Sun 7410 unified storage system shoots for high performance

摘要

Sun's latest addition to its high-end enterprise storage repertoire - the iSCSI-based Sun Storage 7410 Unified Storage System - is certainly a high-performance offering, but we found some usability and integration issues.rnThe system leverages Sun's ZFS file system, and uses solid state disk (SSD) to replace expensive cache and improve both read and write performance without the need for costly 15,000 or 10,000 RPM hard drives. It uses up to six 100GB SSDs for a read cache, and as many as four 18GB SSDs per drive shelf (up to 16 total) for a write cache.rnSun claims a maximum performance of 288,000 I/Os per second and l.lGBps throughput for the 7410, and based on our limited testing, we feel it should be able to sustain those kinds of numbers with either four, four-port 1Gbps Ethernet or multiple lOGigabit Ethernet adapters.rnThe system consists of one or two Sun Storage 7410 controllers equipped with eight 2.5-inch drive bays, accommodating as many as six 100GB SSD drives and two 500GB SATA drives for boot purposes.The 7410s are connected to as many as 12 J4400 drive shelves, each of which supports up to 24 SATA drive bays, of which up to four can be 18GB SSDs for write caching.The 7410s are connected to the J4400s via external SAS cables.rnThe system Sun shipped to us consisted of two Sun Storage 7410 controllers, each with two 100GB SSDs and two 500GB SATA drives, and one J4400 system with four 18GB SSDs and 20 750GB SATA drives.The 7410s each had seven gigabit Ethernet ports, plus one lights-out monitoring (ILOM) port and a serial management port, as well as KVM connections.