HP StorageWorks EVA Disk Array for Oracle Using Solid State Drives

Technical brief

Table of contents
Executive summary............................................................................................................................... 2 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 2 Technology overview ........................................................................................................................... 2 Solid state drive technology............................................................................................................... 2 HP StorageWorks EVA Disk Array ..................................................................................................... 4 SSD on the HP StorageWorks EVA Disk Array ........................................................................................ 5 Performance stagnation .................................................................................................................... 5 SSD performance boost in EVA.......................................................................................................... 5 Sizing for capacity and performance.................................................................................................. 7 SSD power savings .......................................................................................................................... 7 Oracle performance with SSD ............................................................................................................... 8 Oracle and SSD fast response times ................................................................................................... 8 Examples with SSD........................................................................................................................... 8 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 12 For more information .......................................................................................................................... 13

Executive summary
In todays business environment, Oracle customers rely on the most efficient, highest performing, and most reliable storage solutions available. They need to accelerate business growth while keeping costs under control. Businesses today are concerned about the costs of data center power consumption. All of these attributes are important for mission critical software business applications like Oracle. Solid state drives (SSDs) on HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) can provide a significant performance boost for Oracle applications compared to hard disk drives (HDDs), while addressing other important attributes as well.

Introduction
The EVA provides high performance, high capacity, and high availability virtual array storage solutions for mid-range and enterprise customers. These solutions reduce IT costs and complexity, while saving time, space, and costs. They are supported by a powerfully simple management software suite making it easy for users to achieve highest levels of productivity. The EVA disk array is ideal for business critical enterprise-wide deployment and mission-critical applications in small to large data centers running key business applications, such as Oracle. Proper distribution of Oracle storage components on the EVA provides sufficient disk storage capacity and reliable data security with a high level of I/O performance. Designed for data centers that need improved storage utilization and scalability, the EVA meets application demands for consistent high transaction I/O and provides easy capacity expansion, instantaneous replication, and simplified administration using Command View EVA software. This technical brief provides an overview of the performance improvement available to an Oracle system when SSDs are added to an HP StorageWorks EVA disk array.

Technology overview
Solid state drive technology
The explosion of NAND flash memory in consumer products has transitioned into enterprise high volume storage. An SSD is a data storage device composed of solid state or flash memory similar to a USB flash drive, but with a much more sophisticated controller. USB flash drives use multi-level cells (MLC) while enterprise SSDs use single-level cells (SLC). MLCs have the advantages of higher density and lower cost per bit. SLCs, on the other hand, provide faster write performance, 10 times more durability, consume less power, and operate at a higher temperature range (industrial versus commercial operating temperature range) than MLCs. Compared to HDDs, enterprise SSDs offer significant performance improvement and lower energy consumption. An SSD has no moving parts that wear out and limit performance as in an HDD. However SSD cells can only be written a finite number of times before they can no longer be used. To compensate for that flash memory characteristic, enterprise SSDs utilize cell over-provisioning, error correction, wear leveling algorithms, and block management routines to increase the drives usage.

SSDs are tougher and more shock resistant than HDDs because there are no moving parts. One of the reasons SSDs perform better than HDDs is because there is no data retrieval performance penalty incurred by rotational latency and seek time. Similar to an HDD, SSDs can be accessed and written randomly. Although per gigabyte (GB) of capacity an SSD is more expensive than an HDD, it provides higher speed and lower power usage than an HDD. Additionally, SSDs provide better random I/O speed without the need for short stroking, thus allowing full capacity utilization with lower power usage. As shown in Figure 1, idle SSDs consume 40 percent less power than idle HDDs and when busy, SSDs consume 37 percent less power than HDDs.

Figure 1: Power consumption comparison between HDD and SSD

Power consumption
HDD SSD

40% Less
Idle

37% Less
Busy

The attributes of an SSD make it an attractive option for high-end, business critical applications such as Oracle that require extremely high performance. Improvements in HDD performance over the years have not kept pace with increased Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS) demand. Due to moving and spinning parts, there is a limit to the response time an HDD can provide. This is where SSDs handily outperform HDDs because they use solid state memory instead of spinning disks for storing data. Although SSDs cost more per GB than HDDs, SSDs can be utilized as a premium performance tier in well-designed, balanced storage deployments. In this comprehensive tiered device environment, SSDs co-exist with HDDs. For further details, please refer to the Solid State Disks for HP StorageWorks Arrays White paper.

HP StorageWorks EVA Disk Array

There are three different models of EVA disk arrays. At the high end is the HP StorageWorks 6400/8400 Enterprise Virtual Array, with the HP StorageWorks 4400 Enterprise Virtual Array at the entry level. The EVA6400/8400 is ideal for business critical enterprise customers who need highly available storage and want to make efficient use of valuable IT staff, resources, and budget. The EVA6400/8400 automatically improves performance by placing data across more disk drives than a conventional array. The ease of management provided by HP StorageWorks Command View Software results in less time spent on maintenance and administrative intervention. Higher capacity utilization provides improved performance and manageable storage in a more consolidated footprint. The EVA6400/8400 allows the storage infrastructure to be virtualized and seamlessly provisioned when scaling up applications. Add virtual servers and EVAs to dynamically build a complete virtualized IT environment.

Figure 2: HP StorageWorks EVA4400/6400/8400

The smallest of the three models, the EVA4400, offers an easily deployed enterprise class virtual storage array for midsized customers at an affordable price.

Table 1 compares the features of the three EVA models.

Table 1: HP StorageWorks EVA features list Features Number of drives Storage capacity (including expansion) Drives per enclosure Cache HP StorageWorks 8400 Enterprise Virtual Array 324 324 TB maximum, depending on drive capacity, including expansion 12 14 GB 22 GB Depending on model Two HSV450 M6412 Supports up to 27 enclosures HP StorageWorks 6400 Enterprise Virtual Array 216 216 TB maximum, depending on drive capacity 12 8 GB HP StorageWorks 4400 Enterprise Virtual Array 96 96 TB maximum, depending on drive capacity 12 4 GB

Type and number of controllers Type and number of enclosures

Two HSV400 M6412 Supports up to 18 enclosures

Two HSV300 M6412 Supports up to 8 enclosures

SSD on the HP StorageWorks EVA Disk Array

SSDs have the same form factor as EVA HDDs and are installed into an EVA disk array like any other drive. Additionally there are no functional limitations on drive placement.

Performance stagnation
Over the past several years, server processors have steadily improved performance, while storage performance has remained relatively stagnant or even lost ground when comparing IOs per GB. While HDD disks increased in capacity, their performance density has not increased, but steadily decreased. To maintain performance for a given I/O workload, often the same number of spindles must still be used. This performance density can be illustrated by tracking the results of an 8 KB block 60/40 random read/write mix for different generations of HDDs. Several years ago one of the popular disk drives was the 18 GB 10,000 RPM unit capable of about 140 IOPS or a performance density of around 8 IOPS per GB. The newer 450 GB 15,000 RPM unit is capable of 180 IOPS per second with a performance density of around 0.4 IOPS per GB, a substantial decrease from the smaller capacity HDD. SSD devices greatly improve performance density in addition to providing a significant performance increase with fewer devices.

SSD performance boost in EVA

Adding SSD devices to the EVA 6400/8400 Array as a disk group of eight devices can provide a 16-fold increase in performance of 8 KB block 60/40 mixed read/write workload over the performance of a disk group of eight 15K RPM HDD units with response times well below those of the disk devices. When SSDs and HDDs were installed into the EVA in a RAID 5 configuration using eight drives each, SSDs provided a 34 times improvement in IOPS for random reads, nine times improvement for random writes, a 25 times reduction in read response time, and an eight times reduction in write response time compared to HDDs.

Figure 3: IOPS performance improvement between an HDD and SSD in a RAID configuration

RAID 5 performance comparison

15K RPM FC HDD Enterprise SSD

34x

9x
8 KB random reads 8 KB random writes

Figure 4: Response time reduction of SSD over HDD

Response time reduction

15K RPM FC HDD Enterprise SSD

25x
8 KB random reads

8x
8 KB random writes

Sizing for capacity and performance

When sizing an EVA for an application, two important considerations are capacity and performance. While disk capacity sizing may be obvious, sizing based on performance can be easily overlooked, especially with the gains in disk capacity over the years. Sizing the database for performance and purchasing additional spindles with the additional power utilization costs is not uncommonsizing the database for performance is critical. For example, a two terabyte database can be constructed using two hundred 18 GB 15K RPM disks that could handle 10,000 IOPS. However, if we were to construct the two terabyte database with eight of the newer 450 GB disks, the performance would be one-ninth that of the 18 GB disk solution. To maintain the same performance would require the same number of disks whether or not the capacity was needed; sizing the database for performance while considering spindle count when using HDD devices is critical. With SSD devices, sizing the array based on capacity is easier. SSD devices allow the customer to realize the full performance benefits of the EVA with fewer devices than if HDD disks were used. SSDs reverse the trend toward lower performance densities by providing about a 10-fold improvement over the performance density available in the older 18GB 10K RPM HDDs.

SSD power savings

For a database to run efficiently, dont overlook power utilization. With increasing demands to reduce power consumption and increase hardware efficiency, its hard to beat the power benefits of SSDs. The HP EVA Array with SSDs provides the solution architect with new power options. For example, given a constrained power budget, the power saving obtained with SSD devices opens the door for additional storage or servers to be added without exceeding the power budget. This additional hardware can then enable additional performance and/or capacity growth. Figure 5 below shows the performance benefit when comparing SSDs with HDDs.

Figure 5: Power consumption (in watts) for HDD vs. 8 SSD depending on number of HDD being replaced

Power consumption (watts) per similar workload

HDD SSD

42X
8 SSD devices 216 HDD devices

For a heavy small block random Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) type workload, SSD devices can provide 42 times power efficiency over HDDs in the HP EVA Array (8 SSDs in a RAID 5 Disk Group; 216 HDDs in RAID 1 Disk Group).

Oracle performance with SSD

Oracle and SSD fast response times
There are situations in which the Oracle database requires fast response times. To obtain a well-tuned Oracle environment it is important to tune the database and server environment as well as the storage system. Merely adding SSDs will not provide the benefit expected. Assuming the Oracle server is properly sized for optimal performance, the HP EVA array with SSDs can provide exceptionally fast response times for the same IOPS as HDD devices. With SSDs, the HP EVA Array can provide response times that are just not possible with HDD devices. Its true that HDD devices can be short stroked, limiting the head movement on the disk platter, but this will not provide the boost in response times and throughput available from SSD devices in the EVA array. The EVA can provide response times up to 25 times faster with SSD devices than with HDD devices. This can be important for Oracle Indexes and OLTP-type of workload in which small block random read workloads need the fastest response times possible.

Examples with SSD

When tuning the storage environment for best Oracle performance, its important to remember that there is no silver bullet. SSDs by themselves will not solve all the storage problems, let alone performance problems; however, in a properly configured Oracle environment with HP EVA arrays SSDs can provide a significant benefit. While it would be nice to merely place the entire Oracle database on HP EVA array Vdisks composed of SSDs, this may not be very wise. However, structuring the environment to include both HDD and SSD devices will often provide the best tradeoff between usage patterns and acceptable performance. Because SSDs are more expensive than HDDs, using SSDs for the whole Oracle database rather than a strategic placement of the data can be a costly proposition. However, placing the entire database on SSDs is not always necessary. There are Oracle database components for which SSDs might not provide a compelling advantage, such as for Oracle Redo and Archive logs in which workloads and usage patterns are better suited to mechanical spindle devices. Figure 6 shows an example of such a structured environment with logs placed on HDDs and the remaining database placed on solid state devices.

Figure 6: Structured storage environment

With the structured environment shown above, only the components that most benefit from high random I/O performance are placed on the SSDs. An additional point to consider is that while spindled devices can have greatly varying seek times, this is not the case for SSDs. Unlike HDDs, SSDs have no performance penalty associated with seeking for data at extreme ends of the disk. Therefore, placing all Oracle user data (less the logs) on SSD devices for random I/O workloads will not be adversely affected by such accesses. As hot spots move around depending on the changing workload, the Oracle database will benefit by being on SSD without needing constant monitoring/tuning for hot spot migration to SSDs. Merely placing SSDs in the Oracle storage environment will not necessarily solve all the storage bottlenecks. Careful consideration of the I/O workload patterns will be necessary. Additionally, it might be necessary to resize the storage environment to handle other newly-exposed performance issues that were not present previously. For example, Table 2 below shows data from an OLTP-like 60/40 read/write small block random access workload with the INDEX on HDDs in the upper table and on SSDs in the lower table; remaining user data files are on HDD devices in both cases. All HDDs are used in a RAID 1 configuration. For the smaller user load, the average transactional response time is 9 millisecond (ms) with the INDEX on SSDs and 15 ms with the INDEX on HDD. The total time, 9 ms or 15 ms, includes both the INDEX lookup time plus the data read or write operation. In the lower user load case, the Oracle database clearly benefits by the fast response time of the INDEX being on SSD. This benefit holds for increasing workloads up to a point when other storage bottlenecks begin to be clearly exposed as can be seen at the 50 user load. In this case the bottleneck is the HDD devices, since the HP EVA array is able to handle the higher workload. Several solutions to help this environment exist: 1) move the remaining non-log data from HDDs to SSDs, 2) if the hot spots are stable enough, move them from the HDDs to the SSDs, 3) increase the HDD spindle count to accommodate the increased workload and maintain the benefit of the SSDs.

Table 2: Tuning needed to reduce response times at higher user loads INDEX on HDD in this table Userload 6 12 25 50 Executions 331210 568606 902127 1238725 TPS 394.30 676.93 1073.96 1474.70 BPS 1577.19 2707.70 4295.85 5898.78 Rows 331210 568606 902127 1238725 Bytes 1324840 2274424 3608508 4954900 Average Time 0.015 0.017 0.023 0.033

INDEX on SSD in this table Userload 6 12 25 50 Executions 511918 785200 1114234 1380205 TPS 609.43 934.83 1326.40 1643.08 BPS 2437.71 3739.32 5305.59 6572.34 Rows 511918 785200 1114234 1380205 Bytes 2047672 3140800 4456936 5520820 Average Time 0.009 0.012 0.018 0.030

Continuing from the previous Oracle example and the benefit of tuning the environment, with data spread over about 70 HDD spindles and the INDEX on SSDs, a TPS of 1326 can be achieved with a response time of 9 ms. With this configuration, not only will response times be improved, but there will also be space available on the SSDs for hot spot migration if desired. Table 3 and Table 4 below show a portion of two Oracle AWR reports for a heavily-loaded system. The workload and environments are similar with user data files and control files (except logs and INDEX) residing on a single EVA disk group; logs are on their own EVA disk group; the index is on either a 9 disk HDD disk group, or an 8 device SDD disk group. All HDD LUNs are configured as RAID 1 and SSD LUNS are configured as RAID 5. The goal of the test was to investigate the benefits of using SSDs for the INDEX as well as show that additional work is needed to tune the storage environment to fully benefit from the SSDs. Looking at the HDD_INDEX_TBS the average response time of the INDEX is about 11 ms; however, with the INDEX moved to the SSD_INDEX_TBS the average response time is less than 1 msright where we want it. Next, the environment should be tuned to reduce the average response time of the other tablespaces. This can be performed by either adding disks to the disk group containing the other user data, thereby spreading the user load across additional spindles, or moving the hot data to SSD too.

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Table 3: Oracle AWR ReportTable IO Stats INDEX on HDD Tablespace I/O Stats [ordered by I/Os (Reads + Writes) desc] Tablespace DATA_DG HDD_INDEX_TBS SYSAUX UNDOTBS1 SYSTEM TEMP3 SSD_INDEX_TBS UNDOTBS2 USERS Reads 2,023,828 1,920,844 6,342 494 556 42 7 7 7 Av Reads/s Av Rd (ms) Av Blks/Rd 568 539 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 18.36 10.97 20.57 15.24 23.27 0.00 7.14 130.00 91.43 Writes Av Writes/s Buffer Waits Av Buf (ms) 556 0 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 2,280 0 0 283 150 0 0 0 0 10.70 0.00 0.00 0.11 29.07 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

1.00 1,981,414 1.00 1.01 1.00 1.00 15.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 7 7,778 9,142 95 43 7 7 7

Table 4: Oracle AWR ReportTable I/O Stats INDEX on SSD Tablespace I/O Stats [ordered by I/Os (Reads + Writes) desc] Tablespace DATA_DG SSD_INDEX_TBS SYSAUX UNDOTBS1 SYSTEM HDD_INDEX_TBS UNDOTBS2 USERS Reads 17,249 16,868 3,517 1 8 1 1 1 Av Reads/s Av Rd (ms) Av Blks/Rd 11 10 2 0 0 0 0 0 19.59 0.63 6.47 90.00 18.75 90.00 90.00 90.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 Writes 165,271 1 3,580 999 23 1 1 1 Av Writes/s Buffer Waits Av Buf (ms) 102 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 25 0 0 4 88 0 0 0 10.80 0.00 0.00 0.00 6.59 0.00 0.00 0.00

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Figure 7 below shows the kind of performance benefit that can be achieved for the Oracle database I/O response time by moving the INDEX from HP EVA array hard disk storage to solid state storage devices.

Figure 7: Response time improvement for Index on SSD vs. HDD (smaller numbers are better)

120% 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% Response Time

HDD SSD

Conclusion
Customers demand the highest efficiency and performance in their Oracle environment while keeping costs under control. HP provides a wide selection of reliable storage solutions that addresses such requirements. Solid State Drives in the HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array provide one such key solution. The EVA offers high performance, high capacity, and high availability to mid-range and enterprise customers. The EVA provides the high transaction I/O of mission-critical applications such as Oracle while providing easy capacity expansion, instantaneous replication, and simple administration using the Command View EVA software. Combining the reliable performance of the EVA with SSDs provides a significant performance boost for the Oracle database.

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For more information

Data Storage from HP http://www.hp.com/go/storage HP Storage with Oracle http://www.hp.com/storage/oracle HP StorageWorks EVA disk array http://www.hp.com/go/eva Solid State Disks for HP StorageWorks Arrays white paper http://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA2-4509ENW.pdf HP StorageWorks 4400 Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA4400) Performance white paper http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA1-8473ENW.pdf HP StorageWorks 6400 Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA6400) Performance white paper http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA2-9570ENW.pdf HP StorageWorks 8400 Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA8400) Performance white paper http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA2-9569ENW.pdf HP StorageWorks 4400/6400/8400 Enterprise Virtual Array configuration best practices white paper http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA2-0914ENW.pdf

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Copyright 2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates 4AA0-2123ENW, Created March 2010