which is better for kvm storage pool,any advice?

[lcn]

I've made a simple benchmark with FreeNAS-9.3 and NexentaStor4.0.3 community Edition

Using Zfs and ISCSI services

Server Hardware: i5-2320 ,4G ram, SSD *2 (stripe)(Toshiba Q-series 256GB),Intel X520-Da2
Client Hardware & OS: i5-2320 ,4G ram,7200 RPM HDD,Intel X520-Da2, Windows 7 32bit

Benchmark Software : IOMeter 1.1.0 without any tuning
4k 100% Read

4k 100% Write

64k 100% Read

64k 100% Write

256K 100% Read

256K 100% Write

the benchmark data looks a little weird , i'm just wondering which is better for kvm storage pool....any advice?

 

[enemy85]

You should have benchmarked freenas at least with the minimum recommended hw...

 

[cyberjock]

You should have benchmarked freenas at least with the minimum recommended hw...

+1

Benchmarking fail.

 

[jgreco]

And by 'minimum recommended' we mean the 16GB-or-more RAM required for iSCSI, not the 8GB RAM that is the smallest supported configuration for general deployments. For purposes of achieving actual decent performance, 64GB or more.

 

[lcn]

thanks, i'll upgrade my hardware environment,
another quesion~
shall i using 4096 bytes block size iSCSI target for kvm storage pool ?

 

[cyberjock]

thanks, i'll upgrade my hardware environment,
another quesion~
shall i using 4096 bytes block size iSCSI target for kvm storage pool ?

Stick with the defaults and whatever the manual recommends (if there are any recommendations in the manual for your specific situation).

 

[L]

These are really interesting numbers. I can't see the network interface you are using? Looks like a 10gbe? If you want to dm me, love to talk more... Lately I have been a little obsessed with performance pathologies.

I especially find the write tests interesting. 6x is crazy different.. Does nexenta have the open-zfs larger blocks? It would seem that they don't..

So the there really isn't an answer to your question.. A vm is a virtual machine. That machine still needs to run a workload. What does your workload need? Is it large file? small file? write or read?

If your workload is write centric.. this is showing pretty much overall freenas is obvious choice, except for 4k read. Love to see these results posted in a blog some place.

 

[L]

I think I might have just figured the big difference.. None of the illumos based distros set ashift correctly. You need to set ashift to 12 on the nexenta box to have a fair fight.

 

[lcn]

thank you Linda, nextime i'll upgrade to minimum recommended hw ,tuning Nexentastor ashift to 12 and benchmark again,

the benchmark nic is intel-X520-DA2 , connect with Direch attach cable (PC to PC without switch)

most of my vm runs php+mysql website (READ always).

I'm finding a 10Gbe iscsi storage solution (1U server) for vm pool ,budget $3500.

server:Asrock 1U12LW-C2750*1 (upgrade to 32GB ecc) $1020+400
NIC:Intel X520-DA2*1 $300
HDD:WD black label *12 $840
switch D-Link DGS-1510-28X*1 $700

never build NAS server before, any shopping advice?

 

[jgreco]

I'm finding a 10Gbe iscsi storage solution (1U server) for vm pool ,budget $3500.

server:Asrock 1U12LW-C2750*1 (upgrade to 32GB ecc) $1020+400
HDD:WD black label *12 $840

"Make sure you buy spare power supplies for when you fry the 350W supply that comes with."

 

[L]

thank you Linda, nextime i'll upgrade to minimum recommended hw ,tuning Nexentastor ashift to 12 and benchmark again,

the benchmark nic is intel-X520-DA2 , connect with Direch attach cable (PC to PC without switch)

most of my vm runs php+mysql website (READ always).

I'm finding a 10Gbe iscsi storage solution (1U server) for vm pool ,budget $3500.

server:Asrock 1U12LW-C2750*1 (upgrade to 32GB ecc) $1020+400
NIC:Intel X520-DA2*1 $300
HDD:WD black label *12 $840
switch D-Link DGS-1510-28X*1 $700

never build NAS server before, any shopping advice?

The forums can give you shopping advice... With your workload you will probably have most in your files in cache, so your benchmark/testing will not at all reflect your results. Do you know for your website how many/much space do your active files use? You can see that by testing and looking for active ARC in reporting....Get that much ram.