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FAST VP Theory and Best Practices
FAST VP Theory and Best Practices
Technica l Notes
P/ N 300- 012- 014
REV A04
June 2012
This technical notes d ocu m ent contains inform ation on these top ics:
Execu tive su m m ary ................................................................................... 2
Introd u ction and overview ....................................................................... 2
Fu lly Au tom ated Storage Tiering ............................................................ 3
FAST and FAST VP com p arison .............................................................. 5
Theory of op eration ................................................................................... 6
Perform ance consid erations ................................................................... 11
Prod u ct and featu re interop erability ..................................................... 14
Planning and d esign consid erations ..................................................... 17
Su m m ary and conclu sion ....................................................................... 34
Ap p end ix: Best p ractices qu ick reference ............................................. 37
1
Executive summary
Executive summary
® ® ®
EMC Sym m etrix VMAX Fam ily w ith Enginu ity™ incorp orates a
scalable fabric-interconnect d esign that allow s a storage array to
seam lessly grow from an entry-level configu ration to a 4 PB system .
Sym m etrix VMAX Series arrays p rovid e p red ictable, self-op tim izing
p erform ance and enables organ izations to scale ou t on d em and in
p rivate clou d environm ents.
VMAX Series arrays au tom ate storage op erations to exceed bu siness
requ irem ents in virtu alized environm ents, w ith m anagem ent tools that
integrate w ith virtu alized servers and red u ce ad m inistra tion tim e in
p rivate clou d infrastru ctu res. Cu stom ers are able to achieve alw ays -on
availability w ith m axim u m secu rity, fu lly nond isru p tive op erations , and
m u lti-site m igration, recovery, and restart to p revent ap p lication
d ow ntim e.
Inform ation infrastru ctu re m u st continu ou sly ad ap t to changing
bu siness requ irem ents. EMC Sym m etrix Fully Au tom ated Storage
Tiering for Virtu al Pools (FAST VP) au tom ates tiered storage strategies,
in Virtu al Provisioning™ environm ents, by easily m oving w orkload s
betw een Sym m etrix tiers as p erform ance characteristics change over
tim e. FAST VP p erform s d ata m ovem ents, im p roving p erform ance , and
red u cing costs, all w hile m aintaining vital service levels.
Introduction a nd overview
EMC Sym m etrix VMAX FAST VP for Virtu al Provisioning environm ents
au tom ates the id entification of d ata volu m es for the p u rp oses of
relocating ap p lication d ata across d ifferent p erform ance/ cap acity tiers
w ithin an array. FAST VP p roactively m onitors w orkload s at both the
LUN and su b-LUN level in ord er to id entify bu sy d ata that w ou ld
benefit from being m oved to higher -p erform ing d rives. FAST VP also
id entifies less-bu sy d ata that cou ld be m oved to higher -cap acity d rives
w ithou t existing p erform ance being affected . This p rom otion/ d em otion
activity is based on p olicies that associate a storage grou p to m u ltip le
d rive technologies, or RAID p rotection schem es, by w ay of thin storage
p ools, as w ell as the p erform ance requ irem ents of the ap p lication
contained w ithin the storage grou p . Data m ovem ent execu ted d u ring
this activity is p erform ed nond isru p tively, w ithou t affecting bu siness
continu ity and d ata availability.
2 FAST VP fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX Theo ry a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e
Fully Automated Storage Tiering
Audience
This technical notes d ocu m ent is intend ed for anyone w ho need s to
u nd erstand FAST VP theory, best p ractices, and associated
recom m end ations as necessary to achieve the best p erform ance for FAST
VP configu rations. This d ocu m ent is sp ecifically targeted to EMC
cu stom ers, sales, and field technical staff w ho are either ru nning FAST
VP or are consid ering FAST VP for fu tu re im p lem entation.
Significant p ortions of this d ocu m ent assu m e a base know led ge
regard ing the im p lem entation and m anagem ent of FAST VP. For
inform ation regard ing the im p lem entation and m anagem ent of FAST VP
in Virtu al Provisioning environm ents, refer to the Implementing Fully
A utomated Storage Tiering for V irtual Pools (FA ST V P) for EM C Symmetrix
V M A X Series A rrays Technical N ote (P/ N 300-012-015).
FAST VP Theo ry fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e 3
Fully Automated Storage Tiering
Several d ifferences exist betw een the fou r d rive technologies su p p orted
by the Sym m etrix VMAX Series arrays: Enterprise Flash Drive (EFD), Fibre
Channel (FC), Serial Attach SCSI (SAS), and SATA. The p rim ary
d ifferences are:
Resp onse tim e
Cost p er u nit of storage cap acity
Cost p er u nit of storage requ est p rocessing
At one extrem e are EFDs, w hich have a very low resp onse
tim e, bu t w ith a high cost p er u nit of storage cap acity
At the other extrem e are SATA d rives, w hich have a low
cost p er u nit of storage cap acity, bu t high resp onse tim es
and high cost p er u nit of storage requ est p rocessing
Betw een these tw o extrem es lie Fibre Channel and SAS
d rives
Based on the natu re of the d ifferences that exist betw een these fou r d rive
typ es, the follow ing observations can be m ad e regard ing the m ost su ited
w orkload typ e for each d rive.
Enterp rise Flash Drives: EFDs are m ore su ited for
w orkload s that have a high back-end rand om read storage
requ est d ensity. Su ch w orkload s take ad vantage of both
the low resp onse tim e p rovid ed by the d rive, and the low
cost p er u nit of storage requ est p rocessing w ithou t
requ iring a log of storage cap acity.
SATA d rives: SATA d rives are su ited tow ard w orkload s
that have a low back-end storage requ est d ensity.
Fibre Channel/ SAS d rives: Fibre Channel and SAS d rives
are the best d rive typ e for w ork load s w ith a back-end
storage requ est d ensity that is not consistently high or low .
This d isp arity in su itable w orkload s p resents both an op p ortu nity and a
challenge for storage ad m inistrators.
To the d egree it can be arranged for storage w orkload s to be served by
the best su ited d rive technology, the op p ortu nity exists to im p rove
ap p lication p erform ance, red u ce hard w are acqu isition exp enses, and
red u ce op erating exp enses (inclu d ing energy costs and sp ace
consu m p tion).
The challenge, how ever, lies in how to realize these benefits w ithou t
introd u cing ad d itional ad m inistrative overhead and com p lexity.
The ap p roach taken w ith FAST is to au tom ate the p rocess of id entifying
w hich regions of storage shou ld resid e on a given d rive technology, and
4 FAST VP fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX Theo ry a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e
FAST and FAST VP comparison
to au tom atically and nond isru p tively m ove storage betw een tiers to
op tim ize storage resou rce u sage accord ingly. This also need s to be d one
w hile taking into accou nt op tional constraints on tier cap acity u sage that
m ay be im p osed on sp ecific grou p s of storage d evices.
N ote: For m ore inform ation on Virtual Provisioning, refer to the Best Practices
for Fast, Simple Capacity A llocation with EM C Symmetrix V irtual Provisioning
Technical N ote available at http :/ / pow erlink.em c.com .
N ote: For m ore inform ation on Fed erated Tiered Storage, refer to the Design
and Implementation Best Practices for EM C Symmetrix Federated Tiered Storage
(FTS) technical note available at http:/ / pow erlink.em c.com .
Becau se FAST and FAST VP su p p ort d ifferent d evice typ es, non-thin and
thin, resp ectively, they both can op erate sim u ltaneou sly w ithin a single
array. Asid e from som e shared configu ration p aram eters, the
m anagem ent and op eration of each can be consid ered sep arately.
N ote: For m ore inform ation on FAST refer to the Implementing Fully
A utomated Storage Tiering (FA ST) for EM C Symmetrix V M A X Series A rrays
technical note available at http :/ / pow erlink.em c.com .
The goal of FAST and FAST VP is to op tim ize the p erform ance and cost-
efficiency of configu rations containing m ixed d rive technologies. While
FAST m onitors and m oves storage in u nits of entire logical d evices,
FAST VP m onitors d ata access w ith m u ch finer granu larity. This allow s
FAST VP to d eterm ine the m ost ap p rop riate tier (based on op tim izing
p erform ance and cost efficiency) for each 120 track region of storage. In
FAST VP Theo ry fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e 5
Theory of operation
this w ay, the ability of FAST VP to m onitor and m ove d ata w ith m u ch
finer granu larity greatly enhances the valu e p rop osition of au tom ated
tiering.
FAST VP bu ild s u p on and extend s the existing cap abilities of Virtu al
Provisioning and FAST to p rovid e the u ser w ith enhanced Sym m etrix
tiering op tions. The Virtu al Provisioning u nd erp innings of FAST VP
allow FAST VP to com bine the core benefits of Virtu al Provisioning
(w id e strip ing and thin p rovisioning) w ith the benefits of au tom ated
tiering.
FAST VP m ore closely aligns storage access w orkload s w ith the best-
su ited d rive technology than is p ossible if all regions of a given d ev ice
m u st be m ap p ed to the sam e tier. At any given tim e, the hot regions of a
thin d evice m anaged by FAST VP m ay be m ap p ed to an EFD tier, and
the w arm p arts m ay be m ap p ed to an FC tier, w hile the cold p arts m ay
be m ap p ed to a SATA tier. By m ore effectively exp loiting d rive
technology sp ecializations, FAST VP d elivers better p erform ance and
greater cost efficiency that FAST.
FAST VP also better ad ap ts to shifting w orkload locality of reference,
changes in tier-allocation lim its, or storage-grou p p riority. This is d u e to
the fact that the workload m ay be ad ju sted by m oving less d ata. This
fu rther contribu tes to m aking FAST VP m ore effective at exp loiting d rive
sp ecializations and also enhances som e of the op erational ad vantages of
FAST. This inclu d es the ability to nond isru p tively ad ju st the qu ality of
storage service (resp onse tim e and throu ghp u t) p rovid ed to a storage
grou p .
6 FAST VP fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX Theo ry a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e
Theory of operation
FAST VP Theo ry fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e 7
Theory of operation
8 FAST VP fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX Theo ry a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e
Theory of operation
Da ta movement
Data m ovem ents execu ted by FAST VP are p erform ed by the VLUN VP
d ata m ovem ent engine, and involve m oving thin d evice extents betw een
thin p ools w ithin the array. Extents are m oved by w ay of a m ove
p rocess only; extents are not sw ap p ed betw een p ools.
The m ovem ent of extents, or extent grou p s, d oes not change the thin
d evice bind ing inform ation. The thin d evice still rem ain s bou nd to the
p ool it w as originally bou nd to. N ew allocations for the thin d evice, as
the resu lt of host w rites, w ill continu e to com e from the bou nd p ool,
u nless VP allocation by FAST VP is enabled .
To com p lete a m ove, the follow ing m u st hold tru e:
The FAST VP op erating m od e m u st be Au tom atic.
The VP d ata m ovem ent w ind ow m u st be op en.
The thin d evice affected m u st not be p inned .
There m u st be su fficient u nallocated sp ace in the thin
FAST VP Theo ry fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e 9
Theory of operation
N ote: If the selected d estination tier contains only pools that have reached the
PRC lim it, then an alternate tier m ay be consid ered by the movem ent task.
10 FAST VP fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX Theo ry a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e
Performance considerations
This requ est exp licitly ind icates w hich thin d evice extents shou ld be
m oved , and the sp ecific thin p ools they shou ld be m oved to.
FAST VP Theo ry fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e 11
Performance considerations
p reviou sly.
N ote: Perform ance m etrics are only collected d uring user -d efined
perform ance tim e w ind ow s. The tim es d uring w hich m etrics are not being
collected d oes not contribute to red ucing the w eight assigned to those m etrics
alread y collected .
The m etrics collected at the su b-LUN level for thin d evices u nd er FAST
VP control contain m easu rem ents to allow FAST VP to m ake sep arat e
d ata m ovem ent requ ests for each 120 tracks u nit of storage that m ake u p
the thin d evice. This u nit of storage consists of 10 contigu ou s thin d evice
extents and is know n as an extent grou p .
In ord er to m aintain the su b-LUN -level m etrics collected by Enginu ity,
the Sym m etrix array allocates one cache slot for each thin d evice that is
u nd er FAST VP control.
When m anaging m etad evices, cache slots are allocated for both the
m etahead and for each of the m etam em bers.
N ote: Each cache slot on a Sym m etrix VMAX Series array is one track in size.
FAST VP tuning
FAST VP p rovid es a nu m ber of p aram eters that can be u sed to tu ne the
p erform ance of FAST VP and to control the aggressiveness of the d ata
m ovem ents. These p aram eters can be u sed to nond isru p tively ad ju st the
am ou nt of tier storage that a given storage grou p is allow ed to u se, or to
ad ju st the m anner in w hich storage grou p s u sing the sam e tier com p ete
w ith each other for sp ace.
N ote: The rate at w hich d ata is m oved betw een pools can also be controlled
by m eans of the Sym m etrix Quality of Service VLUN setting.
12 FAST VP fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX Theo ry a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e
Performance considerations
FAST VP Theo ry fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e 13
Product and feature interoperability
14 FAST VP fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX Theo ry a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e
Product and feature interoperability
TimeFinder/ Sna p
The sou rce d evice in a Tim eFind er/ Snap session can be m anaged by
FAST VP. H ow ever, target d evice VDEVs are not m anaged by FAST VP.
TimeFinder VP Sna p
The sou rce d evice in a Tim eFind er VP Snap session can be m anaged by
FAST VP. Target d evices m ay also be m anaged by FAST VP, how ever,
extent allocations that are shared by m u ltip le target d evices w ill not be
m oved .
Open Replica tor for Symmetrix
The control d evice in an Op en Rep licator session, p u sh or p u ll, can have
extents m oved by FAST VP.
Virtua l Provisioning
All thin d evices, w hether u nd er FAST VP control or not, m ay only be
bou nd to a single thin p ool. All host-w rite-generated allocations, or u ser-
requ ested p re-allocations, are p erform ed to this p ool. FAST VP d ata
m ovem ents d o not change the bind ing inform ation for a thin d evice.
It is p ossible to change the bind ing inform ation for a thin d evice w ithou t
changing any of the cu rrent extent allocations for the d evice. H ow ever,
w hen rebind ing a d evice that is u nd er FAST VP control, the th in p ool the
d evice is being re-bou nd to m u st belong to one of the VP tiers contained
in the p olicy that the d evice is associated w ith.
Virtua l Provisioning spa ce recla ma tion
Sp ace reclam ation m ay be ru n against a thin d evice u nd er FAST VP
control. H ow ever, d u ring the sp ace reclam ation p rocess, su b-LUN
p erform ance m etrics are not u p d ated , and d ata m ovem ents are not
p erform ed .
FAST VP Theo ry fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e 15
Product and feature interoperability
d eallocated ; how ever those tracks w ill not have to be retrieved from d isk
shou ld a read requ est be p erform ed . Instead , the Sym m etrix array
im m ed iately retu rns all zeros.
Virtua l Provisioning pool ma na gement
Data d evices m ay be ad d ed to or rem oved from a thin p ool that is
inclu d ed in the FAST VP tier. Data m ovem ents related to FAST VP, into
or ou t of the thin p ool, continu e w hile the d ata d evices are being
m od ified .
In the case of ad d ing d ata d evices to a thin p ool, au tom ated p ool
rebalancing m ay be ru n. Sim ilarly, w hen d isabling and rem oving d ata
d evices from the p ool, they d rain their allocated tracks to other enabled
d ata d evices in the p ool.
While both d ata d evice d raining and au tom ated p ool rebalancing m ay be
active in a thin p ool that is inclu d ed in a VP tier, both of these p rocesses
m ay affect p erform ance of FAST VP d ata m ovem ents.
Virtua l LUN VP mobility
A thin d evice u nd er FAST VP control m ay be m igrated u sing VLUN VP.
Su ch a m igration resu lts in all allocated extents of the d evice being
m oved to a single thin p ool.
While the m igration is in p rogress, no FAST VP-related d ata m ovem ents
are p erform ed . H ow ever, once the m igration is com p lete, all allocated
extents of the thin d evice w ill be available to be retiered .
To p revent the m igrated d evice from being retiered by FAST VP
im m ed iately follow ing the m igration, it is recom m end ed that the d evice
first be p inned . To re-enable FAST VP-related d ata m ovem ents, the
d evice can later be u np inned .
FAST
Both FAST and FAST VP m ay coexist w ithin a single Sym m etrix array.
FAST only p erform s fu ll d evice m ovem ents of non-thin d evices. As su ch,
there is no im p act to FAST VP’s m anagem ent of thin d evices.
Both FAST and FAST VP share som e configu ration p aram eters. These
are:
Workload Analysis Period (WAP)
Initial Analysis Period (IAP)
Perform ance tim e w ind ow s
Symmetrix Optimizer
Sym m etrix Op tim izer op erates only on non -thin d evices. As a resu lt,
there is no im p act on FAST VP’s m anagem ent of thin d evices.
16 FAST VP fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX Theo ry a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e
Planning and design considerations
Both Op tim izer and FAST VP share som e configu ration p aram eters.
These are:
Workload Analysis Period (WAP)
Initial Analysis Period (IAP)
Perform ance tim e w ind ow s
Dyna mic Ca che Pa rtitioning (DCP)
Dynam ic Cache Partitioning can be u sed to isolate storage hand ling of
d ifferent ap p lications. As d ata m ovem ents u se the sam e cache p artition
as the ap p lication, m ovem ents of d ata on behalf of one ap p lication d o
not affect the p erform ance of ap p lications that are not sharing the sam e
cache p artition.
Auto-provisioning Groups
Storage grou p s created for the p u rp oses of Au to-p rovisioning m ay also
be u sed for FAST VP. H ow ever, w hile a d evice m ay be contained in
m u ltip le storage grou p s for the p u rp oses of Au to-p rovisioning, it m ay
only be contained in one storage grou p that is associated w ith a FAST
p olicy (DP or VP).
Shou ld a storage grou p contain a m ix of d evice typ es, thin and non -thin,
only the d evices m atching the typ e of FAST p olicy it is associated w ith
are m anaged by FAST.
If it is intend ed that both d evice typ es in an Au to-p rovisioning storage
grou p are to be m anaged by FAST and FAST VP, resp ectively, then
sep arate storage grou p s need to be created . A storage grou p w ith the
non-thin d evices m ay then be associated w ith a p olicy containing DP
tiers. A sep arate storage grou p containing the thin d evices w ill be
associated w ith a p olicy containing VP tiers.
FAST VP Theo ry fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e 17
Planning and design considerations
N ote: For m ore inform ation on each of these configuration param eters, refer
to the Implementing Fully A utomated Storage Tiering for V irtual Pools (FA ST V P)
for EM C Symmetrix V M A X Series A rrays technical note available at
http://powerlink.emc.com.
18 FAST VP fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX Theo ry a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e
Planning and design considerations
FAST VP Theo ry fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e 19
Planning and design considerations
greatly red u ce the am ou nt of d ata that is m oved , and the p ace at w hich it
is m oved . This setting cau ses no im p act to host resp onse tim e, bu t the
final d istribu tion of d ata takes longer.
Figu re 2 show s the sam e w orkload , 1,500 IOPS of typ e OLTP2, being ru n
on an environm ent containing tw o FAST VP tiers, Fibre Channel (FC)
and Enterp rise Flash (EFD). The sam e test w as carried ou t w ith three
sep arate relocation rates: 1, 5, and 8.
With a FRR of 1, an initial increase in resp onse tim e is seen at the tw o -
hou r m ark, w hen FAST VP d ata m ovem ent began, w hile no increase in
resp onse tim e is seen w hen the relocation rate is set to 8. H ow ever, the
stead y state for the resp onse tim e is seen in a m u ch shorter p eriod of
tim e for the low er, m ore aggressive, setting.
20 FAST VP fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX Theo ry a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e
Planning and design considerations
FAST VP Theo ry fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e 21
Planning and design considerations
be enabled .
N ote: For m ore inform ation on the d ecision m aking process of the VP
allocation by FAST policy feature, refer to the A dvance FA ST V P features
section of the Implementing Fully A utomated Storage Tiering for V irtual Pools
(FA ST V P) for EM C Symmetrix V M A X Series A rrays technical note.
N ote: The unprotected RAID type m ay only be applied to a tier resid ing on
an FTS-connected storage array.
FAST VP tiers can contain betw een one and fou r thin storage p ools . Each
thin p ool m u st contain d ata d evices configu red on the sam e d rive
technology and em u lation (and the sam e rotational sp eed , in the case of
FC, SAS, and SATA d rives). H ow ever, tw o or m ore thin p ools containing
d ata d evices configu red on rotating d rives of d ifferent sp eed s m ay be
com bined in a single VP tier.
Drive-size considerations
Drive size is not a factor w hen ad d ing d ata d evices to a thin p ool. For
exam p le, d ata d evices configu red on 300GB FC 15k d rives can coexist in
a p ool w ith d ata d evices configu red on 600GB FC 15k d rives.
H ow ever, w hen p lanning to have d ata d evices on d ifferent d rive s izes
exist in the sam e storage tier, it is recom m end ed to create tw o sep arate
p ools for each d rive size, and then com bine those tw o p ools into a single
tier.
N ote: For m ore inform ation on best practices for configuring thin pools, refer
to the Best Practices for Fast, Simple Capacity A llocation with EM C Symmetrix
V irtual Provisioning Technical N ote available at http:/ / pow erlink.em c.com .
External tiers
When creating a tier on an external array u sing FTS, it is recom m end ed
that the eDisks be configu red on a single array. The eDisks shou ld also
be configu red on sim ilar d rives w ithin that external array.
External tiers can only be configu red on storage configu red for external
p rovisioning. Encap su lated storage is n ot su p p orted by FAST VP.
22 FAST VP fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX Theo ry a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e
Planning and design considerations
N ote: For m ore inform ation on best practices for configuring eDisks, refer to
the Design and Implementation Best Practices for EM C Symmetrix Federated Tiered
Storage (FTS) technical note available at http:/ / pow erlink.em c.com .
FAST VP Theo ry fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e 23
Planning and design considerations
of the storage grou p ’s cap acity to be p rom oted or d em oted to any tier
w ithin the p olicy.
While id eal, op erationally it m ay not be ap p rop riate to d ep loy the
100/ 100/ 100 p olicy. There m ay be reasons to lim it access to a p articu lar
tier w ithin the array.
As an exam p le, it m ay be ap p rop riate to lim it the am ou nt of a storage
grou p ’s cap acity that can be p laced on EFD. This m ay be u sed to p revent
one single storage grou p , or ap p lication, from consu m ing all of the EFD
resou rces. In this case, a p olicy containing ju st a sm all p ercentage for
EFD w ou ld be recom m end ed .
Sim ilarly, it m ay be ap p rop riate to restrict the am ou nt of SATA cap acity
a storage grou p m ay u tilize. Som e ap p lications, w hich can becom e
inactive from tim e to tim e, m ay requ ire a m inim u m level of p erform ance
w hen they becom e active again. For su ch ap p lications, a p olicy exclu d ing
the SATA tier cou ld be ap p rop riate.
The best w ay to d eterm ine ap p rop riate p olicies for a FAST VP
im p lem entation is to exam ine the w orkload skew for the ap p lication
d ata to be m anaged by FAST VP. The w orkload skew d efines an
asym m etry in d ata u sage over tim e. This m eans a sm all p ercentage of the
d ata on the array m ay be servicing the m ajority of the w orkload on the
array. One tool that p rovid es insight into this w orkload skew is Tier
Ad visor.
Tier Advisor
Tier Ad visor is a u tility available to EMC technical staff that estim ates
the p erform ance and cost of m ixing d rives of d ifferent technology typ es
(EFD, FC, and SATA) w ithin Sym m etrix VMAX Series storage arrays.
Tier Ad visor can exam ine p erform ance d ata collected from Sym m etrix,
® ®
VN X , or CLARiiON storage arrays and d eterm ine the w orkload skew
at the fu ll LUN level. It can also estim ate the w orkload skew at the su b -
LUN level.
With this inform ation, Tier Ad visor can m od el an op tim al storage array
configu ration by enabling the ability to interactively exp erim ent w ith
d ifferent storage tiers and storage p olicies, u ntil achieving the d esired
cost and p erform ance p references.
24 FAST VP fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX Theo ry a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e
Planning and design considerations
N ote: FAST VP d ata m ovem ents d o not change the bind ing inform ation for a
thin d evice.
In d eterm ining the ap p rop riate p ool, both p erform ance requ irem ents
and cap acity m anagem ent shou ld be taken into consid eration , as w ell as
the u se of thin d evice p reallocation and the system w rite p end ing lim it.
FAST VP Theo ry fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e 25
Planning and design considerations
N ote: Enabling VP allocation by FAST policy on the Sym m etrix VMAX Series
array greatly alleviates the cap acity-m anagem ent consid eration .
Prealloca tion
A w ay to avoid w rites to a thin d evice failing d u e to a p ool being fu lly
allocated is to p reallocate the thin d evice w hen it is bou nd . H ow ever,
p erform ance requ irem ents of new ly w ritten d ata shou ld be consid ered
p rior to u sing p reallocation.
When FAST VP p erform s d ata m ovem ents, only allocated extents are
m oved . This ap p lies not only to extents allocated as the resu lt of a host
w rite, bu t also to extents that have been p reallocated . These p reallocated
extents w ill be m oved even if no d ata has yet been w ritten to them .
N ote: When m oving preallocated , but unw ritten, extents, no d ata is actually
m oved . The pointer for the extent is sim ply red irected to the pool in the
target tier.
N ote: By d efault, the system w rite pend ing lim it on a Sym m etrix VMAX
Series array is set to 75 percent of the available cache.
If the w rite p end ing cou nt reaches 60 p ercent of the w rite p end ing lim it,
FAST VP d ata m ovem ents stop . As the w rite p end ing cou nt d ecreases
below this level, d ata m ovem ents au tom atically restart.
A very bu sy w orkload ru nning on SATA d isks, w ith SATA d isks at, or
near, 100 p ercent u tilization, cau sing a high w rite p end ing cou nt,
im p acts FAST VP from p rom oting active extents to FC and / or EFD tiers.
In an environm ent w ith a high w rite w orkload , it is recom m end ed to
bind thin d evices to a p ool in the FC tier.
26 FAST VP fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX Theo ry a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e
Planning and design considerations
Migration
When p erform ing a m igration to thin d evices, it is p ossible that the thin
d evices m ay becom e fu lly allocated as a resu lt of the m igration. As su ch,
the thin d evices being m igrated to shou ld be bou nd to a p ool that has
su fficient cap acity to contain the fu ll cap acity of each of the d evices.
Virtu al Provisioning zero sp ace reclam ation can be u sed follow ing the
m igration to d eallocate zero d ata cop ied d u ring the m igration.
Alternatively, the front-end zero d etection cap abilities of SRDF and
Op en Rep licator can be u sed d u ring the m igration.
Rebinding a thin device
It is p ossible to change the bind ing inform ation for a thin d evice w ithou t
m oving any of the cu rrent extent allocations for the d evice. This is d one
by a p rocess called rebind ing.
Rebind ing a thin d evice increases the su bscrip tion level of the p ool the
d evice is bou nd to, and d ecrease the su bscrip tion level of the p ool it w as
p reviou sly bou nd to. H ow ever, the allocation levels in both p ools rem ain
u nchanged .
N ote: When rebind ing a d evice that is und er FAST VP control, the thin pool
the d evice is being re-bound to m ust belong to one of the VP tiers contained
in the policy the d evice is associated w ith.
N ote: For m ore inform ation on oversubscription, refer to the Best Practices for
Fast, Simple Capacity A llocation with EM C Symmetrix V irtual Provisioning
technical note available at http :/ / pow erlink.em c.com .
In a FAST VP configu ration, the cap acity available for thin d evices is
now sp read across m u ltip le p ools. Even if there is no p lan to
oversu bscribe the available cap acity in the Sym m etrix array , there
typ ically is insu fficient sp ace in a single tier to accom m od ate the
configu red thin d evice cap acity.
By follow ing the p reviou s recom m end ation, bind ing all thin d evices
being m anaged by FAST VP to a single thin p ool inherently cau se s that
p ool to be oversu bscribed . As a resu lt, the over-su bscrip tion lim it for that
p ool need s to be set to a valu e greater than 100 p ercent.
FAST VP Theo ry fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e 27
Planning and design considerations
Available capacity
In ord er to d eterm ine at w hat level to set the over -su bscrip tion lim it, the
total cap acity available to d evices u nd er the control of FAST VP shou ld
first be calcu lated .
If the VP allocation by FAST p olicy featu re is enabled , then 100 p ercent
of the cap acity of each p ool w ithin the p olicy is available.
If the allocation by p olicy featu re is not enabled , the follow ing p oints
shou ld be consid ered :
For p ools w ith thin d evices bou nd , 100 p ercent of the
cap acity is available.
For p ools w ith no thin d evices bou nd , 100 p ercent of the
p ool, less the cap acity reserved by the PRC, is available.
N ote: The pool reserved capacity value only affects FAST VP m ovem ents into
the pool; the PRC d oes not affect the ability for the thin d evices to allocate
extents w ithin the pool.
Over-subscription limits
After d eterm ining the cap acity available to FAST VP, an over -
su bscrip tion lim it can then be calcu lated for the p ool d evices that are
going to be bou nd to it.
To ensu re the configu red cap acity of the array is not oversu bscribed , the
lim it can be calcu lated by d ivid ing the cap acity of the thin p ool being
u sed for bind ing into the available cap acity of all the p ools. This valu e is
then m u ltip lied by 100 to get a p ercent valu e.
For exam p le, consid er a configu ration w ith a 1TB EFD p ool, a 5 TB FC
p ool, and a 10TB SATA p ool. The total available cap acity is 16TB. If all
thin d evices are bou nd to FC, the oversu bscrip tion lim it cou ld be set to
320% —(16/ 5)*100.
This valu e can be set higher if the intention is to initially oversu bscribe
the configu red p hysical cap acity of the array , and then ad d storage on an
as-need ed basis.
For thin p ools w here d evices w ill never be bou nd , the su bscrip tion lim it
can be set to 0 p ercent. This p revents any accid ental bind ing or m igration
to that p ool.
28 FAST VP fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX Theo ry a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e
Planning and design considerations
N ote: For m ore inform ation on these consid erations, refer to the Best Practices
for Fast, Simple Capacity A llocation with EM C Symmetrix V irtual Provisioning
technical note available at http :/ / pow erlink.em c.com .
FAST VP d oes not change these consid erations and recom m end ations
from a p erform ance p ersp ective. What FAST VP d oes change, how ever,
is that a single thin d evice can now have its d ata sp read across m u ltip le
tiers of varying RAID p rotection and d rive technology w ithin the array.
Becau se of this, the availability of an ind ivid u al thin d evice is not based
ju st on the availability characteristics of the thin p ool the d evice is bou nd
to. Instead , availability is based on the characteristics of the tier w ith the
low est availability.
While p erform ance and availability requ irem ents u ltim ately d eterm ine
the configu ration of each tier w ithin the Sym m etrix array, it is
recom m end ed , as a best p ractice, to choose RAID 1 or RAID 5 p rotection
on EFDs. The faster rebu ild tim es of EFDs p rovid e higher availability for
these p rotection schem es on that tier.
Also, it is recom m end ed to u se either RAID 1 or RAID 6 on the SATA
tier. This is d u e to the slow er rebu ild tim es of the SATA d rives
(com p ared to EFD and FC), and the increased chance of a d u al-d rive
failu re, lead ing to d ata u navailability w ith RAID 5 p rotection .
For the FC tier, RAID 1 is the recom m end ed p rotection level. Mirrored
d ata d evices on FC p ools p rovid e a higher level of p erform ance than
both RAID 5 and RAID 6, p articu larly for w rite w orkload . Availability of
RAID 1, in regard to a d u al-d rive failu re, is also greater than RAID 5. To
obtain the best availability nu m bers for RAID 1 on FC, the u se of low er
cap acity d rives is recom m end ed .
FAST VP Theo ry fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e 29
Planning and design considerations
SRDF
FAST VP has no restrictions in its ability to m anage SRDF d evices,
how ever, w hat m u st be consid ered is that d ata m ovem ents are restricted
to the array u p on w hich FAST VP is op erating. By d efau lt, there is no
coord ination of d ata m ovem ents; FAST VP acts ind ep end ently on both
the local and rem ote arrays. H ow ever, enabling FAST VP SRDF
coord ination allow s R1 p erform ance m etrics to be u sed w hen m aking
p rom otion-and -d em otion d ecisions for d ata belonging to an R2 d evice.
N ote: For m ore inform ation on the operation of FAST VP SRDF coord ination ,
refer to the A dvance FA ST VP features section of the Implementing Fully
30 FAST VP fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX Theo ry a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e
Planning and design considerations
N ote: The follow ing sections assum e that SRDF is im plem ented w ith all
Sym m etrix arrays configured for Virtual Provisioning (all SRDF d evices are
thin d evices) and installed w ith the m inim um Enginuity version capable of
running FAST VP (5875.135.91).
FAST VP behavior
For SRDF R1 d evices, FAST VP p rom otes and d em otes extent grou p s
based on the read -and -w rite activity exp erienced on th e R1 d evices.
Meanw hile, by d efau lt, the SRDF R2 d evices typ ically only exp erience
w rite activity d u ring norm al op erations. As a resu lt, FAST VP is likely to
p rom ote only R2 d evice extents that are exp eriencing w rites.
If there are R1 d evice extents that only exp erience read activity, no
w rites, then the corresp ond ing extents on the R2 d evices w ill see no I/ O
activity. This w ill likely lead to these R2 d evice extents being d em oted to
the SATA tier, assu m ing this w as inclu d ed in the FAST VP p olicy.
SRDF coord ination changes this d efau lt behavior by p eriod ically
transm itting FAST VP p erform ance m etrics collected for R1 d evices
across the SRDF link to the corresp ond ing R2 d evices. On the R2 d evice,
the R1 p erform ance m etrics are m erged w ith the actu al R2 m etrics.
Movem ent d ecisions m ad e by FAST VP for these R2 d evices are then
based on the m erged p erform ance m etrics. In this w ay, read activity on
the R1 d evice can be reflected on the R2.
SRDF opera ting mode
EMC best p ractices, for both synchronou s and asynchronou s m od es of
SRDF op eration, recom m end im p lem enting a balanced configu ration on
both the R1 and R2 Sym m etrix arrays. Id eally, d ata on each array w ou ld
FAST VP Theo ry fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e 31
Planning and design considerations
be located on d evices configu red w ith the sam e RAID p rotection typ e, on
the sam e d rive typ e.
As FAST VP op erates ind ep end ently on each array, and also p rom otes
and d em otes d ata at the su b-LUN level, there is no gu arantee that su ch a
balance m ay be m aintained .
In SRDF synchronou s (SRDF/ S) m od e, host w rites are transferred
synchronou sly from R1 to R2. These w rites are only acknow led ged by
the host w hen the d ata has been received into cache on the rem ote R2
array. These w rites to cache are then d estaged asynchronou sly to d isk on
the R2 array.
N ote: For m ore inform ation on SRDF/ S, see the EM C Solutions Enabler
Symmetrix SRDF Family CLI Product Guide available at
http:/ / pow erlink.em c.com .
N ote: For m ore inform ation on SRDF/ A, see the EM C Solutions Enabler
Symmetrix SRDF Family CLI Product Guide available at
http:/ / pow erlink.em c.com .
32 FAST VP fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX Theo ry a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e
Planning and design considerations
N ote: For m ore inform ation on SRDF/ DSE, see the Best Practices for EM C
SRDF/A Delta Set Extension technical note available at
http:/ / pow erlink.em c.com .
SRDF failover
As FAST VP w orks ind ep end ently on both the R1 and R2 arrays, it
shou ld be exp ected that the d ata layou t w ill be d ifferent on each sid e if
SRDF coord ination is not enabled . When an SRDF failover op eration is
p erform ed , and host ap p lications are brou ght u p on the R2 d evices, it
shou ld then also be exp ected that the p erform ance characteristics on the
R2 w ill be d ifferent from those on the R1.
In this situ ation it takes FAST VP som e p eriod of tim e to ad ju st to the
change in w orkload and start p rom otion and d em otion activities based
on the m ixed read -and -w rite w orkload .
To better p rep are for a failover, and to shorten the tim e p eriod to achieve
an ad ju stm ent to the new w orkload , FAST VP SRDF coord ination shou ld
be enabled .
N ote: FAST VP perform ance m etrics are only transm itted from R1 to R2.
When failed over, and w ith applications are running on R2 devices,
perform ance m etrics w ill not be sent from R2 to R1.
Personality swa p
An SRDF p ersonality sw ap follow s a sim ilar p attern of behavior to an
SRDF failover scenario. Ap p lications are brou ght u p on the d evices that
w ere form erly R2 d evices.
In ord er for p erform ance m etrics to be transm itted from the new R1
d evices to the corresp ond ing R2 d evices, SRDF coord ination need s to be
enabled on the storage grou p s containing the R1 d evices.
SRDF coord ination can be enabled in ad vance on a storage grou p
containing R2 d evices. H ow ever, the setting only takes effect w hen a
FAST VP Theo ry fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e 33
Summary and conclusion
N ote: This recom m end ation assum es that the low er tiers are of sufficient
capacity and I/ O cap ability to hand le the expected SRDF w rite w orkload on
the R2 d evices.
EFD considerations
If there is a d ifference in the configu ration of the EFD tier on the rem ote
array, then it is recom m end ed not to inclu d e the EFD tier in the FAST VP
p olicies on the R2 array. Exam p les of a configu ration d ifference inclu d e
either few er EFDs or no EFDs. Sim ilarly, if the EFD configu ration on the
R2 array d oes not follow the best p ractice gu id eline of being balanced
across DAs, d o not inclu d e the EFD tier on the R2 sid e.
N ote: This recom m end ation assum es that the low er tiers are of sufficient
capacity and I/ O cap ability to hand le the expected SRDF w rite w orkload on
the R2 d evices.
Summa ry a nd conclusion
EMC Sym m etrix VMAX Fam ily w ith Enginu ity incorp orates a scalable
fabric-interconnect d esign that allow s a storage array to seam lessly grow
from an entry-level configu ration to a 4 PB system . Sym m etrix VMAX
arrays p rovid e p red ictable, self-op tim izing p erform ance and enables
organizations to scale ou t on d em and in p rivate clou d environm ents.
34 FAST VP fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX Theo ry a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e
Summary and conclusion
EMC Sym m etrix VMAX FAST VP for Virtu al Provisioning environm ents
au tom ates the id entification of d ata volu m es for the p u rp oses relocating
ap p lication d ata across d ifferent p erform ance/ cap acity tiers w ithin an
array. FAST VP p roactively m onitors w orkload s at both the LUN and
su b-LUN level, in ord er to id entify bu sy d ata that w ou ld benefit from
being m oved to higher-p erform ing d rives. FAST VP also id entifies less-
bu sy d ata that cou ld be m oved to higher -cap acity d rives, w ithou t
existing p erform ance being affected .
There are tw o com p onents of FAST VP: Sym m etrix Enginu ity and the
FAST controller. Enginu ity is the storage op erating environm ent that
controls com p onents w ithin the array. The FAST controller is a service
that ru ns on the service p rocessor. FAST VP u ses tw o d istinct algorithm s,
one p erform ance-oriented and one cap acity-allocation -oriented , in ord er
to d eterm ine the ap p rop riate tier a d evice shou ld belong to. The
intelligent tiering algorithm consid ers the p erform ance m etrics of all thin
d evices u nd er FAST VP control, and d eterm ines the ap p rop riate tier for
each extent grou p . The allocation com p liance algorithm is u sed to
enforce the p er-tier storage cap acity u sage lim its.
Data m ovem ents execu ted by FAST VP are p erform ed by the VLUN VP
d ata m ovem ent engine, and involve m oving thin d evice extents be tw een
thin p ools w ithin the array. Extents are m oved by m eans of a m ove
p rocess only; extents are not sw ap p ed betw een p ools.
Perform ance d ata for u se by FAST VP is collected and m aintained by
Enginu ity. This d ata is then analyzed by the FAST controller , and the
gu id elines generated for the p lacem ent of thin d evice d ata on the d efined
VP tiers w ithin the array. When collecting p erform ance d ata at the LUN
and su b-LUN level for u se by FAST VP, Enginu ity only collects statistics
related to Sym m etrix back-end activity that is the resu lt of host I/ O.
FAST VP Theo ry fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e 35
Summary and conclusion
36 FAST VP fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX Theo ry a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e
Appendix: Best practices quick reference
FAST VP Theo ry fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e 37
Appendix: Best practices quick reference
38 FAST VP fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX Theo ry a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e
Appendix: Best practices quick reference
FAST VP Theo ry fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e 39