This webinar covers the improvements in storage I/O throughput and CPU efficiency that VMware vSphere gains when using an Emulex 16Gb Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter (HBA) versus the previous generation HBA. Applications virtualized on VMware vSphere 5.1 that generate storage I/O of various block sizes can take full advantage of 16Gb Fibre Channel wire speed for better sequential and random I/O performance.

1. Get Better I/O Performance in
VMware vSphere 5.1
Environments with Emulex 16Gb
Fibre Channel HBAs
Joey Dieckhans, VMware
Yea-Cheng Wang, VMware
Alex Amaya, Emulex

2. Agenda
Introduction
What’s New With VMware vSphere 5.1 for Storage
Performance Study
Emulex LPe16000 16Gb Fibre Channel (16GFC) PCIe 3.0 HBAs
Strategic Management
Conclusion
Q&A
© 2011 Emulex Corporation 2

3. What’s New With VMware
vSphere 5.1 for Storage

4. Space Efficient Sparse Virtual Disks
Joseph Dieckhans
 A new Space Efficient Sparse Virtual Disk which
1. Reclaims wasted / stranded space in side a Guest OS
2. Uses a variable block size to better suit applications / use cases
Traditional VMDK Space Efficient Sparse VMDK
Wasted Blocks No Wasted Blocks
Copyright © 2009 VMware Inc. All rights reserved. Confidential and proprietary.

5. Increasing VMFS File Sharing Limits
Joseph Dieckhans
 vSphere 5.1 supports sharing a file on a VMFS Datastore
with up to 32 concurrent ESXi hosts. (previous limit was 8)
VMFS-5
Copyright © 2009 VMware Inc. All rights reserved. Confidential and proprietary.

6. Storage DRS & vCloud Director
Joseph Dieckhans
 vCloud Director Interoperability/Support for Linked Clones
• vCloud Director will use Storage DRS for the initial placement
of linked clones during Fast Provisioning.
• vCloud Director will use Storage DRS for managing space
utilization and I/O load balancing.
Copyright © 2009 VMware Inc. All rights reserved. Confidential and proprietary.

7. Storage vMotion – Parallel Migration Enhancement
Joseph Dieckhans
 In vSphere 5.1 Storage vMotion performs up to 4 parallel
disk migrations per Storage vMotion operation
Copyright © 2009 VMware Inc. All rights reserved. Confidential and proprietary.

8. 16GFC Performance
Study by VMware

9. New 16GFC Support in vSphere5.1
• Provide new support for 16GFC on
vSphere 5.1 for better storage I/O
performance
• Performance results
 Newly added 16GFC driver has twice the
throughput compared to 8GFC HBA, at better
cpio (cpu cost per I/O)
 Reached 16GFC wire speed for random I/Os
in 8KB block sizes.
• Whitepaper
 Storage I/O Performance on VMware
vSphere5.1 over 16 Gigabit Fibre Channel

10. Comparison of Throughput and CPU Efficiency
16GFC Driver delivers double the throughput at better CPU efficiency per I/O
 Sequential read I/Os over a 16GFC or a 8GFC port (Single Iometer worker in single VM)
 Throughput and CPU cost per I/O comparison between two adapters. (see note on server configuration)
Throughput CPU Cost per I/O
8Gb 16Gb 8Gb 16Gb
1800
100%
Sequential read throughput (MBps)
1600
1400 95%
CPU cost per I/O
1200
(lower is better)
1000 90%
800
85%
600
400 80%
200
75%
0
1KB 4KB 8KB 16KB 32KB 64KB 256KB
KB 4KB 8KB 16KB 32KB 64KB 256KB
Block size Block size

11. More Bandwidth and Better IOPs
16GFC Adapter can attain much better IOPs compared to the 8Gbps wire speed limit of a
8GFC port.
 Random read I/Os from 1 VM to 8 VMs over a 16GFC port (single Iometer worker per VM)
Random Read Throughput Random Read IOPs
1 VM 2 VMs 4 VMs 6VMs 8 VMs 1 VM 2 VMs 4 VMs 6VMs 8VMs
1,800 600,000
1,600 500,000
Random read throughput (MBps)
1,400
I/Os per seconds (IOPs)
1,200 400,000
1,000
300,000
800
600 200,000
400
100,000
200
0 0
1KB 4KB 8KB 16KB 1KB 4KB 8KB 16KB
Block size Block size
8Gbps wire speed limit on the
throughput of a 8Gb FC HBA

12. Server and Workload Configuration
ESX Host
 HP Intel Proliant DL370, Dual Quad Core Xeon W5580 processors
 Emulex LPe16002 16GFC HBA initiator
 Emulex LPe12000 8GFC HBA initiator
EMC VNX7500 Storage Array
 8GFC target ports connected to 16GFC SAN switch for LPe16002 initiator
 8GFC target ports connected to 8GFC SAN switch for LPe12000 initiator
 32 SSD cached luns of size 256MB, with mirrored write cache enabled at the VNX array
Virtual Machine and Workload
 Windows 2008 R2, 64-bit Gust O; single vcpu, and single PVSCSI virtual controller
 Single Iometer worker, and 4 target luns in each VM, at 32oios per target lun

13. Emulex 16GFC PCIe
3.0 HBAs

14. Single Port Max IOPS
LPe16002 LPe12002
© 2011 Emulex Corporation 14

15. Single Port Max MB/s
LPe16002 LPe12002
© 2011 Emulex Corporation 15

16. Half the I/O Response Time
Average I/O response during a single SSD LUN read I/O
LPe16002 LPe12002
© 2011 Emulex Corporation 16

17. Best Practices for 16GFC HBAs
Stay up to date with firmware and drivers tested and supported
by VMware HCL
Update the firmware preferably during planned downtime
OEM adapters – visit partner website for latest firmware and
drivers
Update inbox drivers
Always check with the storage vendor for the recommended
queue depth settings
Always check with the storage vendor for the recommended
Multipathing policy
© 2011 Emulex Corporation 17

18. HBA Management in
Virtual Environments

19. OneCommand Manager for VMware vCenter Server
OneCommand Manager software
plug-in for the VMware vCenter
Server console
– Real-time lifecycle management for
Emulex adapters from vCenter Server
– Builds on Emulex CIM providers and
OCM features – no new agents
– Extends the vCenter Server console
with an Emulex OneCommand tab
Display / manage adapters with multiple views and filters:
– View per VMware host; per VMware cluster; per network fabric
– Firmware version, hardware type and many other display filters
Batch update adapter firmware across VMware clusters
– Deploy firmware across hosts in a cluster
© 2011 Emulex Corporation 19

20. OneCommand Manager for VMware vCenter Server
Cluster View – Hosts in a VMware Cluster
VMware
Hosts, VMs and
Clusters
Emulex
OneCommand
Tab
OCM Cluster-based
Management Tasks
Data Window for
Selected Items
© 2011 Emulex Corporation 20

21. Resources

22. Implementers Lab
One-stop site for IT administrators and
system architects (implementers)
Technically accurate and straight-
forward resources
Fibre Channel and OEM Ethernet
and ESXi 5.0 Deployments
How-to Guides for Solutions from:
– HP
– IBM
– Dell
Please wander around our website
– Implementerslab.com
© 2011 Emulex Corporation 22

23. Additional Resources
VMware Emulex
– Storage I/O performance on – www.ImplementersLab.com
VMware vSphere 5.1 over – Demartek LPe16000B
16GFC Evaluation report
– Blog: Storage Protocol – OneCommand Manager for
Comparison – A vSphere VMware vCenter
Perspective – OneCommand Manager
– Technical Resources – OneCommand Vision
© 2011 Emulex Corporation 23

24. Final Thoughts…
Virtualization adoption is spreading
– More virtualization spreading to cloud, VDI, and mission critical
applications
Virtualization density is increasing
– Enabled by bigger servers, more memory, faster networks and vSphere
Fibre Channel is the most popular network for SANs
– Networking is the #2 factor (after memory) for bigger VM deployments
16GFC from Emulex is here:
– Lower latency, better throughput and more IOPS for bigger VM
Deployments
– Best management for vSphere
© 2011 Emulex Corporation 24

25. Q&A
© 2011 Emulex Corporation 25

26. © 2011 Emulex Corporation 26