900 HA pair1281NV128
Memory for each of 8 clients10248V8192
Grand Total Memory Gibibytes10368

Memory Notes

Each storage controller has main memory that is used for the operating system and caching filesystem data. Each controller also has NVRAM; See "Stable Storage" for more information.

Stable Storage

The AFF A900 utilizes non-volatile battery-backed memory (NVRAM) for write caching. When a file-modifying operation is processed by the filesystem (WAFL) it is written to system memory and journaled into a non-volatile memory region backed by the NVRAM. This memory region is often referred to as the WAFL NVLog (non-volatile log). The NVLog is mirrored between nodes in an HA pair and protects the filesystem from any SPOF (single-point-of-failure) until the data is de-staged to disk via a WAFL consistency point (CP). In the event of an abrupt failure, data which was committed to the NVLog but has not yet reached its final destination (disk) is read back from the NVLog and subsequently written to disk via a CP.

Solution Under Test Configuration Notes

All clients accessed the FlexGroup from all the available network interfaces.

Unlike a general-purpose operating system, ONTAP does not provide mechanisms for non-administrative users to run third-party code. Due to this behavior, ONTAP is not affected by either the Spectre or Meltdown vulnerabilities. The same is true of all ONTAP variants including both ONTAP running on FAS/AFF hardware as well as virtualized ONTAP products such as ONTAP Select and ONTAP Cloud. In addition, FAS/AFF BIOS firmware does not provide a mechanism to run arbitrary code and thus is not susceptible to either the Spectre or Meltdown attacks. More information is available from https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20180104-0001/.

None of the components used to perform the test were patched with Spectre or Meltdown patches (CVE-2017-5754,CVE-2017-5753,CVE-2017-5715).

Other Solution Notes

ONTAP Storage Efficiency techniques including inline compression and inline deduplication were enabled by default, and were active during this test. Standard data protection features, including background RAID and media error scrubbing, software validated RAID checksum, and double disk failure protection via double parity RAID (RAID-DP) were enabled during the test.

Dataflow

Please reference the configuration diagram. 8 clients were used to generate the workload; 1 of the clients also acted as Prime Client to control the 8 workload clients. Each client used one 100 GbE connection, through a Cisco Nexus 9336C-FX2 switch. Each storage HA pair had 4x 100 GbE connections to the data switch. The filesystem consisted of one ONTAP FlexGroup. The clients mounted the FlexGroup volume as an NFSv3 filesystem. The ONTAP cluster provided access to the FlexGroup volume on every 100 GbE port connected to the data switch (4 ports total). Each of the 2 cluster nodes had 1 Logical Interfaces (LIFs) per 100GbE Port, for a total of 2 LIFs per node, for a total of 4 LIFs for the AFF A900 cluster. Each client created mount points across those 4 LIFs symmetrically.

Other Notes

None

Other Report Notes

NetApp is a registered trademark and "Data ONTAP", "FlexGroup", and "WAFL" are trademarks of NetApp, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners and should be treated as such.


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