For general SQL database performance testing, we used 256 outstanding I/Os, a 16KB block size, 66 per cent read, 34 per cent write and a 100 per cent random distribution and saw a respectable 5,700 IOPS. To test maximum IOPS we changed the Iometer block size to 4KB and saw a very high reading of over 200,000 IOPS. With 64KB sequential read transfer requests, we saw an impressive raw read throughput of around 2,156MB/sec which equates to 16.8Gbits/sec. We used eight Iometer disk workers with four assigned to each volume. We logged the server's iSCSI initiator onto the group's virtual IP address to enable load balancing and connected it to a pair of 100GB virtual volumes. Thin provisioning is configured during volume creation and you decide how much physical space to start with.įor testing we used a Dell PowerEdge R720 server with dual 2.6GHz E5-2670 Xeons, 192GB of DDR3, a dual port fibre 10-Gigabit card and Windows Server 2012 R2. The redesigned volume creation wizard helps create storage pools. Management security is tight as Active Directory is supported for role based access. Installation is a cinch as Dell's Remote Setup Wizard hunts down uninitialised arrays and the Group Manager console provides easy access to all functions. The Group Manager provides access to all storage features plus wizards for pool and volume creation Each appliance looks after its own RAID arrays but the storage on all members is made available as a single entity. As you add more appliances to a group, their network ports will join the virtual IP address so increasing available bandwidth.Įxpansion potential is massive as up to sixteen appliances can be placed in a group and presented to the network as a logical storage pool. The primary controllers' ports are grouped under a virtual IP address and load balanced.

Dell equallogic group manager software